Freelance Amy

Copyediting and Proofreading: 10 Writing Tips

2021-03-10

A pencil has been sharpened and is lying on its shavings — Photo by **Lisa Fotios** from **Pexels**

Recently, I was reminded just how important copyediting and proofreading are. As a professional copyeditor for well over a decade, I’ve known how crucial the editing process is. However, the evidence can sometimes present itself in creepily humorous ways.

Sidenote 1: Copyediting and proofreading, as concisely explained by my colleague Carly Catt, are two separate processes. In short, copyediting is a more substantial content and grammar edit. Proofreading occurs as a final stage to catch any lingering errors.

Copyediting and Proofreading Are Important!

I re-released my online copyediting and proofreading course earlier this year. At that time, I recalled that I needed to review the captions automatically generated by Udemy. I honestly, and yes, naively, didn’t think it would be such a big deal … until I came across the following subtitle:

Al-Qaeda got into the van and drove away.

With this sentence, I was attempting to provide a quick example of the subject. That is, the subject is the person completing the action. I also wanted to ensure my references were culturally diverse. So I chose the lovely name Aleida for the woman who drives her van away.

Perhaps it’s a minivan that Aleida takes to pick up her kids at soccer practice. Or she just picked up her vehicle from the local mechanic before heading off to meet some friends for lunch. However, Al-Qaeda getting into a van presents a whole other picture!

Sidenote 2: Aleida seems to be a common name in Latin American cultures—Che Guevara’s eldest daughter is named Aleida. But it’s actually Dutch and German in origin, deriving from Adelaide.

Whether you are a self-proclaimed spelling enthusiast or a seemingly lost cause when it comes to grammar, you must make room for copyediting and proofreading as a final quality check.

Doing this will ensure that clients, colleagues, and, in my case, students, take you seriously. As a result, they keep coming back to hire or refer you or even buy or recommend your products.

Quick heads-up:
This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission should you decide to purchase items I recommend via affiliate links.

Spot the Typos (there are six)

However, even copyeditor’s are not immune to making mistakes in their own writing. Have you ever heard of Muphry’s Law? This old adage goes something like:

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong when copyediting and proofreading.

You could be waiting for an important call all day and then your battery dies just as your answering. You could be planning to bake the perfect birthday cake for your sweetheart when you realize you don’t have enough butter and the store just closed.

Or you could be writing a blog post about the impotrance of copyediting and proofreading and forget to do spell check before publishing.

If you are not a professional proofreader or copyeditor, I’d advise you to ask someone to take a final look at your writing before going pubic with it. (In fact, even professionals ask others to check there work!)

Chances are, and especially if you regularly post blogs or are publishing longer content or even a book, you’ll need to hire such a person and build that into your budget.

Sidenote 3: Let me know in the comments what typos you found.

But to keep down such costs should you be running a small operation, consider these 10 tips for copyediting and proofreading your own writing.

1. Wait at least a day before final proofreading.

If possible, don’t proofread the same day you’ve finished drafting your content. I always draft and edit my blog posts in WordPress about a week before publishing.

Letting the post sit alone for a while helps me move my brain on to other tasks. I can then come back to the content with fresh eyes. And that’s when I find errors that should have been glaringly obvious on my previous read!

In addition, proofread at a time of day when you’re most alert and observant. I have more brain power in the mornings, so I never do final proofreads in the afternoon. And I certainly do not proofread in the evening when all that’s on my mind is relaxation and decompression.

2. Identify problem areas you just can’t ever wrap your head around.

For example, I often see people using apostrophes where they are not needed or omitting them where they are. Indeed, many of my clients lament the concept of apostrophes as one they just can’t seem to grasp.

If you struggle with apostrophes or other grammar and punctuation issues, I would recommend joining a Facebook group for writing or editing. Then, when you come across a phrase or sentence you’re unsure of, copy it into a post there and ask what others would recommend.

You will find that many folks will be more than willing to not only provide the correct grammar but also explain why it’s correct. And voilà, a free and targeted grammar course to instantly up your copyediting and proofreading game!

