Copy-editing and Proof-reading: What's the Difference?

Copy-editing, sometimes called ‘line editing’, is the in-depth work that takes place before the first proof stage. By this stage, the book should be
complete but I strongly recommend that authors put their draft into a drawer for a week, and then read it again from beginning to end, in one fell swoop –before they hand it over to the copy-editor. You will be surprised at how much repetition you will pick up even before you hand it over to the copy-editor.

Once you have delivered your book– usually a double-spaced Word document in a clean, easy-to-read typeface –to the editor, they will read it very carefully looking for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, factual errors (as far as possible; you remain responsible for the accuracy of the content, although your editor should check things such as birth and death dates of public figures, for example, or other key dates), libellous statements and so on. Your copy-editor will also make sure that the preliminary pages (prelims) are correct –for example, making sure that the chapter titles listed on the contents page match the actual chapters, ensuring your name is prominent on the copyright page and so on –and will also check any notes, references or bibliographies in non-fiction books.

Copy-editors working for larger publishers are typically given a style sheet or guide to follow, which will cover issues such as preferred spellings (‘organise' rather than ‘organize’, for example, or ‘World War II’ rather than the ‘Second World War’), but as a self-published author this will probably not apply to you. (That said, your self-publishing provider may be able to supply one.) What your copy-editor will do in these circumstances is make the text as consistent as possible by following the prevailing style in your work. This will involve more work for them, so you may need to pay them a little extra. 

Ask your copy-editor to use the Track Changes function in Word (or similar) so that you can easily see what they’ve done, and pick up on any changes that you do not want to accept. If I have queries for an author, I usually insert a Comment in Word, but other editors may submit a separate list: I prefer to add a Comment as it saves everyone having to flip back and forth between documents, but of course you should work as you prefer.

I also recommend that the editing process allows some time for you to look over the copy-editor’s queries and respond to them, so that the editor can do any final clean-ups. For example, if you’ve referred to Catherine of Aragon for part of your book and Katharine of Aragon in another, by confirming your preferred choice to the copy-editor, they can go back and address that and ensure all mentions of Henry VIII’s first queen are consistent.

Once all those final fixes have been made, the file will be returned to you. Look over it one last time –it is much easier to change things at this stage than at proofs, when you will probably be charged for any corrections –and when you’re happy, accept all changes and send that document off for typesetting to your self-publishing provider either via email (if you have an in-house contact) or upload it via the website according to their instructions. They can then prepare the first page proofs. 
 

Proofreading

Your self-publishing provider will create first proofs from your uploaded file. This means they will run the text into a document template, adding
pagination, running heads and so on so that –at last! –your book really looks like a book. The page proofs are often the last time you will see your book before it is printed when published traditionally. Your self-publishing provider may offer a proofreading service, but if not, you will need to look for a freelance proofreader, as well as checking the pages very carefully yourself –it is amazing how many tiny errors can escape the human eye even on the most high-profile of publications.

Do not ask the copy-editor to read the proofs for you: it is really important that they have a fresh pair of eyes. The proofreader will once more read the book from beginning to end, looking for any outstanding typos and grammatical errors, but also checking key issues such as pagination, running heads (if appropriate), formatting errors (a whole paragraph appearing in italics, say, when that wasn’t intended), ensuring that the prelims –and particularly the contents page –are correct, and so on.

When the proofreader returns their comments, you should add any extra changes of your own to the corrected set of proofs (this process is called collation; again, your self-publishing provider may offer this service, so do check) so that the typesetters are working from just one set of changes on one set of proofs rather than several, which can be confusing. You may then receive a set of revised proofs (revises) to cast your eye over one last time. To keep correction costs down, try to keep tweaks to an absolute minimum at this stage. It can be painful to do this as, of course, you want everything to be perfect, but when I was a newly fledged editor, a very experienced colleague introduced me to the concept of ‘must have’ essential corrections that would damage sales –for example, a hideous typo on the front cover or title page of a book –and ‘nice to have’, such as fixing a comma that is accidentally appearing in italic. Will anyone notice the latter? Unlikely. So, leave it for a reprint or new edition. Will they notice that your name has been misspelled on the title page  – Elizbethh Windsor? Jhon Smth? Yes. So, get that fixed.

If you’ve written a non-fiction book, you will probably need an index to aid readers ’navigation through the book. Some self-publishing providers may be able to do this electronically for you via indexing programs that can pick out key terms, but if you need to find an indexer yourself, contact the Society of Indexers (www.indexers.org.uk). In my experience, it is best to have the index done at the revises stage than at first proofs: for example, removing a duplicated paragraph in the proofs will have a knock-on effect on pagination, which means an index prepared off those first proofs would be wrong almost immediately. 
 

Copy-editors look for typing errors:

• Incomplete punctuation, such as missing brackets and speech marks
• Apostrophe misuse, especially in contractions and possessives
• Consistency in spelling: color/colour,-ize /-ise
• Consistent style and spacing for measurements, numbers, ages and dates
• Words that have similar spellings or sounds but variant meanings
• Missing, duplicated or transposed text
• Missing bullet or numbered points in lists
• Inaccurate numbering sequences on pages and in-text, such as ‘firstly’ not being followed by a ‘secondly’
• Capitalisation for proper nouns, places, trademarks and specialist terms
• No definition for acronyms/abbreviations plus inconsistent use them
• Incorrect or inconsistent use of tenses
• Correcting obvious factual errors
   

Proofreaders look for typesetting errors :

• Layout is consistent and text, margins and columns are all aligned
• Pagination and running heads have been included correctly
• All content including prelims and end matter has been incorporated 
• Cross-references are accurate (including in the index) 
• Heading styles follow specifi ed hierarchy and formatted correctly 
• Text is in right font and correctly sized, plus styles retained e.g. italic or bold
• No text has been set in error, duplicated or awkwardly broken across pages 
• Captions that appear with illustrations, maps or tables are correct