Circle of Friends as Proofreaders

You can hardly pick up a book on writing, or read a blog without hearing: "Never do your own proofreading! Leave it to the professionals."

There are usually offered plenty of supporting arguments. You can see this by using Twitter and the hashtag #amwriting.

The most telling argument is that an author knows his/her story and knows how a scene is suppose to be read. The author's mind would therefore tend to overlook errors. For example, a sentence says 'Joe shivered as the temperature dripped below freezing.' In this example the word dripped should have been dropped, but the author might miss this simply because he/she knows it should read dropped and the mind interprets it that way.

This is a serious problem because the whole idea of proofreading is to find and correct errors as well as fine tune the story. A professional would almost certainly discover the error above and provide suggestions for correcting.

But is the problem solely whether you or a professional does the proof reading? I have another suggestion.

First, a definition.

Professional Proofreaders: These are people who will proof your book for a fee. They may have a background in education or be an accomplished author or wordsmith. Being professionals they are governed by ethics and are committed to making your book as good as possible.

The problem with professionals is that they are often expensive and over-priced. Most beginning authors are limited by their own budgets. They simply can't afford such services.

Circle of Friends: Everyone of us have a Circle of Friends. That circle is unique to us. My Circle of Friends is different from yours; in fact, it is different from my wife's. A Circle of Friends may include doctors, lawyers, secretaries, assembly line workers, farmers, and more. It is a vital resource of talent!

Moreover, this Circle of Friends may possibly be representative of your audience. The audience consists of the people you are hoping will buy your book.

This group of people can be used to proofread your book. As friends they will give an honest appraisal of your book, indicating difficult passages, misspelled words, and more. In fact, they may suggest scenes based on their own experiences. Like I said, it is a vital resource!

Perhaps the biggest drawback of using your Circle of Friends to proofread your book is that they may not know the laws of writing. Personally I don't think of this as a big thing. When writing fiction the laws of writing often don't apply. (For example, one law says that you never start a sentence with "And." But in writing you can do this.) Generally speaking leave the laws for the business person or the student.

It has been my experience that using friends as proofreaders is a very effective procedure. I started out writing by doing my own proofreading and the results were less than anticipated. Then I began getting my wife involved and then friends. This resulted in errors being eliminated and new ideas incorporated.

One of the differences between Professionals and Circle of Friends is that Professionals cost money, while friends will help out for very little consideration. One thing I have done is dedicated my books to those who have helped.

But how do you use your Circle of Friends effectively?

There are probably many answers to that question, but I will only give one. And I will do so by sharing how I do it.

I actually combine my own proofreading with that of my Circle of Friends. I select a small number of friends who I think would be willing and have the reading skills required. The actual method goes like this:

I proof the book first, which often leads to additional writings including entire chapters. After I finish proofing and editing the book, I turn it over to my best friend, my wife. She then proofreads the book and turns it back to me to be edited. Then it goes to the next friend and so on.

There is no set number of friends to be used. That is up to your discretion.

I have been very pleased with using my Circle of Friends and am confident their work equals or exceeds a professional. Are there still errors? Of course. No matter whether you use a professional proofreader or your Circle of Friends there will still be errors, including printing errors. The goal is to eliminate as many as possible.

Aside from cost what else makes Circle of Friends preferable to a Professional?

Unless you are hiring a professional service that uses several proofreaders on your book, you normally get one set of eyes on your book. Well trained eyes, to be sure, but only one set. On the other hand, your Circle of Friends means multiple sets of eyes examine your work bringing individual experiences and knowledge to the process.

It can be truly said, The more eyes involved the better.

If all that is true, should you ever use a professional?

Sure, if you can afford one. And I would suggest that you can use a professional along with your Circle of Friends! While I don't use professionals, they are a valuable resource.

I know this blog may have stepped on a toe here or there, so I welcome your response. Do you agree or disagree? Comment below.