I understand that the challenges of self-publishing are different from those of traditional publishing, and I want to help you navigate some of those challenges. This is a selfish thing, really, as I want there to be more stories out in the world for me to read!
If you have reached the copyediting stage, you have done the hardest work already. You have written your story and revised it so many times that you now see your computer in your sleep. You have asked peers to read your work and you have revised it again. Now, we will bring your work up to the next level by removing grammatical errors and ensuring consistency and clarity.
You will send me your completed work. I will then use the “track changes” feature of Microsoft Word to correct simple errors and to make suggested changes on more complex issues. Occasionally during this process I will reach out to you for clarification about facts or matters of style.
For most projects I provide a single round of editing, meaning that I will return a document with my suggested changes to you, and you will then accept and reject all changes as you like. Some projects may require two rounds of editing.
In the end, the decision to keep or reject each change is yours. I will return the marked up document to you for review, and you will have the final say. My job as your copyeditor is to be invisible, and to make sure that what you are trying to say is what ends up on the page.
Proofreading is a final review of your finished project. No project makes it to print entirely free of errors, sadly. You will have searched for errors, your copyeditor will have searched for errors, and yet some will remain (just as there are certainly some errors on this page – we are all poorly suited to editing our own work). Proofreading is a last chance to catch a few more, and to check that the formatting of your document matches the publishing requirements.