All You Need To Know About Book Copyediting
Every writer knows that once the story decides to flow onto the canvas, nothing else matters. Not typos, not grammar errors, nothing. At that moment, the writer does not even notice that these mistakes are happening. It is not that they do not know the correct spellings or appropriate grammatical applications. They just cannot be bothered at that moment. Hence the need for book copyediting. Once a story starts to birth itself, there is no stopping it.
The above responsibilities make them seem like they are human spellcheckers but the duties run deeper than that. They also check for technicalities and inconsistencies. They ensure the work is not libelous or prone to cause legal battles. If it is a non-fiction, they do fact checking. They also stay up to date with standard publishing practice. The author should be satisfied that their work is reader ready by the time this professional is done.
A manuscript does not go from the author straight to this stage. It has to pass through manuscript critique first. This is a step that looks at the bigger picture. The writer may be asked to change some things about the story. This is a very general stage. Then the manuscript will move on to a line by line critique where every line is inspected for proper placement among other qualities. Once the manuscript passes through these steps, it can then go forward to production preparation which is scrutiny of every aspect.
By now, one may already guess that this work is highly technical. It probably best to go with a professional. If one is going through the traditional publishing process, the publishing house will have these things done. Otherwise, one may need to find a professional by their own means. A professional will not have typo blindness. This is the inability to see own mistakes. This is attributed to the fact that the brain already knows what was meant to be relayed and therefore relays the information. This causes a blind spot to the errors. Not to mention, the peace of mind one will have having had professional eyes on the manuscript.
However, for one reason or other one is able to get a professional there are tips to ensure DIY is still good enough. First of all, take a little break from the manuscript once it is complete. Take a vacation or go do things that went ignored when the story had taken over. Once this break is over, the typo blindness will be very close to non-existent. One will be able to easier notice own errors.
Choose vivid action verbs in place of passive sentences. Reduce adjectives and adverbs by using descriptive language. If there is doubt about the meaning of a particular word, look it up and confirm.
Shorten long sentences. Elongate short sentences that seem idle or just remove them completely. Keep off the italics and exclamation marks. This is not a text by a teenage girl. It is professionally prepared literature. It should read like it.
This process should be long and arduous. Take enough time on this. Look over every word and every punctuation. Read the script aloud. Once corrections are made maybe read each page backward now.
The above responsibilities make them seem like they are human spellcheckers but the duties run deeper than that. They also check for technicalities and inconsistencies. They ensure the work is not libelous or prone to cause legal battles. If it is a non-fiction, they do fact checking. They also stay up to date with standard publishing practice. The author should be satisfied that their work is reader ready by the time this professional is done.
A manuscript does not go from the author straight to this stage. It has to pass through manuscript critique first. This is a step that looks at the bigger picture. The writer may be asked to change some things about the story. This is a very general stage. Then the manuscript will move on to a line by line critique where every line is inspected for proper placement among other qualities. Once the manuscript passes through these steps, it can then go forward to production preparation which is scrutiny of every aspect.
By now, one may already guess that this work is highly technical. It probably best to go with a professional. If one is going through the traditional publishing process, the publishing house will have these things done. Otherwise, one may need to find a professional by their own means. A professional will not have typo blindness. This is the inability to see own mistakes. This is attributed to the fact that the brain already knows what was meant to be relayed and therefore relays the information. This causes a blind spot to the errors. Not to mention, the peace of mind one will have having had professional eyes on the manuscript.
However, for one reason or other one is able to get a professional there are tips to ensure DIY is still good enough. First of all, take a little break from the manuscript once it is complete. Take a vacation or go do things that went ignored when the story had taken over. Once this break is over, the typo blindness will be very close to non-existent. One will be able to easier notice own errors.
Choose vivid action verbs in place of passive sentences. Reduce adjectives and adverbs by using descriptive language. If there is doubt about the meaning of a particular word, look it up and confirm.
Shorten long sentences. Elongate short sentences that seem idle or just remove them completely. Keep off the italics and exclamation marks. This is not a text by a teenage girl. It is professionally prepared literature. It should read like it.
This process should be long and arduous. Take enough time on this. Look over every word and every punctuation. Read the script aloud. Once corrections are made maybe read each page backward now.
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You can find complete details about the advantages you get when you use professional book copyediting services at http://www.hcnediting.com/services-and-fees right now.
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