Bittersweet Candy Bowl Forums

Are you literate?

Are you able to recognise poorly-written sentences?

Do you think proofreading is a little more than reaching for spell check?

Have you an eagle eye for story inconsistencies and other small mistakes?

Well do I have the job for you. Recently I went through the 200 or so pages that are being prepared for Volume 2's printing, making small notes and highlighting problems along the way. Not rudimentary stuff like spelling mistakes, just "this is unclear!" or "this would be more powerful if you took off the second sentence". The intent is to serve Veronica with an annotated copy which she can refer to as she reads through the comic herself, making corrections wherever necessary.

If you think you have something to bring to the table, I'd love to get your help.

It took me a few solid hours, but I think I caught the most of what's wrong with these 18 or so chapters, so it might not be so hard for you. I have a PDF I'd be happy to send people who are willing to go through it. (Got an iPad? It's a great tool for this.)

As with the previous book's process, all I want is for a potential proofreader to just go through the comic (assuming all the corrections I've applied have been applied) and make a plain text list of suggestions, like:

Quote

et cetera.

For those interested, let me know in this thread, and if I don't know you already, give me some indication you can do a useful job! There's no big deadline but to get a returned copy within a week would be ideal

ONE OTHER THING ABOUT THE BOOK DESIGN: I'm not sure whether it'll look cheap to use the same design for Volume Two as I used for Volume One. i.e. chapter title pages and table of contents and so on. Am I being weird to assume that the aesthetic of the second book should be different? This is not a question of what you'll tolerate, it's a question of what makes for a more perfect book.

I think sticking to the previous design would work in favor of maintaining consistency. It doesn't have to have to have an EXACT look, but if you can find a different theme that sticks with the same core idea, you should be able introduce something fresh into the mix. For example, the table of contents could be displaying the chapters this way, and the extras list at the end could be shown that way, to give the type of content some distinction rather than just a simple numbered listing. Brainstorm something if you feel you can improve upon what you have.

I wouldn't mind helping out here. Due to the fact that I have quite a few free days in my weeks, I'd have allot of time to go over any possible suggestions in the chapters.

RedJack, on 30 April 2012 - 06:42 AM, said:

If it is for this week I could help proofread as I will not be at work for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday so I should have some spare time to help as much as I am able

What would you require to confirm that I am able to proofread adequately?

Nothing in particular.

I might be able to help you out with this.

I may be able to help you. I enjoy being able to provide critique when I can, and I have a huge amount of free time. I'm not sure how you'd prefer to have feedback delivered, but here's one that's been on my mind for a while...

Pillow Talk, Page 2:
Panel 6 - at first, the "Get a brain moran" poster makes me think it's the message of the note.

This post has been edited by FuzzWool: 30 April 2012 - 10:37 AM

I think you should keep the same interface for the second book, for consistency.

It will feel more like part of the same thing.

I'm not so sure about writing skills in general, but I can go over any and all grammar/spelling errors. I don't know about how much I'll be able to actually contribute, though, because of my upcoming European history exam I'm supposed to be working on.
With regards to the design of the second book, I think you should keep a similar design to the first (roughly the same physical size, chapter title pages, maybe redraw a few chapters) in favor of consistency.

This post has been edited by Johnny Hurricane: 30 April 2012 - 11:18 AM

I think this is a good idea. When I was reading through the first book, there were definitely moments where I felt the dialogue could have been improved for clarity and flow. So to look at that aspect for the second book would help to make it even better.

I've just now finished up a big project at work, so now I have a bit more free time than before. Feel free to send me a link to that PDF so I don't copy the things you've already noted.

As for the design of volume two, I find nothing wrong with using the same basic format for consistency. This is assuming the chapter title pages will once again contain images related to that chapter, or the previous one. Since volume two is in colour, colour could be used as a distinguishing feature. For example, the chapter title page backgrounds could be different colours, perhaps to signify the different moods of each chapter.

Yes, I'll be doing stuff with colours.

The standard should be higher for Volume Two. The first book was filled with so many problems that I was glad to fix, but at a certain point we had to cut our losses and leave it as it was. Volume Two had a surprising amount of stuff I disagreed with - I can really tell that I was lazier and less likely to get Veronica to rewrite stuff back then - but I am pretty happy with how it'll read once my corrections are posted. So any tweaks to make it even closer to perfect would be ideal.

Anyway, I just PM'd everybody in this thread who expressed interest in helping. Thank you for the input!

Feel free to post in response to that design question, though. Isn't the big text, simple illustration look going to seem plain in a full-colour book?

I guess if you really wanted to, and had the time, you could have better, more detailed illustrations. Simple text is fine though, it's just chapter titles. The font is fine for that.

I guess I wouldn't mind taking a look and giving my input. However I have a dead serious two day math exam coming up on Thursday-Friday worth nearly 100% of my final mark for all math courses btw gr 10-12. I literally have no time until midday Saturday, but I would really like to help. If you are still looking for proofreading at that time, PM me sometime over the weekend, I will do my best.

I also have my upcoming AP European history exam. If I do bad on this exam, then I have to take European History again when I'm in college. I won't have much spare time until the weekend, and not a lot of free time until after the exam, which is next friday.

I would love to provide you a hand, if you want my help. Could I have the PDF SuitCase? Latelly I'm a bit busy, but in a week I guess I can proof read at least half of the matherial, if not all.

Volgrand, The Swimmer, I have PM'd you.

Not sure if it's too late, but I'm a huge fan of the comic, the weekend its coming up, I don't have much to do, so I'd be willing to help!

I'm now looking for anyone who is particularly sensitive to British\American spelling differences. If words like travelling, strategising and flavouring stand out to you, can you do a quick pass of the book for us? Veronica has finished updating all the pages with the suggestions I made (some inspired from the results of this thread) and so it's in a close to "final" state.

Canadian orthography is a mix of British and American. So 'travelling' and 'flavouring' are fine, but we write 'strategizing'. Though of course we'll swallow American spellings if they're given to us.

Maybe best to leave this job to a literate American, if you can find one of those.

I'm incredibly bad at this myself. I tend to British spellings but I also accept and use some American spellings, so my brain is not attuned to seeing the words stand out.

Oh god I FUCKING LOVE PROOFREADING. ;0; I use American spelling. PM me please? I only just started my senior year and it's very lax, so I have time.

Hey, that would be great. I will send you a PDF tonight.

I study American Literature at uni (not language/proofreading, unfortunately in your case). If RC needs any help, I'd be happy to assist.

(Edit: keep in mind, I'm just a 2nd year at Chicago, so I'm no professional. Neither in trade nor experience.)

This post has been edited by Moosack: 18 August 2012 - 01:38 AM