What Is (Professional) Proofreading? The Final Accuracy Check Before Writers Publish
- lindaruggeri
- Dec 5, 2025
- 4 min read
Proofreading is the last stage of editing—the final check to ensure your book is error-free before it goes to print. It’s the step that comes after your manuscript has been professionally laid out by a book interior designer and just before your book is published or ready to be printed for sales.
Reality Check #1: Proofreading does not replace other forms of editing.
Every book—no matter how many rounds of editing it has gone through—needs a proofread. Never skip the proofreading stage. This is the safeguard that ensures no small errors slip through at the very end. Oftentimes writers will tell me “I have a family member who is an English teacher who already proofread my book, so I don’t need a proofreader.” Au contraire mon frère. You still need one and let me tell you why.
What Professional Proofreading Covers
A proofreader checks for:
Spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors that may have been missed (e.g., confusion between when to use a hyphen, en-dash, em-dash, or a minus sign)
Formatting inconsistencies introduced during layout (e.g., widows, orphans, ladders, or italicized spaces or punctuation)
Proper page breaks, headers, pagination, and numbering
Consistency in fonts, spacing, and style elements (e.g., are all the chapter subheadings the same font, size, consistently spaced?)
The purpose of proofreading is not to revise content but to ensure the final product is polished, professional, and error-free.
Reality Check #2: If your manuscript was edited, that doesn't mean it was proofread.
Why Professional Proofreading Matters for Writers
After investing so much effort in writing, revising, and editing, the last thing you want is to see small mistakes undermine your work. Readers will notice errors—and they can reflect negatively on your book’s professionalism. What’s more, you don’t want these readers to leave a review mentioning the book could have used an editor or proofreader. Basically, a proofread ensures your text is ready for readers, reviewers, and the marketplace.
My Proofreading Policy
Hire a professional proofreader that works specifically in your genre. Why? Because they will be familiar with how these books work, how they’re laid out, they’ll know the tropes and have a spidey sense of other things that may be off and were missed during copyediting. Different genres have distinct conventions—tone, pacing, formatting, and reader expectations—that a genre-savvy proofreader will recognize and preserve while correcting errors.
Genre Familiarity: They understand the stylistic norms, tone, and reader expectations specific to your field (e.g., academic, fiction, memoir, or business writing), ensuring your work reads authentically.
Contextual Accuracy: A specialized proofreader can spot not only grammatical issues but also inconsistencies or phrasing that feel “off” for your genre.
Efficient Communication: They can anticipate your needs, use familiar terminology, and offer relevant suggestions without overcorrecting your voice or intent.
Experts say that proofreading is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the needle is a typo and the haystack is your entire manuscript. If you don’t find that needle, that could be the one thing that ends up hurting you.
Can My Copyeditor and Proofreader Be The Same Person?
Yes and no—it really depends on your project. In an ideal world, each stage of editing is handled by a different editor. That fresh set of eyes makes a big difference, especially near the end of the process when you want someone seeing the manuscript as a reader would for the very first time. But hire a professional, someone who has studied the art of proofreading. Have a masters or graduate degree in English does not mean the person is the right proofreader for a project. Yes, they will catch many things, but if they will also miss things if they are reading outside of their genre or don't understand book publishing.
That said, some copyeditors can absolutely do a strong proofread if they’ve had enough time away from the manuscript—usually a few weeks. I’ve worked with excellent professionally vetted editors who handled both stages beautifully on past books.
If your budget and timeline allow, having two separate editors is usually the stronger option. But if you need one editor to do both, it can still work well as long as there’s a bit of space between passes.
Reality Check #3: Hiring a professional proofreader is like hiring any other service provider to take care of something valuable in your home. Get referrals, get a few quotes, get on their calendar, and expect to pay their worth. Budget and save for proofreading. To get an idea of how much you may have to spend to have your manuscript professionally proofread, calculate that here Editorial Freelancers Association Rate Calculator.
Can I Skip The Proofreading Stage?
No. Full stop.
Next Step: Get Expert Feedback
If you’d like guidance on preparing your manuscript for its final proofread, or a referral to a professional proofreader, let’s talk. Although I do not offer proofreading services in English at this time (only in Spanish), I can make sure you’re connected to the right resource for your book. At The Networking Studio I work with a team of solid editors to whom I would trust my own work with.
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