Providing bespoke copy-editing and associated desktop publishing services to academic, commercial, and charity sectors.
What's the difference between proofreading and copy-editing?
Copy-editing
Copy-editing comes first. A copy-editor does much more than, for example, Microsoft Word’s editor. We look for consistency and remove contradictory information. We follow a style guide. We help you with your phrasing and with transitions, for example, where there's a really awkward sentence. We would be looking to rewrite and reword things to make sure that the narrative is as strong and smooth as it can be; and really grabs the reader's attention. So, it’s quite an intensive process over many hours.
Proofreading
Some people think proofreading is just an inexpensive version of copy-editing. But it is not the same thing as copy-editing. Proofreaders assume you’ve had all of your editing and formatting done. It’s not the proofreader’s job to, for example, fix all of your colons, semicolons, hyphens, spelling, usage, and grammar errors. But if your margins, aligned spacing, or indentations are off, then that's something that the proofreader is looking to fix. A proofreader makes sure that, just before you go off to the printers, all of your page numbers and headers, your margins, gutters, and things like printable areas, are accurate and correct.
What a proofreader doesn’t do
A proofreader doesn't rewrite things for you, give you feedback on your story, or help with content creation. They won't, for example, point out repetitive words or phrasing that begin to stand out to readers. A proofreader simply provides a quality assurance check on the page in front of them.
HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE?
Currency is GBP but, for our EU customers, we can also invoice in EUR (GBP conversion using the mid-market conversion rate of the day; zero-rated VAT applied).
For copy-editing
2 – 5c per word
For proofreading
1 – 1.5c per word
For desktop publishing
by mutual agreement
For design
by mutual agreement