3. Post a cheat sheet of grammar or spelling issues you always have trouble with.

For example, I have a tough time remembering the various tenses for lie vs. lay. When I see these, I refer to a chart by my desk like this one:

Copyediting and proofreading lay vs. lie table. Top header row Base points to “lie” described as intransitive, which means it takes no object. The present tense is “lies,” the present participle is “lying,” past tense is “lay,” and past participle is “lain.” The next Base points to “lay,” which is transitive and takes an object. The present tense is “lays,” present participle is “laying,” past tense is “laid,” and past participle is “laid.”

4. Change the look and feel of the content while copyediting and proofreading.

Seeing the content in a new way will help issues stand out better. Change the font, font size, line spacing, or all three. If you’re sending an email and have drafted it in Word, copy and paste it into your email client and send it to yourself. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find on the other end.

You could also put the whole thing on another platform. For example, if you’re writing web content, do final copyediting and proofreading in a new unpublished post online. Then preview it before publishing. Or you can copy it from Word into a Google Doc.

5. Read aloud one word at a time.

Reading aloud allows you to think about the content in a different way and make unclear writing more obvious. Take it a step further and imagine that you’re reading it to your high school English teacher. Or imagine that your managing editor, whom you may particularly respect, is reviewing it.

What kinds of errors do you think they’ll point out? Will they understand what you have written?

6. Check headings letter by letter while copyediting and proofreading.

You don’t want a typo in a heading. Read that last sentence again. Okay, I’ll write it again: You don’t want a typo in a heading.

However, for some horrible cosmic joke of a reason, headings notoriously attract errors. I think it’s because they are so easy to ignore when you’re the one writing as well as copyediting and proofreading the content.

But once that content is in front of a reader, headings are everything. They help the reader navigate the content and let them know if it’s worth reading. Often, readers will scan the headings first, and if they see a particularly egregious typo, to the back button they will go.

7. Check end punctuation.

It’s super easy to miss a period at the end of a paragraph. It’s also easy to use a question mark when you should be using a period. For me, a quick sweep of the ends of every paragraph and bullet point usually turns up some missing punctuation about 10% of the time.

8. Use spelling and grammar software while copyediting and proofreading.

Even as a professional editor, I still use software to catch issues I may have missed. And I especially use it for a long document I’ve been working on for several days or even weeks. Use the built-in tools in your word processing software and consider investing in an external program as well.

I use PerfectIt , which is very popular among copyeditors. Grammarly is another one gaining popularity, but it has its issues. With that said, you still need to have a basic understanding of grammar and spelling to use these tools.

Always check each suggestion the tools present and don’t just accept every recommendation. I would say about 50–75% of the time, I reject the software’s suggestions. But those other 25–50% have saved me the unpleasantness of an unhappy client or displeased reader.

9. When in doubt, look it up!

A woman is looking up something in a dictionary while copyediting and proofreading — Photo by **Nick Bondarev** from **Pexels**

Look it up! Professional copyeditors live by this standard. It is rare for any of us to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every grammar, style, or obscure spelling rule.

Any time I have just a tiny minuscule of doubt about a word or phrase, I go to the relevant dictionary or style manual (usually online subscriptions) to double check. Much of the time, I’m just getting reassurance. However, I’ve also found out that my first instinct is not always the correct one.

10. Start and use a checklist of errors you make consistently.

For example, if you know you always swap “their” and “they’re,” add this issue to the checklist. Then, right before finalizing or publishing, do a global search of both terms to double check you spelled them correctly.

While copyediting and proofreading, add your most common issues as you notice them. And keep the list somewhere handy to refer to before finalizing your content for publishing. I have my list taped to the wall behind my computer screen so that I can just glance up quickly and efficiently.

I hope these tips on copyediting and proofreading have been as useful to you as they are to me. In fact, these tips make up a procedure I use with every editing, proofreading, writing, and design project I work on for clients or even myself!

If you find you’re consistently missing typos and struggling with grammar and readability, start with these tips to:

get cleaner content,
impress your audience, and
encourage them to keep coming back for more!

To get regular tips on freelancing and editing as well as access to my ebook Quick Guide to Freelancing, sign up for my newsletter. You can also follow me on social media by clicking on one of the links in the sidebar.

