From Error-Ridden to Publish-Ready in 36 Hours

The author had committed to a major industry conference presentation, guaranteeing that his book would be available for purchase. A national publication article promoting the Amazon release was scheduled to run alongside the conference. The manuscript had been through extensive author’s revisions and a professional editor, with the assumption that it was “very clean.”

But the moving parts involved with assembling the manuscript, a lack of expertise among the team, and the client being too close to their writing meant that the draft was rife with errors. My client gave me 36 hours to proofread 94,000 words, catching what three other professionals had missed.

Due to the tight deadline, I worked in segments; I developed an ad hoc process with the client that would enable us to move systematically through, producing both an annotated file and a page-numbered change log for the layout team. I then briefly reviewed the document to understand the best way to approach proofreading and catch any large, immediately visible errors (e.g., a missing section that would have gone to print as a visible, multi-page gap). In proofreading, I identified more than 100 material errors, ranging from credibility-killing typos to sentences that did not logically connect.

The manuscript went to print by the deadline. The author had books in hand for his conference, the Amazon listing launched on schedule with the supporting press coverage, and I received an editing credit in the published book.