Because your brain knows what the sentence meant to say.
You've written it. Revised it. Edited it. Read it approximately fourteen thousand times.
At this point, your brain isn't reading what's actually on the page anymore—it's reading what it already knows is supposed to be there.
Proofreading is the final editorial pass before publication, focused on catching the small errors that survive all those previous rounds: typos, missing words, punctuation problems, repeated words, capitalization inconsistencies, and other tiny gremlins that somehow become completely invisible until approximately six minutes after you hit publish.
Founding Client Pricing
$0.005 per word • $200 minimum
Proofreading focuses on correctness and consistency, not substantive changes to your writing.
I'll look for things like:
Spelling & Typos
Misspellings, transposed letters, homophones, and the assorted nonsense our fingers produce while our brains are three sentences ahead.
Grammar & Punctuation
Grammatical errors, missing or incorrect punctuation, agreement issues, and other mechanical errors.
Missing, Repeated & Incorrect Words
The missing the. The doubled and. The from that was absolutely supposed to be form and has somehow survived six beta readers.
Capitalization & Basic Consistency
Inconsistent capitalization, hyphenation, number treatment, character-name variations, and similar mechanical inconsistencies.
Dialogue Mechanics
Quotation marks, dialogue punctuation, paragraphing, dialogue tags, and related mechanical issues.
Obvious Continuity Errors
If his shirt is blue in one paragraph and mysteriously black two paragraphs later, I'll mention it.
But proofreading does not include a comprehensive continuity edit.
Formatting Oddities
Strange spacing, accidental font changes, inconsistent scene-break markers, or other obvious anomalies I encounter in the manuscript.
What You'll Receive
You'll receive your manuscript with suggested corrections clearly marked so you remain in control of every change.
For Microsoft Word manuscripts, edits will typically be made using Track Changes, allowing you to review, accept, or reject individual corrections.
I'll also leave comments where something needs clarification rather than making an assumption about what you intended.
If I notice recurring issues, unusual inconsistencies, or something you should know before publication, I'll provide a short summary with your completed manuscript.
This isn't a developmental editorial letter—the focus here is getting the manuscript clean, not taking the story apart.
When Should I Book Proofreading?
This section is important enough that I'd make it visually prominent.
Ideally, your manuscript has already completed:
Draft → Revision → Developmental/Structural Editing, if needed → Line/Copyediting, if needed → Proofreading → Formatting/Publication
Not every author uses every kind of editing, and indie publishing workflows vary.
But proofreading should happen after you're finished making substantive changes to the manuscript.
If you're still rewriting chapters, moving scenes, changing character arcs, or adding significant new material, you're probably not ready for proofreading yet.
Because every time you substantially change the manuscript after proofreading, you create brand-new opportunities for errors.
40,000 words $200
50,000 words $250
75,000 words $375
100,000 words $500
125,000 words $625
150,000 words $750
200,000 words $1000
Final pricing is based on the manuscript's word count at the time the project is booked.
If a sample indicates that your manuscript needs substantial copyediting or line editing rather than proofreading, I'll let you know before booking rather than charging you for a service that isn't the right fit.
Proofreading does not include comprehensive:
Developmental editing
Structural editing
Line editing
Copyediting
Rewriting
Fact-checking
Continuity editing
Authenticity or sensitivity reading
Book formatting
I'll flag obvious issues I encounter, even when they technically fall outside the scope of proofreading, because leaving a glaring problem untouched just because it wasn't technically on the checklist would make me twitch.
But incidental observations should not be considered a substitute for another editorial service.
A Note About Author Voice
Correct doesn't have to mean sterile.
Fiction doesn't always follow textbook grammar—and it shouldn't.
Fragments can belong in narrative voice. Dialogue should sound like the character speaking it, not like they swallowed a grammar manual. Sometimes punctuation is doing emotional work rather than trying to impress an English professor.
My goal isn't to “correct” intentional stylistic choices out of your manuscript.
It's to catch the things that look unintentional while respecting the voice, cadence, and stylistic decisions that make the book yours.
That, frankly, is one of the things I'd want to know before hiring a fiction proofreader.
Genres & Content
I specialize in romance, romantasy, fantasy, and character-driven fiction, and I'm comfortable working with multiple POVs, unconventional relationship structures, high-heat romance, BDSM/kink, polyamorous and why-choose relationships, profanity, violence, dark subject matter, and morally complicated characters.
Other fiction genres are welcome on a case-by-case basis.
Explicit content is not a problem. You do not need to sanitize your manuscript before sending it to me.
Before You Submit
I do ask for a 1,000–2,000 word representative sample prior to invoicing.
Details are on the submission form, but please provide this from the middle of your manuscript.
Ready for One Last Set of Eyes?
Your manuscript doesn't need someone to reinvent it.
It needs someone who hasn't already read the same sentence enough times to become completely incapable of seeing that it contains the the.
Tell me about your book, where it is in the editorial process, and when you're hoping to publish. I'll review your project and make sure proofreading is the right next step before we book.