How to find a good Proofreading Service?

As a self publisher, who wants to be taken seriously, I have realised that in order to get positive reviews, I need to not only have a good storyline and allow my readers to bond with the characters but I also need to make sure the spelling, grammar and layout is near enough perfect, otherwise these little things can build into major problems, which will irritate the reader and put them off from reading further.


After looking at a few self published authors's books and read the reviews, it was clear some didn't value this as high on their priority and many of the negative reviews came back to them needing a proofreader as it spoiled the readers experience when they kept being confronted with basic grammar mistakes.

In one of my previous posts, I talked about the range of prices a proofreader can charge, however, I didn't go into detail about choosing a service.


When I first completed my novel, I was put off from getting a proofreader, due to the prices, but when I thought about it, I realised, I invested all this time writing the book so to cut corners at the final stages on something so important would not be doing myself or the book any justice.


I don't want my books to seem like I am just churning them out like a robot just for a profit, I want the reader to come into the world of my characters so they will invest their time and money in the sequels.


Like a holiday, when I started to research proofreading services, I looked at the following:

• Where in the world these companies were based? (e.g. if I had a problem with the service, I wouldn't have a problem calling them as they would be a UK based company with a UK telephone number and address)

• How much they charged? (Everyone has a budget!)

• What type of experience the staff had? (If my book is being proofread by anyone who is not a native English speaker and does not have more than 3 years proofreading experience then I would be wasting my money. However, what they tell you and the actually truth you may never know!)

• How long would it take? (If it's more than a week for a novel less than 100k words then look somewhere else as it shows that they either don't have enough people for the amount of work they are getting in or the staff are inexperienced and need extra time)

• What the reviews were like from people who had used their services? (type in the name of the proofreading service into Google and look for reviews from independent websites to get a better idea of what you could expect)

Even with all these checks, I only managed to find three and after doing the final check (the independent reviews), it was very easy to short list the favour three to one company.

I have yet to send my work to them but when I do, I will be either recommending them on this blog to encourage more authors to use them or I will be telling you to steer clear!