Is Perfection Achievable?
All of my clients want to publish books that are as good as they can possibly be. You have put hours and hours (and hours!) of work into your book. You have probably invested a huge amount of emotional energy and a not insignificant amount of money.
You want to publish a book that you can be proud of.
This is absolutely what I want too.
However, some authors want their books to be “perfect” and we need to be honest here. I’m not sure that perfection in art is something that can ever happen.
Every single person has a different view on what is right, and what is wrong. There are some fixed rules, I agree. But so much of editing is subjective. And so much of our reading experience is informed by our history, our culture, our personal experiences. No two people will read the same book and have the same opinion.
So, do I offer a money back perfection guarantee? No, I do not.
But do I offer a professional, supportive, well-informed service
that will work with you to make your book as shiny and excellent
as possible?
Absolutely.
Here is an extract from the very excellent CIEP website (Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading):
How good is ‘good enough’?
CIEP mentors have standards for what is good enough in proofreading.
Trainees (not beginners), proofreading a professionally copyedited typescript, are normally expected – after some practice – to spot and deal appropriately with at least 70% of errors; this is based on finding 80% of typos and 60% of editorial errors or oversights. If a mentee finds fewer mistakes than that, they need more training or guidance.
An experienced professional proofreader, reading a copyedited typescript, should be able to spot and deal appropriately with at least 80% of all errors but at least 90% of typos – other things being equal.
Other things are seldom equal. Was the writer accurate, consistent and reasonably coherent? Was the material edited? How tricky is the subject matter? Did the author respond to queries? Did the author, project manager, journal editor or designer add new mistakes? Did the proofreader have enough time and money?
Good enough for what?
How perfect do you want it? What counts as an error? And will even one error matter?
Sometimes only perfection is good enough, and the Wicked Bible of 1631 was not good enough. Its Ten Commandments contained one mistake: ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’. The edition was pulped.
You don’t want that to happen. Even so, perfection is usually out of reach, though you can get very close. Not every error matters equally. After all, how many readers will notice that italic comma? (Go back and look!) Clients have to decide what matters to them, but they need to be prepared to take the proofreader’s advice.
No publication is likely to be good enough if it has not been edited. However, copyeditors do a lot more than pick up mistakes, so they may not catch all of them, especially if the material is complex, difficult or badly written.
Complex, difficult or badly written?
A complex publication is typically one that makes numerous connections: for example, a school textbook, where the same topic may appear in various forms (image, table, text, citation) in different places, but where the content also has to link to the teacher’s handbook and an external syllabus.
A difficult publication is usually defined by its subject matter, such as philosophy or biochemistry, by its language – Arabic philology or Joyce’s Ulysses for example – or by a hard-to-reach audience.
A well-written text should be not just grammatical, well punctuated and correctly spelt, but also consistent, logical and readable. It should be well judged in tone and level, use appropriate vocabulary, tell the reader everything they need to know, explain anything unfamiliar and not leave out steps in the plot, argument or directions. Copyeditors practise these skills every day, and they know what to look for.
Why bother?
A good copyeditor picks up 80% of errors; a good proofreader picks up 80% of what’s left. Why bother? Because people will judge you on the quality of what you put in front of them. Because people will not take you or your message seriously if it is unclear, inconsistent or poorly presented. Because you are asking people to spend time reading it, and it is simple courtesy to smooth the reader’s path.