If you would like to learn more about copyediting and proofreading and how to write clearly, check out my self-paced course “Editing Skills for Clear Writing,” available on Udemy and LearnDesk.

Rescue Kitty Makes Freelance Amy a Cat Person

2021-03-03

Rescue kitty collage: owner posing in one photo with rescue kitty; cat stretched out next to owner’s laptop; cat resting head on owner’s hand holding a mouse at her desk; cat grabbing owner’s arm as she uses the mouse at her desk — Working from home with Gemma the rescue kitty

About six weeks ago my husband and I got a rescue kitty. The decision to get a cat did not come lightly. I had been debating it with myself—he was on board from the beginning—since we moved to Florida in March 2020.

I grew up with cats, dogs, and various farm animals, but I had never had a pet as an adult. Being self-employed as a freelance copy editor and publication designer made such a commitment difficult.

That’s 20+ years of only being responsible for myself. I don’t have kids and rarely have plants around. Although I did manage to keep an aloe vera plant and a schefflera alive for more than a year. That was until I had to move and couldn’t take them with me.

Craving feline companionship

During that two-decade hiatus, whenever a cat would wander by me on the street, I would respond appropriately by quietly and calmly SHRIEKING with delight.

As I kneeled down, the creature would come to me about 50% of the time. One day, I proclaimed, I would have one of my own, preferably a rescue kitty.

It took so many years because:

I rented until about 2018 and couldn’t have pets due to lease restrictions.
My husband and I moved around a lot since meeting in 2014.

Sign along the highway stating welcome to Florida — Arriving to our new home state—we think we’ll stay a while

We’re both self-employed entrepreneurs who have a reputation for moving to a new place on a dime (figuratively, that is). Finally, in 2020, we started to feel like we had found a home in the Sunshine State.

Adopting a rescue kitty no longer an occasional dream

I would find myself stating again and again “let’s get a cat.” Then the next day I would remember that I would need to:

feed it,
take it to the vet,
clean its litter box,
worry about it when I was away from home,
arrange for someone to check on it while I was out of town,
make sure it didn’t get eaten by a gator/coyote/panther/hawk, and
then watch it get inevitably older and sickly with time.

Finally, after going over the pros and cons with family and friends for months, I realized that dooming myself forever catless was not what I had planned for myself.

So I told my husband in early January that we should get a rescue kitty. BUT let’s wait a month to make sure our finances were in order.

But we don’t wait!

Back story: We had just moved into yet another house in late November and I wanted to be sure we could afford any unexpected expenses. Two days later, I was browsing the local rescue’s inventory, and my husband said, “Let’s get one now. Why are we waiting? We don’t wait!”

That’s true. We don’t wait. When the two of us make a decision, we make the end result just happen. When we chose the house we live in now, we insisted on closing in record time. That turned out to be three weeks from the day we made the offer.

Pizza on a cutting board displayed on a patio table in the author's screened lanai — Moving-day Thanksgiving pizza

We officially moved in on Thanksgiving Day because that was the first night we slept over. We had closed the day before and had already rented a U-Haul that afternoon.

Choosing a rescue kitty

I discovered a gorgeous torti mix, and we went over to C.A.R.E. Animal Shelter the next morning. We waited until the next day because it was already closed. You should have guessed by now that we would have been over there the same day if we could have been.

Unfortunately, we weren’t 100% convinced about the original rescue kitty we visited, so we went back the next day. The volunteers suggested we wait even longer, but you know by now how that sounds to us!

We met with the torti again. However, she just didn’t seem to care about us all that much, being that she was partially feral. (Update: That cat has since been adopted, and I’m so very happy for her!)

On the way out, my husband spotted the kitten room. I had wanted no part in looking at kittens. “Kittens are so much work,” I said! But then he really wanted to look, so I tagged along.

And that’s when we met a rescue kitty named Gemma. The volunteer explained that it was spelled like “gem,” as in gemstone.

Finding our rescue kitty

This sweet gray tabby was hiding in a carpeted tunnel, tentatively reaching out and purring serenely. My husband thought she was awesome. And I marveled at his ability to pick out just the type of cat that would pull at my heartstrings the most.

