Courier was designed to look like the older typewriter output, which was itself designed to strike well rather than be readable. I personally don't like Times either, though I concede that it looks better on high-quality printed output than on the screen. When editing text (as opposed to doing the page layout for desktop publishing), it makes sense to use a font that is readable on-screen when editing, and a font that looks good in print when producing hard copy. Perhaps use a totally different font when copy-editing.
@ Elgaisma and Spacer: I've heard it's the contrast that's hard on the eyes, so dark grey on light grey or blue on yellow is better than black on white. Haven't heard about earth tones, but that sounds similarly beneficial. *shrug* It's a bit academic, though; I've never had issues with reading a lot, so I'm quoting from other people who seemed to know what they were saying. This has been a really neat thread; I'm picking up tips all over the place. A sheet of words / spellings unique to the story sounds incredibly useful, as does the idea of printing the story-to-be-edited out in some unfamiliar font. The one thing I've found weird is that several people have mentioned difficulties with catching spelling and punctuation mistakes, particularly when the person editing gets caught up in the story. Is this a general thing? My experience has been entirely different. I mean, maybe I'm weird, but it doesn't matter how caught up in the story I am; I still catch most (I'd say 99% or more) errors immediately, on the first pass through. I even catch errors in published books. Is this just a matter of skimming versus reading each word? Of familiar versus unfamiliar material? Or is my brain just weird? (It wouldn't be the first time.)
I think it is a specific talent. As a software developer, I have practiced a much stronger sense of grammar and correct punctuation. On a printed page, a mismatched parenthesis might as well be red. Bad punctuation or malformed sentences (like most advertising copy) is like grinding the gears of my mind's "reading engine".
Well, I found this thread and had problems fixing my own mistakes. I even read my work forward and backwards, and even printed them out. Most my critics tell me that they are not readable. I just came across my novella and thought that there are still hidden spelling errors, and it seems that my novel will never be readable. I got tired of trying to make it readable and make the chapters make sense. So I thought about hiring a copy editor before I can get it published, I wanted to hire a 'professional' editor. I want to move further in the writing a critique process of my work, such as plot creation, character development and so on. Instead, my critics would only see the grammar errors and forget about the other problems. Has anyone here ever hired a copy editor? If anyone done so, what are some tips I need to know to hire a copy editor, and where can I find one? Does it have to be publishable in order for the book to be proofread by someone else rather than just myself? I am getting to the point that I will do anything to get my book readable, at least, so I can get an understanding on how to construct scenes and other elements of writing from other people rather than just the getting answers about the surface of the book.
Paying for reputable editing is very costly. Honestly, your grammar and spelling are a part of your writing. You're severely lessening your chance of success if you think you can just supply the ideas and plot, and let someone else worry about whether it grammatically readable. If people are saying it's sloppy, unreadable, or only focusing on 'little' mistakes, then you're getting the feedback you need. It's a funny thing with editing. Most editors edit stuff that is already pretty close to not needing editing. What you'd be asking for is a proof reader, and any editor worth a damn is going to scoff at being your proof reader. It sucks, but the best advice I have is to work on your language skills. Find some books on grammar, keep looking at your manuscript until you've figured out how to make yourself find the mistakes, etc. It may not make sense, but your manuscript won't need editing until you think it doesn't.
i am one and people hired me in my old 'write for money' life... i now do it for free... 1. it's money down the drain... 2. it's hard to find a good/legit one among the many poor-to-scamming ones out there... 3. as a new writer, you need to learn to do it on your own... if it's publishable, then it won't need editing beyond the missed typo and whatever your publisher may want changed...
