Fantasy Book Proofreading Services

So, you’ve written the next great fantasy book and had it edited. Ready to publish? Not yet. One last thing you need to do is get it proofread. You might be thinking, Why would I need to do that? It’s already been edited! But having only one editor go through it will likely result in several mistakes being left in it (editors are only human, after all!), especially if the editor focused on content or stylistic editing, which don’t really concern themselves with smaller-level errors. If you’re still not convinced, let me explain why it is essential to employ a fantasy novel proofreading service.

The My-Book-Is-Perfect Trap

After one or multiple rounds of editing, some writers may believe that their novel is perfect (if you’re a perfectionist who never feels like your novel is ready, skip to the next section). The story may be exactly what you want it to be, and there may be no remaining errors (to your eyes), but a proofreader can always find errors. When you (or your editor) has spent too much time staring at the pages of your novel, mistakes will become harder to notice—you’ll unconsciously skip over them because you know what you’re trying to say.

A proofreader, however, will be able to look at your manuscript with fresh eyes and pick up on any remaining errors.

Catch Spelling Mistakes and Inconsistencies

This one may seem obvious, but it’s extremely important, especially for fantasy novels. Most fantasy novels contain new words that are used to name people, places, creatures, and special powers. The last thing any fantasy author would want is for their version of Word to automatically correct one of their unique names and change it to a random word. Alternatively, you may have misspelled a name once or twice, which is understandable when you have a long list of unique names to keep track of.

A skilled proofreader will ensure that your hero’s name isn’t autocorrected to a random word and that the name of your setting is consistently spelled the right way. Additionally, you may have other innocuous spelling errors in your manuscript, and these small errors in spelling or usage will be easily caught by the trained eye of a proofreader.

Make Your Writing Clearer

As the author, you always know exactly what you’re trying to say, but some of the words you choose may mean different things to different people or may confuse your readers in other ways. Making sure that your readers understand what is going on is of the utmost importance, especially in a complex novel that is inhabited by so many new terms and ideas. A proofreader can make your prose clear while maintaining the meaning you intended. You may be worried about your unique writing style being changed, but those kinds of changes are not a proofreader’s job—your proofreader’s goal is to make your writing make sense, and they will be sure to keep your unique prose as it is.

Improve Grammar and Punctuation

A primary job of proofreaders is to ensure grammaticality and proper punctuation. Many writers have a good grasp of grammar, but proofreaders are trained to know thousands of grammatical rules that the average writer may have no idea exists or may be vaguely aware of but not know how they work. Proper grammar is important not only to the flow of your book but also to the clarity of your sentences—incorrect grammar can take a reader out of the novel (which you absolutely do not want in a fantasy novel!) and cause them to stop and decipher your writing.

Likewise, strange or improper punctuation can ruin the flow of a sentence and cause confusion. A proofreader will ensure that your grammar and punctuation are excellent so your readers can be fully immersed in your novel.

Making Your Book Unforgettable

If you want to be the next Tolkien, you need to make your book stand out. If it’s riddled with spelling errors and poor grammar, readers will form a negative impression of it and it will never become legendary. To achieve the status you seek, you must ensure that everything about your book is as perfect as it can be—that means perfect spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, and more. Just think—you wouldn’t find a their vs. there error in the Mistborn series, so if you want your novel to compare to it, you have to achieve the same level of perfectionism.

Additionally, with the amount of competition in the self-publishing world, particularly in the fantasy genre, you need to make your book the highest quality possible, otherwise your readers will give up and read something else.

Writing a fantasy novel is an extraordinary feat, but there will be little payoff if you don’t utilize a proofreading service. From the list above, you can see why proofreading is absolutely essential for fantasy authors. It can correct any errors you or your editor may have missed, ensure consistency in spelling of names unique to your world, catch any spelling errors, improve the clarity of your writing, ensure proper grammar and punctuation, and elevate your novel to the high status you hope to achieve.

With proofreading, your book will be more polished than many other self-published novels, which will give it an edge and convince readers to read it in its entirety instead of giving up due to poor quality. So, what are you waiting for? Get your book proofread and become an acclaimed fantasy author.