I mentioned earlier that I had grown up with cats. But I did not mention that, with the exception of the last cat that called me his own, I had always shared my devotion with a gray tabby.

When I looked at this rescue kitty named Gemma, I saw a bit of Josie, who had seen me through my awkward adolescent years and been there through the inevitable tears. I also saw Tuffy, who was my first cat at the age of five, and I still well up when I recall his untimely death.

Gemma was it, and we became rescue kitty parents a few days later … And it only took that long because the shelter was closed for the two days after we submitted our application.

The many names for our rescue kitty

So, here we are more than a month in. We’re learning how to live and work from home with a cat. It still feels weird occasionally. For many years, we’d proudly declared how free we were to do as we pleased because we didn’t have kids, pets, or plants.

Our cosmopolitan, care-free lives are a little less so these days. And we ask each other where the cat is at least five times a day from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

And when we do that, we use one of various nicknames for our rescue kitty. Some of those names match the lessons we’ve learned along the way:

Sweetheart
Sweetie Pie
Cutie
Kitty
Creature
Weirdo
Jerk

Sweetheart

Gemma the rescue kitty walks through the doorway of the author’s office — Gemma the rescue kitty checking out my office for the first time

Sweetheart is when she lopes into my home office, stares at me with her big bright green-yellow eyes, and purrs as I scratch the top of her head.

Sweetie Pie

Gemma the rescue kitty stretches on her perch by the author’s office window — Gemma just about fits on her perch between my desk and the window

Sweetie Pie is when our rescue kitty follows me out of the bedroom in the morning, mewing both for hellos and for breakfast. It’s also when she welcomes enthusiastic snuggles even as I wash her food and water bowls, and when she climbs onto her perch next to my desk.

Cutie

Cutie is when she wraps herself around my legs while I prepare lunch with her tail contentedly pointed upward. Our rescue kitty blinks and turns her head and my heart melts even when she’s lying on top of my keyboard and pressing the random and sometimes critical buttons on my keyboard as I type.

Kitty

Kitty is when I’m looking for her around the house before discovering her newest hiding place. It’s recently her own “private loft” at the top of our walk-in closet. That reminds me that I should put a soft blanket up there for her.

Creature

Gemma loves to jump up and attack her scratching post and the pom that hangs from it

Creature is when my husband comes out of his office after an intense conference call and goes in search of welcome pets and snuggles. Our rescue kitty is also a creature when we play with her each evening as she jumps, runs, and twirls around the dangly bird toy we swing around each night so she doesn’t wake us up at 4:00 a.m.

Weirdo

Gemma the rescue kitty is stretched out in front of the author’s computer screen — Gemma also likes to point out errors in the copy I’m editing

Weirdo is when she grabs the drawstring on my hoodie, rips up my grocery store receipt, throws her catnip-infused toy mouse in the air, chews on one of my two computer screens, drinks from my water glass, and falls off my desk mid-stretch.

Jerk

Jerk is when our rescue kitty claws at my feet through my thin cotton blanket or refuses to hang out with me when I’m looking right at her and pleading. Also, I’m a jerk when I give her catnip right before bedtime and complain all night that she tears through the house into the wee hours. I’m never doing that again!

Gemma

And Gemma is when we talk about what a sweetheart, sweetie pie, cutie, kitty, creature, weirdo, jerk we’ve brought into our lives. And what a gem our lives have become!

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Self Publishing with IngramSpark: 5 Tips for Designers

2021-02-19

Woman in a sun hat while reading a book and smiling — Photo by **Mental Health America (MHA)** from **Pexels**

I just wrapped up my first experience self publishing with IngramSpark and an author client. My initial impressions:

The experience has added much value to my business offerings.
I had a doll of a client for my introduction to self publishing.
And I am so proud to have been a part of such a positive contribution to the field of early childhood development.

To clarify, the services I provided were unique in their scope. What I mean is that I did the copy editing, design (including cover and layout), proofreading, some publishing research, and a little last-minute photo retouching.

In addition, because I was the copy editor, I was able to make content recommendations throughout the design process. These last tweaks included final additions such as reviewer quotes and back-of-the-book descriptions.

Reflecting on Self Publishing with IngramSpark

Now that the process has wrapped up, I’ve been reflecting on the most challenging aspects. I’ve also been noting a few things I wish I had known at the start.

