Proof Pros: how to tackle editorial challenges

The challenges of the copyediting and proofreading world are as varied as the editors within it. From figuring out the author's style to dealing with non-English words, and from performing consistency checks to respecting how words shape the world, ten expert editors share their favourite editorial challenges and how they tackle them.

For the first time since I founded The Edit Better Blog in 2013, it's opening its doors to other voices!

I'd like to introduce the Proof Pros, a global dream team of expert copyeditors, proofreaders and editorial project managers with a combined 100+ years of experience across fiction and non-fiction. They'll tackle tricky, thought-provoking questions on editing and freelancing, sharing their valuable insights and seasoned perspectives.

In this first edition, the Proof Pros reflect on the editorial puzzles they most like to tackle.

Amanda George: 'It was the perfect chance to bridge the gap between academia and the general public'

At the end of 2024, a regular client asked me to do something a little different. For many years, I have proof-edited his academic papers. I also copy-edited his book on Nigerian megaprojects in 2021 (published by Palgrave Macmillan). So, when he asked me if I would like to try editing - almost rewriting - one-page summaries of academic papers (written by the authors of the papers), I was cautiously excited. He explained the goal would be to make the academic papers - or the key ideas in them - accessible to the general public and business communities.

Although daunted, I said yes. I love creating posts for social media (for my business and my charity). And editing pays my bills. So, this seemed like a great opportunity to combine the two. Can we call it copy-wrediting? Even better, it was the perfect chance to bridge the gap between academia and the general public. Academics are smart, and they have valuable and interesting things to say, so telling their story in plain English is very relevant. And it challenges me in new ways, expanding my skill set in a direction I am keen to travel. As I write, I am on my third batch of summaries. Seeing them published on the LinkedIn page of a well-known journal makes it feel very immediate - and purposeful.

My approach to this project is to tackle a few summaries at a time, working in iterations to transform the really dense, often complex, language into something that is easy to read and understand. And, importantly, interesting. It's crucial that I don't alter the author's meaning, so I keep the original summary and paper abstract close to hand and compare them throughout with the evolving version. The Flesch tools in Word are really useful for assessing readability and the percentage of passive sentences. With each round, the text improves and the core message becomes clearer. Then, right at the end, post-copy-wredit, I proofread them all and do a final check of those Flesch scores.

And the best bit? I find the perfect royalty-free photo to be published with each summary. For a nerd who loves academic editing and creating posts for social media, this is surely the dream job. Long may it continue.

Andrew Hodges: 'The joy of fiction lies in carefully choosing whether to apply a style guide rule or not, case by case'

Figuring out the 'rules of the island' is my favourite editorial challenge.

What am I talking about exactly? Well, I like to think of each novel I work on as an island with its own set of rules attached. These rules govern punctuation, rhythm and flow, and other editorial concerns. While all authors - fiction and nonfiction - have their pet phrases and use punctuation slightly differently, this is much more visible in fiction, and fiction should be edited more flexibly than nonfiction, respecting these author quirks. For this reason, it's important to spend time getting to know the text and the writer's style before starting the edit.

I particularly enjoy this aspect of copyediting fiction, as it's what makes each project unique. I figure out these rules partly through an initial casual read to get a sense of the style, and also as I go, adding idiosyncrasies to the style sheet if needed. Nonfiction copyediting typically involves the stricter application of style guides, but the joy of fiction lies in carefully choosing whether to apply a style guide rule or not, case by case.

I prefer working on tightly written texts that have already had multiple editorial eyes review them. This simply isn't possible when doing a heavy line edit for an author still grappling with the basics of fiction craft, for example. Sticking with the island metaphor, it's easier to get a sense of what lies where on the island if it's relatively neatly ordered already. And so I believe there's a synergy between developmental editing and copyediting fairly polished manuscripts. When I'm hired for a light fiction copyedit, I am also spending 20-30 hours sitting with the text and reflecting on the story, too.

Ayesha Chari: 'My editing practice thrives on the challenge of strengthening bridges with words'

Challenges come in all forms - like mine just now in trying to figure out the words for this piece while staring at a blank page for inspiration. (I spent the time wisely in working out how to stop CoPilot from lending me words here taking over the world.) Building wholesome, enduring relationships and sustaining meaningful communication are complementary; both of them can be equally challenging for a gazillion reasons, not least that every individual expresses and processes messages differently.

