Perhaps the most valuable service we offer at eFrog Press is copyediting and proofreading. Until you have worked with a professional copy editor, you have no idea how much value he or she can add to your book. Indie authors are often reluctant to spend money on editing. After all, their neighbor was an English major or their friend offered to edit their book for free. Sometimes you get what you pay for. Serious readers are offended by grammatical errors and typos.
Today you get to hear from our behind-the-scene folks–our copy editors. Authors we work with have praised their skill and speed. I have asked them to share their experience with you.
“A copy editor can transform a manuscript from good to great without leaving any fingerprints.” MA
1. What is copyediting and why is it important (or even necessary) in this era of spell check and grammar check?
JP: Copyediting is the art of fine-tuning your writing to make it into the best reading experience possible for your readers — without losing the all-important author’s voice. It goes beyond just a simple spell check or grammar check (which often isn’t even correct in most word processing programs!) to checking for plot and character consistency, correct word usage (especially in younger books, when vocabulary must be age appropriate), and adherence to a consistent style (in the publishing world, it’s almost always the Chicago Manual of Style).
SC: Copyediting is a process where each word and sentence is analyzed for proper usage and meaning. A copy editor is painstakingly analytical and will look for things in a sentence that make it grammatically incorrect or misleading, and then suggest ways to fix it. Spell check and grammar check can only do so much; they will not fix words that are correctly spelled but inaccurately used (i.e., farther/further). It will also not find missing words (i.e., The dog went to park). A copy editor also often finds plot inconsistencies or spelling inconsistencies that are sometimes overlooked by the author. For example, I just copyedited a manuscript that alternated the spelling of one character’s name (Sylvia vs. Silvia).