So here’s my list of five tips, plus a bonus, I wish I’d known going into this process of self publishing with IngramSpark. These points will be heavy on my mind next time around, and I recommend other freelance designers and editors take note!

1. Beware of revision fees when self publishing with IngramSpark.

Calculator with coins and bills gathered around it to show the rising costs of self-publishing with IngramSpark — Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay

We ended up publishing all formats, including the print edition, with IngramSpark because it’s the leader in self publishing. However, besides having notoriously inefficient customer service, IngramSpark loves to charge a revision fee of $25 for each file.

Now, I did know this going into self publishing with IngramSpark, but I did not understand that “each file” means the cover (1) and the interior file (2).

That’s two files, so if you need to change both after IngramSpark has generated an eproof for you to approve, IngramSpark charges $50. That is already a pretty hefty fee, but that adds up if you need to do multiple test runs. I’ll talk about that more down this list.

2. Paper weights have dramatically different effects.

Open book with pages in middle folded into the shape of a heart — Image by Linus Schütz from Pixabay

If you’re going to print in color, paper weight is very important. We decided to go with the lightest and cheapest weight, 50 lb, to keep the price of the book down. However, the 70 lb weight is really the most ideal for photos.

We had about three photos in each chapter, which is the main reason we had to do multiple print runs. With each test, we tweaked certain photos and held our breath that those would be the winners.

We did do a test run with a local printer, but they only had 60 lb paper. That test run turned up deceptively beautiful pages, so we were quite disappointed when we got the first printed copies from IngramSpark.

If you or your client have access to a professional printer with 50 lb paper, try a few test pages there. Both of you will save time and money before self publishing with IngramSpark.

3. Using cover templates can be challenging when self publishing with IngramSpark.

A woman holds a large stack of hardcover books to show how spines can change while self-publishing with IngramSpark — Image by MorningbirdPhoto from Pixabay

IngramSpark provides cover templates. These templates are useful and easy to obtain from its website without even having to sign into an account.

However, being new to this game of self publishing with IngramSpark, I found the spine guides a bit challenging. With each paper weight change, you have to get a new cover template. That’s because the spine has to be wider to make up for the thickness of the pages. You also need a new one for each change in page count, obviously.

In the beginning, I found this challenging to grasp because I struggled to get my image to fit on the page properly. My image was a bit complicated in that the back cover was split up into several pieces. The pieces combined to mimic a large forested background that was actually quite small in the original photograph shown on the front cover.

Fortunately, the cover turned out great and the “pieces” were not at all obvious. However, it was difficult to reinsert them into each new template revision. In short, make room in your budget for revisions if you have a complex cover design when self publishing with IngramSpark!

4. Printing takes a long time.

An hourglass is about three quarters full on top with the other quarter of sand on the bottom to show the slow passage of time while self-publishing with IngramSpark — Image by nile from Pixabay

When you submit a new file or two, be aware that it takes up to two days for IngramSpark to process it before you can order a print copy. But the next thing I didn’t know was that I should wait until the first order has been printed before submitting new files.

Basically, we thought we would get a print run on the 70 lb weight first. Then we would immediately submit files in the 50 lb weight. The result was that we both got the 50 lb weight.

I complained to IngramSpark and was briskly informed after waiting four days for a reply that I should have been more patient. Basically, I should have waited almost two weeks before asking for another print run or just set up a new title—for a $49 fee plus the cost of an additional ISBN, of course.

I gently then asked what can they do about the inconvenience since it is not clear on their website when self publishing with IngramSpark. After another four days, I got a promo code for revision fees. That timing turned out well because I needed to submit new files the very next day.

In conclusion, all this takes a long time, not only because you have to wait for the files to be processed, printed, and then sent to you, but also because IngramSpark customer service is sluggish at best and the online chat option is hit or miss and not really all that helpful from my experience.

Update

Right at the end of this process of self publishing with IngramSpark, I joined the #IngramSparkAuthor Community Facebook group. That is how I found out that I could message IngramSpark through its own Facebook page. The difference was remarkable. I got someone on chat within an hour or two each time, and my issues were resolved the same day.