I specialize in editing academic and scholarly texts with care. My editing practice - and by extension, my life - thrives on the challenge of strengthening bridges with words: between writers and their audience, readers and their emotions, researchers and policymakers, learners and educators, among others. Words that matter, words that spark conversations, raise difficult questions, encourage unsettling the status quo, but also care from inside out and outside in. Communicating sensitively and boldly in writing to share knowledge and ideas, imaginary worlds and stories, is key to shaping a more equitable world, present and future.

How do I meet this challenge in my work? I listen, encourage questions, stay flexible and curious, seek creative solutions and share fearlessly, all of which helps to build trust with clients and colleagues, but most importantly with the words on a page that are eager to play their part. For me, editing - in all its forms - isn't simply about correcting or modifying text to others' rules (taught diligently or absorbed unmindfully), and most certainly not to my language quirks and style preferences. It's about understanding the politics of language and making objective judgements to support consistently clear writing and presentation. About finding (new) ways to strengthen those bridges I mentioned, always collaboratively and responsibly, always in harmony with the context, and filled with the power to pay it forward, enabling meaningful engagement and strong(er) communities.

As Karen Yin, author of The Conscious Style Guide (2024) helpfully reminds us, the challenge of communicating with sensitivity is similar to editing: 'both devoted to the thoughtful preparation of content for a specific context' (p. 71). By choosing to edit scholarship, particularly interdisciplinary texts, I help academics make their research widely accessible, express ideas with clarity and take new voices to growing audiences.

Bernadette Kearns: 'I have a responsibility to ensure the text is really working at sentence and word level to support the story and the author's vision'

I love a good challenge - especially an editing one! To me, every copyedit is a challenge. Not because I find it difficult - although some edits are more challenging than others - but because of the responsibility it places on me to ensure the text is really working at sentence and word level to support the story and the author's vision. It's detailed work which requires an intense focus and connection to the text I'm working on.

So I take it slowly but surely with each project. I run consistency checkers to see what shows up and draw up a checklist to come back to as I work through later stages of the process. Applying Word styles early on not only helps me navigate the manuscript but also gives me a feel for the narrative structure and pacing. I note what pops out at me, even when I am 'just' formatting. What do I need to keep in mind for later?

Another general spellcheck pass, then, it's a deep dive into the text. I leave myself lots of time for the first chapters - they are always tricky because they are the reader's entry into the world of the book, so I need to ensure that they are 'hooking' the reader's engagement as quickly and effectively as possible. But they also help me attune to the rhythm and flow of the narrative voice. All the while I'm looking for repetitions and misspellings, and I'm making sure the text isn't working against itself by suggesting fixes for anything which is unclear or confusing or will affect the flow of the narrative or the reader's enjoyment of the story.

I work on a lot of historical fiction, so there will be fact-checking of names, dates, events, linguistic and technological anachronisms. Then it's into the final phase of running more spellchecks, consistency checkers and checking the checklist, before one final read-through and the manuscript goes back to its author all shiny and looking its best. Honestly, I love this job!

Carla DeSantis: 'In an English translation of a sixteenth-century Spanish text on the Aztecs, I ended up with a style sheet that was 55 pages long'

I most relish the challenge of editing a lengthy, complicated text, with lots of moving parts. For me, as a scholarly editor, this would mean at least a book-length (or multivolume) text with footnotes or endnotes, bibliography, multilingual content, block quotations, and possibly back matter, such as appendixes or glossaries. These kinds of texts give me something to sink my teeth into, engage various parts of my brain, and offer me the challenge of maintaining consistency and correctness across sometimes multiple contributions or thousands of pages.

I start by setting up a really good project style sheet. I begin by including the style elements that I know have to be included, either because of the client's brief or because of the prescribed style guide. The wild card usually becomes the list of terms and titles that need to be treated consistently regarding capitalization, spelling, and italicization or not (when there are non-English terms). My editing rate is much slower for the first bit of editing such a text, as I discover recurring terms that have been treated inconsistently and need to be added to the list - and frequently negotiated with the client to come to the desired form to be used throughout. Of course, the list keeps growing as editing progresses, but it is helpful to get as many of these decisions made as early as possible in order to have a basis to work from, more efficiently and thus faster.

