Book Self-Publishers: Do you use Professional Proofreading Services or Not?

I've used them,but only after the 5th published ebook, not just because of the price but because after 5 ebooks i started to understand how to properly promote the them and recover the expense in less time...

I guess you could say I use a semi-professional service - me. I call it semi-pro because it does take time to do that could potentially be spent elsewhere.

I run manuscripts through a grammar checker, but I am not a slave to it. It generally catches the silly errors. Slavish devotion to perfect grammar is a great way to suck the life out of your writing.

[smartass]

If PPS stands for Professional Proofreading Services, would "not having used PPS services" read as "not having used Professional Proofreading Services services? :confused:

[/smartass]

Proofreading is very important ..for kindle ebooks just outsource the writing or even find someone on fiverr to proofread your ebook it's very cheap and necessary to look professional ..so yes spend some money in promotion and before submitting your work you should search for errors in spelling, word usage, grammar, and punctuation. After all, a poorly written ebook cannot possibly communicate its message properly to the reader.

Great input guys.

Another question which I am sure others considering a professional proofreader have, how do you go about securing your work so that said proofreader doesn't steal it? In fact, this fear is what's putting me off Fiver as Fiver seems to be good for blackhat stuff and asking beautiful women to dedicate you a video.

You are literally giving the proofreader your whole work and if he/she decided to publish it, you could not claim it was initially yours. Do professional proofreading services offer some form of peace of mind? How can you make sure that your work is only read by the proofreader for what it is intended to and he does't copy/talk about your work?

I think proofreading and having a second pair of eyes is very important. I have a lot of proofreading experience and will often proofread my own work if it's on the short side, but for books I prefer to use a proofreader. Many of the books that are currently self-published would benefit from additional proofreading and editing. I don't worry too much about proofreaders 'stealing' work. I haven't found that to be much of an issue.

Just finished first tome and used proofreader/copyeditor.
Book is for mainstream publication, paperback and e-formats
and had to be right. I guess if you are selling smaller how to guides
you might be forgiven minor errors, but if book has a hope of finding proper publisher
I think you need that second pair of eyes to double check and sanity check everything.

Just started hiring someone for this recently after a trickle of complaints from past products - just seems like something we should be doing today as competition increases and you want to improve your level of professionalism.

If you're not under a pressing deadline, there are a few tips that can help enormously.

Don't confuse writing with editing - meaning don't try to do them both at the same time.
In both instances the built-in spell check is no defense against homonyms.

It's best if you can set the finished draft aside for a couple of days. This way what you meant to say won't be foremost in your mind, and you can focus on what you actually wrote instead of what you intended to write.

Write more than you need - it's a thousand times easier to cut than it is to pad.

If you're going to outsource, find a good, reliable source - the best, not the cheapest. For example, most retired newspapermen and teachers are very good at this. Upperclassmen and graduate students are particularly good at this, too; and usually outstanding for research.

Another way, a modest investment in your future, is Dragon Naturally Speaking - eliminating the mechanical slow down where most of these errors originate, and usually prevents the stilted results of trying to write differently from the way you normally speak.

I lean towards the "pay a proofreader to edit your work" camp. I know funds can be tight, BUT whether your book is a print book or an e-book, it reflects both your professionalism and YOU. Do NOT skimp on this. A low sale price for the book (in the case of a $.99 e-book) does NOT mean you shouldn't treat it with the same importance and dignity of a "real" printed book.

I'm extremely fortunate to have had Sheri McConnell, founder and CEO of the National Association of Women Writers (now the Smart Women's Institute) as my mentor. She stresses treating your business like a business. Be a professional and make sure your work is the very best it can be. Self-editing a book isn't a good idea. We don't see our own mistakes.

My first book (it's a print book, not an e-book) was published in 2010 and yes, I paid a professional editor. It was $1500, but it was a big deal to me and I didn't want to be embarrassed by bad grammar and other editing mistakes later.

You can make money with a book, but books are mostly used to promote your business (other products and services). So it reflects on your other work. Also, you never know who is reading your book and what might come of it.

You don't want to be embarrassed later.

Be a professional. Treat your business like a business. Get an editor. You don't have to spend as much as I did, but don't avoid it.

At the very least, get someone else to look over your copy.

Hope that helps!

Michelle

It looks like you are in a very short budget. may just use the spelling grammar on word and ask to 2 or 3 familly members to help. It may sound like nothing, but I am sure they will be good helper and you will save some money. and next when your business will expand you will be able to afford a PPS.

Hoppe that helps

Avid readers always complain about the "small" grammatical and spelling errors.

Spelling errors are easy to fix, just run your Word Processor's spellcheck program to fix 99% of the issues.

Grammar errors... that's where the proofreader comes in handy.

I have one proofreader whom I hand over my work to before publishing. In return, I proofread their books as well. It's a win-win situation for the both of us.

Consider finding a writer in the same situation and offer to proofread their books for free in return for their reciprocation. Get quality proofreading from a trusted source, read their book for free, AND save money on proofreading services? Sounds good to me!