1. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    Do I need a proofread?

    Discussion in 'Self-Publishing' started by Bakkerbaard, Feb 10, 2022.

    Okay, obviously I need a proofread. But is that exactly what I need right now?
    Here's the situation:

    Translated my book from English to Dutch. Machine translation at first, then I went over it for the human touch, then my girlfriend went over it with me to question every three words.
    But the problem is that because we both know how any given part of the story looked in a proper English, it's sometimes hard to find the proper Dutch expressions for things, so I'm gonna need one more objective eye.

    That eye would ideally pick out the typos that escaped, the commas which may be out of place, and see if any word choices could be Dutched up.
    There is no editing necessary, obviously. The story stands, nothing needs to be changed there.

    What am I looking for now? Because I just got an offer from a proofreader for 720 dollars, which makes me think I'm barking up the wrong tree.
    I know at 102 thousand words I can expect a price with a capital P, which is another thing. Can't find even one that goes over 5000 words in their original gigs.
     
  2. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, you do. You need a native speaker to go over it and make sure it makes sense in Dutch.
     
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  3. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    Well, I am a native speaker. I know the words make sense.
    But I can dream the bloody story by now, which is the problem. I need fresh eyes on it, but now I wonder if a proofreader is overkill. Money is generally not an issue, but at 720 it's even more expensive than the cover artist. That can't be right, can it?
     
  4. Lili.A.Pemberton

    Lili.A.Pemberton Active Member

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    Well, I don't know how it works in Dutch, but I know in America most freelance proofreaders charge around .01 per word, which 720 for 102,000 words seems a bit cheap, so...
     
  5. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    That's exactly what she gave me. 0.01 cents a word. But because it seemed to her there wouldn't be that much work in it she took some off the price. Still, it seems steep. Can't make sense of it, what with even the usually high priced services like editing and cover design coming in cheaper.
     
  6. Cdn Writer

    Cdn Writer Contributor Contributor

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    Currently Reading::
    TRYING (!!!) to read Eric Flint's "Ring of Fire" series.......it's soooo many books!!!!!
    I would recommend it.

    I was looking for my own work and I see ProofReadingServices.com has 0.85 cents per word so their example is $1,020 for 120,000 words.

    Compared to that, $720 seems cheap.

    I don't know........if you have the money, if you can write this off on your taxes as a writing expense, and if it helps your book to sell.....I think you can look at it as an investment in the book. It can't hurt your chances of selling and it may even help.
     
  7. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    What you are describing is, IMHO, more than proofreading. Proofreading picks up misspellings, punctuation, and typographical errors. In my experience, anyway, proofreading assumes that the author knows what words he/she wants to use. A proofreader might pick up "there" instead of "their," but if you used a word that's correct in Dutch I would not expect a proofreader to change that. That's (IMHO) getting into copy editing.
     
  8. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    I completely forgot about this thread.
    Just to properly close this thread:

    I went with the lady. She went above and beyond.
    We agreed on a little less than the 720, but damn, she was worth every single cent of it. Gave her a tip that put it back up around the initial price too. She did far more than just proofread. Picked out all the misspellings, rearranged sentences into proper Dutch, shone some light on structural issues. Hell, she corrected so much correctly that I'm now wondring if I actually speak Dutch at all.
    I'd give her name, but I don't think there's a lot of need for a Dutch proofer here, and I think that would make this post an advertisement.
     
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  9. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    Thank you for the closure. I'm glad you are happy with the service.

    Be sure to let us know how the book is received.
     
  10. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    Well... I like it very much, so... Yeah.

    Actually, I managed to emotionally blackmail round about fifty people into buying the English version. I expect to get maybe five Dutch ones into the world.
    But at least I'll have something to tallk about next family get-together.

    Expect questions about promotion in the near future...
     
    B.E. Nugent likes this.

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