While to many it may seem like an arduous and thankless task, I love proofreading. It may be an unexpected thing to find joy in, but nonetheless I have a strange and powerful attraction to the art of finding errors in other people's writing. It goes all the way back to high school, when we used to trade papers with the other students in class to 'proofread' our essays or what not. I had a red pen and I loved to use it.  I so enjoyed it that I flirted with the idea of becoming a teacher, solely so I could mark up my students' work. It didn't seem like a good enough reason in the end.
My proofreading joy is not a vindictive one, don't worry. I don't revel in making other people feel less because they've used the incorrect spelling of 'their'. In fact I make similar, silly mistakes in my own writing all the time. It happens. For me, I love proofreading because it's like a game. Like a puzzle that needs to be solved. And in the end I make someone else's writing stronger, which I find really rewarding. It's why I'm a big fan of editing for others as well.
I learned how to properly proofread in university during my BA. I had an excellent publishing instructor who taught me all the ins and outs of the proofreading game. She gave us these work sheets every week that I'd devour like puzzles out of a Sudoku book. Her lessons have stuck with me to this day.
If you've previously read my blog, you probably know that after I finished my BA, I moved to the UK to do a Master's in Publishing. Here I undertook even further training in proofreading and even received a distinction on my proofreading exam. 
So you could say I'm pretty well trained in proofreading, although nothing is better than real world practice - which I've been getting over the past year as a freelance proofreader and editor. I also do quite a bit of editing and proofreading in my day job. But as much as I enjoy it, and as well as I do it, I'm not the best at proofreading my own work. Chances are, you aren't either. When you've created something, you're too close to it to see the minute flaws. I know some amazing writers who are fantastic proofreaders as well, but they have the same issue. They can't pick up mistakes in their own writing.
Proofreading is important, and I highly advocate hiring someone to look over your work before you put it out there.  After all, you want to present your work to the world in its best possible form. And not only that, but proofreading may mean the difference between someone choosing to buy your book or not. I've seen people reject books because of glaring proofreading errors.
When I published Starkissed I couldn't afford to hire a proofreader, so I did it myself, to the tune of over 7 read-throughs. That's a lot of time people – days worth.  And even with all that work, errors still slipped through. I won't be doing that again with my next book!
As you can see, I understand that it's not always possible to hire someone to do the proofreading or editing for you. So, if that's the case, I'd like to help you out by passing on a few tips on how to proofread that I've found highly useful in my proofreading endeavors – both when looking over my own work and that of others.
8 Tips for Proofreading
1. Print it out – Don't just stare at the screen when proofreading. By printing your pages out, you'll give yourself a brand new view of the work, and you'll likely pick up errors you'd never have seen on screen.  Make sure when you print, that you've selected a serif font, such as Times New Roman instead of something sans serif, like Arial. Your eyes will be able to read this easier in print. As well, give yourself plenty of space for marking your copy by at least 1.5 spacing the lines, if not double spacing.
2. Learn proofreading marks – Proofreading marks are wonderful tools that are sadly being lost as more and more people edit on screen with track changes. But when you're working with a pen and paper, they are incredibly useful. It's all well and good to go through your manuscript and simply circle and underline the problems you find, but after 200 pages you might find yourself wondering exactly why something is circled. Proofreading marks are specific and dead useful. I suggest picking up a copy of The Copy Editor's Handbook by Amy Einsohn. It was one of the texts we used in my undergrad and I found it to be a fantastic tool in learning marks. The Chicago Manual of Style also has a great list of marks. As well, there are some great resources online that can teach you. 
3. Read aloud – Take it slow and read every single word out loud as you go through your manuscript. You'll be amazed at how hearing your words out loud can help you pick up on things you're eyes simply aren't seeing. It's particularly useful for finding missing words and places where punctuation is lacking.  
4. Read one line at a time – Whenever I read Harry Potter, I know what's coming and before I've even finished a sentence, my eyes start skimming the paragraph below in excitement. The same will probably happen when you read your own work. You know what's coming and thus your eyes may leap and bound across the page. To stop this from happening, cover the rest of the page with a sheet of paper, or at least use a ruler, and move it down with each line that you complete. It will stop your eyes from jumping all over the place and will force you to focus on what's right in front of you.
5. Get a style guide – The Chicago Manual of Style is a beast. It's heavy and thick and the pages are thin and plenty. But it is packed full of useful information and most likely will answer the majority of your questions – whether they're about capitalization or titles or whether or not to spell out numbers. It's my preferred style guide and I've found it to be my best friend when editing and proofreading. It's not the only style guide out there, of course, there are plenty if you search online. However, The Chicago Manual of Style is widely used and trusted – particularly in North America.
6. Make your own style guide – This is something you can do through all stages of the creation of your manuscript – from writing to editing to proofreading. Every time you make style choice, or look something up in a style guide – make a note of it. If you're writing in British English, or American English – put that in. If you're using a serial comma (which I highly recommend), make a note of it too. If you're spelling a certain word a certain way, put that in.  It will be useful for consistency later when you find that half your words are spelt one way, and half the other. Consistency is important and if you've written out 'twenty-five' in chapter two, but then in chapter five have put '25' – it shows a lack of consistency, which is sloppy.  All you need to do is open a second document alongside your manuscript and make notes as you go along. It will save you tons of time in the long run. And bonus, when you're writing your next manuscript, you can use it use it all over again. That way you won't have to spend more time deciding whether or not to capitalize Your Highness or not (The Chicago Manual of Style says yes).
7. Take your time – While you may be on a roll and it may seem just fine to blaze through all of your proofreading in a single day, I don't advocate it. You need to take breaks and let your brain recharge. You'll start to overload and all the sentences will start blurring together, which will make you miss things. When I proofread I generally work for two hours, then take a short break, and go back. And once I've completed a pass of a manuscript, I abandon it for a few days before I do the next pass. That way when you're completing the second pass, the words aren't as fresh in your mind and it gives you a bit of distance so you can reread without knowing exactly what's coming next. This, of course, is easier when it's someone else's work, as it's not as familiar as your own. Still, let yourself have the time. Your brain will appreciate it.
8. Do it again – Proofreading takes time. Good proofreading takes quite a bit of it. When I proofread for others, I do two passes. One on paper and one on screen. To complete both passes it takes me an average of 12-16 hours for a novel of 200-300 pages (without the addition of breaks). If the novel needs a lot of work, understandably it will likely take more time. Don't short change yourself on time when proofreading. At the minimum give your manuscript two looks over, and more if you can manage it. The beauty of printing your work out for the first pass is that it will force you to do a second pass when inputting your changes on screen. But make sure when you're inputting those changes, that you're going through the manuscript with a close eye all over again. Don't just skip ahead to the next error you've already marked.
I hope these tips are of great use to you writers out there. As I said previously, I really advocate hiring someone to do your proofreading. It's incredibly difficult to proofread your own work and an outside eye can be so valuable at this stage, especially if you hire someone who is practiced at proofreading and knows what to look for.
If you'd like more information on my proofreading services, pop over to www.gabrielsonpublishing.com or email me at either brynnagabrielson@gmail.com, or gabrielsonpublishing@gmail.com.