Editing is a crucial part of the publishing process. Without it, books appear unprofessional and amateurish. Worse still, a poorly edited book will attract negative reviews, killing it stone dead.

In our experience, many authors believe that their submitted work is ready to publish with only minor intervention being required by a proofreader. Sometimes they believe it doesn’t need proofing. However, we have yet to receive a manuscript that is print-ready without attention. Ever. And we’ve published a few books and seen a few manuscripts.

Not one manuscript hasn’t been improved by editing and/or proofreading. Minor errors that the author believed were sorted go missed. Paragraphs in the wrong order. Repetition of phrases to the point of distraction. Typos. Plot holes. Inaccuracies. You name the possible correction, we’ve seen it.

Authors aren’t delusional. And they do care about their work. They want it to be the best it can be (hopefully). But they are human and they make mistakes. And they do get sick of the sight of the manuscript after enough read-throughs. They also become blind to their errors after reading the document too many times. What is obvious to a new reader isn’t to the author. Another pair of eyes looking over that work with a fresh perspective will highlight things that author is too close to see.

When you read, your eye registers what it expects to see. That means when you read a word which is spelled incorrectly your brain often doesn’t realise that there is a mistake. This is especially true when you are reading your own writing. A proofreader is trained to spot these mistakes make the author aware of them. Don’t take it personally, it’s just your brain getting in the way, and it happens to us all. Instead, embrace the fact, set ego aside, and get a proofreader.

Manuscripts submitted to large publishers may pass across the desk of half a dozen editors and proofreaders, each spotting corrections that were missed by the person that came before.

The English language is rich, and there is often more than one way of saying something, and this variety leads to subjective interpretation.