Remember the time when it was difficult to become a published author? Back in the day there were only two routes available – either you were lucky enough to be picked up by a publisher, or you paid a small fortune to a dodgy company to ‘vanity publish’ your book. Now, of course, it’s different. …
Here's an entertaining guest blog post from Ciaran Oliver that really demonstrates the importance of using a good proofreader! I personally find Microsoft Word spell checker very annoying but I have to admit it often saves me from making awkward mistakes. Unfortunately – or fortunately? – in the offline world we cannot count on a …
… or maybe this should actually be called “How to write a best seller without knowing the first thing about writing”! You can’t fail to have heard about the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon. You know, the pornographic erotic novels about Christian Grey, the man every woman I know seems to be swooning over even …
So many people still rely on built-in spell checkers to “proofread” important documents – here’s proof that you should never rely on a spell checker. Instead, consider using a professional proofreader – it won’t cost as much as you think, and you’ll have peace of mind that your words are perfect! The above video is also a good …
In my role as a proofreader/editor I am always really excited to see some of the manuscripts I’ve worked on go through to the publication stage. There’s a certain thrill about seeing someone else’s words on a page or a Kindle screen after spending hours finely tuning them, and when I read reviews that praise the …
In the first guest blog post on my website, author Peter Jones explains how a misplaced hyphen can dash your hopes of ever being published. My first real literary ‘rejection’ came at the hands of an agent who we’ll called Kate Slash. On the day that Ms Slash received my manuscript she’d clearly discovered that …
It’s not often that proofreading – or lack of – becomes a front page news story, but that’s exactly what happened last week, thanks to a slip of the keyboard by Labour leader Ed Miliband. It seems everyone is on Twitter these days, even shadow PMs, and in a tweet about the death of Blockbusters’ …
Almost all businesses use the written word to promote themselves and most people rely on their spellchecker … but that can be a big mistake! See, spell checkers are okay, but they’re not infallible. Much of the language we use is based on context, so a spell checker will not know if you’ve used “compliment” …
I know I probably bang on about the importance of proofreading a little too much but it really should be a vital part of the process whenever you create marketing materials – and not just an afterthought. Time and time again I find evidence that proofreading after the event can be an expensive exercise! The …
While you can learn to proofread, the vast majority of professional proofreaders would probably agree with me that the ability to spot typos and errors is actually a gift, something you’re born with, rather than a learned skill. In fact, it’s probably more like a curse – because when you are a natural proofreader you can’t just switch off the eagle eyes!
