The final pass through your manuscript to catch typos, formatting errors, and small inconsistencies before it goes out into the world.
Proofreading is the last stage of the editing process, where you (or a professional) comb through the manuscript looking for surface-level errors: typos, misspellings, punctuation mistakes, formatting problems, and minor inconsistencies. It's not about restructuring scenes or refining voice. It's about polish.
A single typo on page one can make a reader question your credibility for the next three hundred pages. Proofreading is the difference between a manuscript that feels professional and one that feels rushed. It's the easiest editing stage to skip and the most embarrassing one to have skipped.
Your brain fills in what it expects to see, not what's actually on the page. Wait at least 24 hours, or better yet, a week. Fresh eyes catch what tired ones miss.
Proofreading fixes surface errors, not structural problems. If your story has pacing issues or flat characters, no amount of comma correction will save it. Do your developmental and line editing first.
Spell-check won't catch 'their' when you meant 'there,' or a character whose name changes spelling halfway through Chapter 12. Read every word yourself, ideally out loud.
Your accuracy drops dramatically after about 30 minutes. Break it into chunks and take real breaks between sessions. Your attention span is a limited resource.
Print out (or export to PDF) the first three pages of your current project. Read them backward, sentence by sentence, starting from the last sentence on page three. Mark every error you find. Then compare that list to what you catch reading normally from the start. Notice the difference?