For example, one of my favourite projects was copy and line editing the 420,000-word English translation of a sixteenth-century Spanish text on the Aztecs. By the end of the project, I ended up with a style sheet that was 55 pages long. Forty-five of those pages comprised the list of terms. This list included mainly italicized Nahuatl and Hispanicized words, and capitalized roman Nahuatl and Spanish proper names; it involved much back and forth with the client to establish which forms would be the preferred ones to be implemented consistently throughout the text, as I determined that the author had inconsistently used orthographical variations for the same terms and names (e.g. Motecuzoma, Moctezuma, Motecuhzoma; teponaztli, tepunaztli, teponahuaztli). Ultimately, because I had taken such care to get the correct forms (and their variants) catalogued in my style sheet for consistency, my list served as part of the basis for the Nahuatl glossary that was created for the project.

Debbie Emmitt: 'There can be a fine line between immersing a reader in the French setting and avoiding clichés and stereotypes!'

I specialise in editing and proofreading books set in France, thanks to my university degree and life experience. I relish the challenge of suggesting ways to improve the authenticity of the French setting, characters and language, ensuring readers will be fully immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of la belle France!

Writers of books set in France can inadvertently introduce elements of their own country and culture, pulling readers out of the fictional world and making it less authentically French. I welcome the challenge of teasing out these elements, as well as spotting missing or erroneous accent marks and misspelled French place names or words.

There can be a fine line between immersing a reader in the French setting and avoiding clichés and stereotypes!

I approach this editorial challenge by:

• drawing on my experience of having lived and worked in different French regions
• researching the accuracy of locations using Google Maps (Street View is invaluable!), image/video searches, and other online tools
• looking up French words and place names to double-check spelling, accent marks and grammar
• asking French friends about nuances, straight from the horse's mouth (or la bouche du cheval - and no, they don't really say that in France!)

I'm so grateful to be able to offer this extra element with my editing. I wish my younger self could have known she was paving the way to becoming a specialist editor of books set in France, while grappling with the French subjunctive at university and struggling to understand the southern French accent at the age of 19!

Hazel Bird: 'As an independent party, I can offer a fresh perspective, with no preconceptions'

One of my editorial specialisms is complex projects, so you could say that I simply relish any non-fiction editorial challenge!

But a particular subset of complex projects that I enjoy is ones with a tricky editorial history. Perhaps the text has been passed from author to author. Or some of it was published before, in a different format. Or there have been disagreements about its structure. Or it's just so enormous that nobody has been able to get a proper handle on it (many of my projects have word counts into the hundreds of thousands and even millions).

In such cases, I relish working with a client to understand exactly what editorial challenges the project has previously faced, and then calculating bespoke solutions.

Hiring an external expert in such situations can be powerful. As an independent party, I can offer a fresh perspective, with no preconceptions. Through analysis and careful questioning, I aim to clarify all those big, sludgy questions that have been passed from pillar to post, with nobody ever quite committing to a way forward. Working collaboratively, my goal is to identify, document and implement editorial solutions that let the essence of the work shine through and connect with its intended readers.

The implementation part is crucial. I'm not just a consultant who advises on a way forward. As a copyeditor, proofreader and editorial project manager of more than 15 years, I have deep experience putting in the hard work and concentration required to actually make a complex project happen. This means keeping meticulous records (both editorial, in the form of a style sheet, and project-based), tenaciously focusing on the next step (and then the next and the next...), and chivvying and cheerleading when required.

I know what it feels like to have a project hanging over you, draining your energy as your confidence wavers about whether the dratted thing will ever get completed. I truly relish taking that burden off my clients - hopefully reigniting their enthusiasm as they see the project finally move towards publication.

Lisa de Caux: 'I shared the technical details in a clear and understandable way so they could make an informed choice'

I enjoy researching a technical question that an author has asked, so that I ensure the answer I give them is properly supported. I 'show my workings out'. Then there's plenty to discuss if the author would like to follow up my answer to learn a bit more.

For instance, recently an author asked a question about a word they found prickly. From a technical point of view, my answer revolved around whether the word was treated as an adjective or a noun.