The rep I worked with was named Patrick. Patrick sure saved the day when we were having issues with transferring my account over to the author’s. We needed it fixed fast to stay on target with the intended distribution date (which had been delayed from late October to early February).

5. A fast-paced schedule is relative when self publishing with IngramSpark.

A large analog clock with a miniature woman climbing up the digits and hanging onto the second hand — Image by ThePixelman from Pixabay

We were naïve about self publishing with IngramSpark. The author and I had a productive first conversation in August, I got started on copyediting in September, and we finished the content revisions with no delay by the end of that month. Then when we discussed the design schedule, I actually suggested that we could have it all done in a few weeks!

First Delay

The first week was cool, we decided on a basic layout and maybe got held up a day or two. Then we needed to do some research on self-publishing logistics and that’s when we had our first real delay.

We ended up pushing our initial test run to just before Thanksgiving (late November), with the innocent assumption that we would then publish in early December. That would have been just about five weeks later than originally determined.

Second Delay

When we got our first copies of the book, we realized that a few things needed tweaking, especially those photos on 50 lb paper. Another two weeks later, and we got the next version.

We only had to tweak two photos then, finalize the back cover, edit the acknowledgments, and provide new metadata. But since it was a couple days before Christmas, we didn’t get the final test run until early January.

Third Delay

This final run was the winner, but then we started to look into the ebook edition. We originally thought we would go with Draft2Digital, which has excellent customer service. However, D2D couldn’t get us the colorful headings and photos that self publishing with IngramSpark seemed to promise.

The final conclusion was that we would have to wait another two weeks while IngramSpark converted the paperback to EPUB and then decide if we were happy with it.

Then! Once the EPUB was converted, IngramSpark neglected to send the author a link to the file. They did proudly proclaim, however, that the book had been put into distribution! A couple days later, we had discovered the Facebook chat option I mentioned earlier and were able to get a file to look at.

Finally Published!

To our pleasant surprise, the EPUB looked great, and we published both editions on February 1, 2021. That was just a little more than three months later than our original target.

Bonus Tip

Always, always, always set up the account in the author’s name when self publishing with IngramSpark. I followed some bad advice somewhere out there in the cyber ether and set up the account in my name.

As a result, I had some painfully anxious moments later when I realized it could take up to a month to transfer the account over to the author. I was also warned that she might need all new ISBNs in the process. Fortunately, we worked it out in the end, and it didn’t take as long as expected. But, just save yourself the stress and don’t risk it!

Final Thoughts on Self Publishing with IngramSpark

Although I may have bashed IngramSpark quite a bit for customer service and seeming overcharges, the resulting product is beautiful and well worth it. That’s especially if you’ve already been through the process once and know what to expect.

Takeaway #1: Have a Realistic Timeline

Even if you and your client are fast workers, production is bound to hold you up at some point. And that’s the game in publishing in general as I’ve gleaned from others working in the field.

Takeaway #2: Consider the Time of Year

We began the design process shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, which is closely followed by Christmas and New Year’s. If you publish any other time of year, you might not be held up as much as we were. At one point, IngramSpark was warning customers that, due to the holiday season, print runs could take up to 10 days before even being shipped out!

Takeaway #3: Keep Track of Your Costs

When self publishing with IngramSpark, be sure your client has a solid budget. Also, suggest that the author have a contingency allowance of about 20% more for those unplanned expenses like additional test runs or last-minute photo tweaking.

Takeaway #4: Establish a Good Team

The fact that I can both edit and design probably kept us from being even four or more months later than originally planned because we didn’t have to call on an editor for last-minute proofreading. If you don’t have such a skill set yourself, be prepared to need extra time at the end for someone who can’t just hop in whenever they are needed.

I hope this post has been helpful to you as you embark on your own adventure of self publishing with IngramSpark. To keep up to date on my weekly blog posts, learn tips on freelancing, and get my ebook Quick Guide to Freelancing (for free!), be sure to sign up for my newsletter.

Finally, if you want to pick up some writing or time management skills for your freelance business, check out my courses available on Udemy and LearnDesk. You can also follow me on social media by clicking one of the links in the sidebar, or you can share this post using the links below: