Frequently Asked Questions

Proof Positive will never use any AI software in any way for our editing services, and we don’t subcontract. AI does not understand spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules, it doesn’t understand context, and it can’t grasp the meaning behind what you’ve written. Many authors have ended up with manuscripts loaded with errors due to AI editing. That will never happen to you with Proof Positive.

Yes, and we encourage you to do so. You can send up to five double-spaced pages from anywhere in your book, including the middle. Although it’s difficult to do a developmental edit on a short sample, you’ll see our commenting style as well as our copyediting and proofreading changes.

Sample edits are free, except if you want to send a longer sample, in which case there will be a per word charge according to which service you’d like us to provide. For example, some authors prefer to send a full chapter for a sample edit instead of five pages.

Please contact us via the Contact page, and we’ll get back to within two business days.. 

Typical turnaround time for a 4,000 or fewer word newsletter is usually two business days, while fiction and nonfiction manuscripts are typically completed two to three weeks after the agreed-upon start date, depending on the word count. If you need your manuscript faster than our standard turnaround, ask us about our expedited read rate.

– We work on fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, short stories, poetry, blog posts, articles, websites, newsletters, and educational materials. Don’t see your work listed here? Contact us with a description of your materials.

– Fiction genres include but are not limited to fantasy, science fiction, romance, romantasy, romcom, mystery, crime, and horror. Look at our catalog page to see some of the published books we’ve worked on.

Use the contact form to submit the details of your project. Within two business days, you will receive a response with your quote. If you have any special requests or questions, please feel free to include them on the contact form.

• If you are a first-time client submitting a fiction or nonfiction manuscript over 40,000 words, you will receive a 10% discount off of the service of your choice (one time only discount).
• After getting a developmental edit and/or copyedit, if you stay with Proof Positive for your final proofread, you’ll receive a 15% discount.
• If you refer other authors to Proof Positive and they hire us to work on their manuscript, you will receive a 10% discount off your next manuscript.

Proof Positive accepts PayPal payments only. You can pay us in full before we begin work, or you can send half of your payment before we begin work and half the day before we return your manuscript. If you book us far enough in advance, you’ll have the additional option of payment broken down into thirds.

The service agreement is included in your invoice. Once you’ve paid in full or paid your first installment, you can email your document to ProofPositivePro [at] gmail.com. We begin work only after payment or partial payment is received. See the FAQ below for acceptable formats.

We accept both Word and Pages formats, which we work on using Track Changes and Comments. Not sure how to use Track Changes? Find instructions here. If you are visually impaired, we are happy to work with Scrivener for Mac. We can also work with Google Docs using Suggest Edits mode, as long as the author agrees not to make any changes until we complete our edit. We can also mark up PDF documents (proofreading only).

Have a different format? Contact us—we are flexible!

Your work is never shared and is not stored via cloud or a file storage service. The documents you send to us are stored on our antivirus-protected computers and multiple USB drives to ensure that even a computer crash won’t stop us from meeting our deadlines.

We will absolutely never share any of your uncorrected work or our comments on social media or anywhere else. We believe this is an unethical, unprofessional practice, and we respect the incredible amount of trust required for an author to share their work with an editor. 

Just to reconfirm, we never use any AI to check your manuscript. AI doesn’t understand how to interpret sentences or use rules from manuals of style. It also gets spellings, meanings of words, tenses, plural vs. singular, grammar, punctuation, and many other things wrong. Human eyes are the only way to be sure that your work is read with all the rules in mind, knowing how to use them and when they don’t apply, while considering your intent, deeper meaning, and nuance each time we make a change or suggestion.

We use Chicago Manual of Style unless otherwise requested, and we are members of the CMOS website so that we can keep up with changes as they are made. We refer to multiple dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster, Oxford English Dictionary, and Collins. If your work requires a specialized dictionary, we have been known to track down resources like A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs; Ancient Customs from the Fourteenth Century; and the 1850 edition of Webster’s Dictionary.

You can ask us questions about your manuscript any time. We’re aware that many authors don’t get a chance to go through their whole manuscript right away, so we’re happy to respond whenever you get around to sending your questions.

After the editing process is complete and your manuscript has been returned, there may be areas you want to rewrite or change. You can send us up to ten double-spaced pages of changes, and we’ll proofread them for free. Anything from individual sentences to whole paragraphs or scenes. If you’d like us to proofread more than ten double-spaced pages, it only costs $1 per additional page.

At our discretion, you may receive the following methods of publicity:

• a book launch blog post on Proof Positive’s website and social media
• a guest post by you on Proof Positive’s website
• your cover art permanently posted on Proof Positive’s website with a link to where readers can buy it