The choice was, of course, the author's. I shared the technical details in a clear and understandable way so they could make an informed choice. I love to support my authors - their words, their message and their voice! I'm keen to ensure they can make an informed decision. One of my key principles is giving authors enough information so that they can understand the potential impact on a reader of words and punctuation. And it's so important that readers aren't distracted by wordy niggles!

If the author wants further explanation, I'm available. Though I had an author share last year that they'd googled my technical note - we had a good laugh about that! The level of information that's needed, and wanted, varies from author to author. That's part of the challenge that I relish!

For practical purposes, I start with double-checking the relevant dictionary and style guide, which we'll have agreed before I properly get stuck in to the edit or proofread. I research further as needed. I enjoy a reason to double-check my book pile!

Paul Beverley: 'Forewarned is forearmed'

(At 76 and having recently retired from freelance editing, I will talk about the editorial challenge that I did most relish - editing a juicy technical book - but I will talk in the present tense, if I may.)

As with all my non-fiction editing jobs, I approach it by first running all sorts of computer programs (macros) that I have written that analyse the text and produce reports for me as to the potential inconsistencies - forewarned is forearmed.

I then start to build up a style sheet, based on the client preferences that I have (hopefully) been given, and the predominant language usage of the author, which the macro reports have shown me.

Next I work out which changes could be made globally (to save time and reduce distraction while reading and editing the text) and which potential changes require me to check the context before deciding on each change.

I start on the first chapter file and use macros to enact the former (definite) changes and to highlight the latter (possible) changes so that, as I read and make changes, I won't forget to check those issues. As I read that first chapter, I may realise other global changes that could be made, but I also check those that I have made: are they indeed safe? Otherwise, I transfer them to the to-be-highlighted list. All changes are tracked and/or highlighted, so nothing is missed.

Chapter by chapter the lists of changes/highlights grow, my speed increases, and I have more time to focus on the meaning and flow of each sentence. At the end of the edit, I may run some of my automatic analyses, just to check myself.

These macros are available free, and some of the training on how to use them is also free. Well, as long as I'm compos mentis, I like to have some technical/editing challenges in my life.

Sally Asnicar: 'You don't think about the mechanics of your first language until you try to explain it to someone'

Challenges aren't always something we 'relish'. They can be daunting, frustrating, time-consuming - perhaps insurmountable. As a self-employed editor since 2007, I've faced many challenges, not all editorial, and not all enjoyable. Some I overcame with aplomb, while others I blindly stumbled through. I learned from each one, though.

Here are some of the editorial challenges I've relished.

Academic editing challenges. In the mid-2000s, AusAID retained me to assist foreign students with their academic papers. The challenge was to adhere to IPEd's Standards for Editing Practice while helping ESL students tackle the quirks of the beast that is the English language. What I relished was the students' heartwarming enthusiasm to learn, and their gratitude. I learned from them, too; you don't think about the mechanics of your first language until you try to explain it to someone.

Working with new writers. Over the years I've worked with first-time, developing, and experienced writers in many genres. I liken working with a writer for the first time to a blind date. Despite conversations beforehand, and seeing a draft of their manuscript, there's always trepidation about how they'll receive my feedback and edits. But I relish working on a fresh manuscript, helping the writer convey their story to readers in the best way possible. Working with 'newbie' writers fills my cup, especially their sense of accomplishment and pride. Publishing a book is one dream I have yet to fulfil!

Big juicy projects. Nothing screams 'challenge' like a lengthy report written by multiple people who haven't followed any style guidelines (because there aren't any). What I relish is wrangling a poorly written, dubiously researched compilation of disjointed chapters into an impressive, properly referenced and consistently presented report that won't confuse, disappoint or mislead readers. I also enjoy creating, and then introducing the client to, that wondrous document: the style sheet.

Fact checking! I never assume any fact, quote, reference or spelling is correct. I check every. single. one. One challenge is when conflicting results come up, down the rabbithole I go and time is lost. But when I pinpoint something isn't right - booyah! I don't enjoy proving the client wrong - that would be smug and mean; I relish ensuring they get it right. This can save them embarrassment if a reader (who might be smug and mean) points out they got it wrong, or worse still, gives them a poor review because of it.

The Proof Pros are all independent contributors. Each person's words are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by the other contributors.