If you self-publish or work with a print-on-demand company, it’s very likely you’ll be the only one to read your book for typographical and grammatical errors before it’s published. Your name will be on the cover; don’t you want your book to read as smoothly and clearly as possible? After all, it’s YOUR book.
Crooked Tree Press offers over eight years of experience writing, editing, and proofreading. Types of work we have been privileged to read include, but are not limited to business plans, websites, training manuals and books.
At all levels of copyediting, the copyeditor corrects errors, queries the author about conflicting statements, and requests advice when the means of resolving a problem is unclear. The copyeditor may also incorporate the author’s replies to queries; this work is known as cleanup editing. Before work  begins, we will determine if the copyediting fee will cover cleanup editing or if cleanup editing will be performed for an additional fee.
Let Crooked Tree Press help make your work the best it can be.

Light Copyediting (baseline editing)

• Correcting faulty spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

• Correcting incorrect usage (such as can for may).

• Checking specific cross-references (for example, “As Table 14-6 shows…”).

• Ensuring consistency in spelling, hyphenation, numerals, fonts, and capitalization.

• Checking for proper sequencing (such as alphabetical order) in lists and other displayed material.

• Recording the first references to figures, tables, and other display elements.

A light copyedit does not involve interventions such as smoothing transitions or changing heads or text to ensure parallel structure. The editor checks content only to detect spots where copy is missing. A light copyedit may include type marking.

Medium Copyediting

• Performing all tasks for light copyediting.

• Changing text and headings to achieve parallel structure.

• Ensuring that key terms are handled consistently and that vocabulary lists and the index contain all the terms that meet criteria specified by the publisher.

• Ensuring that previews, summaries, and end-of-chapter questions reflect content.

• Tracking the continuity of plot, setting, and character traits, and querying the discrepancies, in fiction manuscripts.

• Enforcing consistent style and tone in a multi-author manuscript.

• Changing passive voice to active voice, if requested.

• Flagging ambiguous or incorrect statements.

Heavy Copyediting (substantive editing)

• Performing all tasks for medium copyediting.

• Eliminating wordiness, triteness, and inappropriate jargon.

• Smoothing transitions and moving sentences to improve readability.

• Assigning new levels to heads to achieve logical structure.

• Suggesting—and sometimes implementing—additions and deletions, noting them at the sentence and paragraph level.

The key differences between heavy and medium copyedits are the levels of judgment and rewriting involved. In a heavy copyedit, the editor improves the flow of text rather than simply ensuring correct usage and grammar; may suggest recasts rather than simply flagging problems.

Proofreading
A proofreader marks typeset copy word for word against a manuscript, identifies deviations for correction, and queries editorial errors. Proofreaders may also check copy for conformity to type specifications, create a style sheet, and ensure attractive typography by checking kerning, margins, word spacing, repetitive word breaks, and the like.  An editorial proofreader combines proofreading with some copyediting tasks, if they are needed late in the production process. This can include correcting errors such as misspellings, typos, misnumbering or mislabeling, subject-verb disagreement, word usage (such as the use of imminent for eminent), and identifying incorrect or outdated cross-references. If copy is missing, the proofreader requests the copy. Editorial proofreading may also involve type marking, and making marginal notes to show the first citation of illustrations, tables, and other display elements.

Fact checking
A fact checker does not make editorial changes, but simply verifies the accuracy of content as specified. One client may request that the fact checker verify all statements, while another client may request the verification of addresses and trademarks only.