Book Proofreading

A book is proofread differently from an article. At 80,000 words or more, written over many months and sometimes by many authors, the challenge is less a single error than keeping hundreds of small decisions consistent from the first page to the last.

Our Book Proofreading service is designed for scholarly monographs, edited volumes, textbooks and non-fiction, and we proofread fiction manuscripts too. Your proofreader reads the manuscript line by line and corrects grammar, spelling, punctuation and typographical errors. Throughout the book they also check:

• Terminology, names and transliterations: each spelled the same way in every chapter.
• Headings: chapter titles, headings, subheadings and captions following one format.
• Numbering and cross-references: continuous figure and table numbering, and cross-references between chapters that point to the right place.
• House style: spelling, dates, numbers and abbreviations following one convention, or your publisher's style sheet if you send it.

Edited volumes need this most. Each contributor writes in their own style, and the volume editor must make the book read as one. Send us the publisher's guidelines and we apply them to every chapter.

We work on Word manuscripts and on typeset PDF page proofs. Corrections are returned in tracked changes (or as annotations on PDF proofs), together with a proofreader's note summarising the work and listing any decisions you should confirm, such as two possible spellings of the same name.

Long manuscripts benefit from the volume discount: 15% from 10,000 words and 20% from 25,000 words. Book Proofreading is offered at Standard (7 days) and Express (5 days); for very long books, check the delivery date in the calculator before ordering.