The last pass before publication is a sequence rather than a shopping list, and getting the sequence right matters more than getting the products right. Every check depends on the ones before it, and doing them out of order means redoing work: correcting text after formatting, formatting after uploading, checking a file that is not the one you will publish.
This guide is the schedule. Which kind of tool catches which kind of error, and what to buy if you can only buy one thing, is the other half of the decision, and it is set out by error class in best tools for checking a finished manuscript. Read that one to choose; read this one to work out when each choice runs.
The order, with what each stage needs
| Stage | Check | Named tool | What it costs to do this one late |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Names and invented terms | The Novel Kit, or manual lists and search | A global rename after typesetting means reflowing the interior |
| 2 | Markers, brackets, doubled words | Word or LibreOffice search, with wildcards | Little, but a stray note found in a proof still costs a rebuild |
| 3 | Formatting faults | Formatting marks in Word or LibreOffice | Every export made before this one is scrap |
| 4 | Spelling and grammar | LanguageTool, Grammarly or ProWritingAid, or the offline Hemingway Editor desktop application | Interrupts the reading pass if it is still running during stage five |
| 5 | Typos and dropped words | Word's Read Aloud, the spoken content in macOS and iOS, or Balabolka. Speechify and NaturalReader for better voices | A second full read, because the pass has to be done on settled text |
| 6 | Continuity | A person reading. Marlowe, Fictionary and Aeon Timeline each cover a slice | The most expensive of all: a fix here can move scenes |
| 7 | Verify the fixes landed | Re-run stage one, on the same tool | Nothing, and skipping it is how a half-finished rename ships |
| 8 | Export and check each format | Kindle Previewer, Calibre and Sigil, plus a device you own | Nothing if the text is settled, a full rebuild of every format if it is not |
| 9 | Metadata and description | Publisher Rocket for keywords and categories. The copy is yours | Nothing: it depends on no other stage and can be written at any point |
The named options, and what each one is
One row per product, with the licence shape rather than a figure, because prices in this category move and the individual reviews are where they are checked. Everything here is either reviewed on this site or named in an article that says what kind of tool it is.
| Tool | Runs at | What it is | What rules it out |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Novel Kit | Stages 1 and 7, part of 3 | A rule-based whole-manuscript scan of names, invented terms, capitalisation and hyphenation, with counts and first appearances. Passes, or an annual plan | No grammar, no prose analysis, no continuity, no file validation |
| LanguageTool | Stage 4 | Rule-based grammar and spelling, free tier plus paid Premium, with self-hosting documented | Premium's paraphrasing is generative, and self-hosting needs technical support |
| Grammarly | Stage 4 | Grammar and style wherever you type, free tier plus paid | Rule-based and generative features are blended, so you cannot buy only the first |
| ProWritingAid | Stage 4, and prose habits | Grammar, a consistency report and a large style and pacing report set. Free tier, subscription, or bought outright | Several of its features are generative, and the report volume overwhelms |
| PerfectIt | Stage 4, ordinary English only | Consistency against a house style you define, inside Word. Subscription | It knows nothing about invented vocabulary, which is what stage one exists for |
| Hemingway Editor | Stage 4 | Readability on fixed criteria. The desktop application is a one-time purchase and works offline | A single lens, and applied literally to fiction it flattens voice |
| Marlowe | Stage 6, partly | A developmental report on a finished manuscript, benchmarked against published novels, which never generates text. Per report, or a subscription | It reports patterns rather than judgements, and it settles nothing about whether a pattern is a fault |
| Fictionary | Stage 6, partly | Structural editing scene by scene against defined story elements. Subscription, with a trial that needs no card | It asks the work of you rather than answering, and it addresses structure rather than continuity |
| Aeon Timeline | Stage 6, chronology only | Story time modelled against narrative order, on the desktop, bought once | It never reads your prose, so it checks the model rather than the book |
| Kindle Previewer | Stage 8 | Free Amazon software that renders the uploaded file in device views. KDP recommends validating in it before upload | Kindle only, and it tells you nothing about the EPUB other stores receive |
| Calibre and Sigil | Stage 8 | Free and open source. Calibre converts, edits metadata and shows what a file actually contains; Sigil edits EPUB directly | Neither formats a book for you, and both expect you to read markup |
| Publisher Rocket | Stage 9 | Amazon keyword, category and competitor research, bought once rather than subscribed to | Everything it does can be done by hand with the Amazon search bar and patience, and it writes no copy |
| A proofreader or continuity reader | Stages 5 and 6 | A person, reading | Cost and lead time, which is why their calendar sets your schedule |
Stage seven is the one everyone skips and it's cheap: a second extraction after corrections shows whether a rename or a variant fix actually landed everywhere.
The three dependencies that fix the order
Most of the sequence is preference. Three parts of it are not, and they are the reason the list is numbered at all.
- Text before format. Anything that changes wording invalidates the layout, so stages one to six all sit ahead of stage three's final run and ahead of any export.
- Settled text before the long read. A reading or listening pass done while corrections are still arriving is a pass you'll repeat, because you cannot tell afterwards which version you read.
- Export before the device check, and never the reverse. The file a reader gets is the file you check. Reading the manuscript on a tablet proves nothing about the EPUB you upload.
Everything else can be shuffled. Stage nine in particular depends on nothing, so write the description and the metadata during the waiting: while a proofreader has the file, or between the export and the device arriving at it.
When a fix arrives after the export
It will, and the mistake is patching the exported file. Change the source document, export every format again from it, and keep a short note of which formats have been rebuilt since the last text change. One line in a text file is enough, and it's what stops a corrected paperback shipping beside an uncorrected ebook. Then repeat stage eight only, since the text stages have not moved.
If the budget is zero
- Stage one settles the largest category of invisible error. There's no free product that does it properly, so the zero-budget version is a manual list built with search, which is slow and easy to do incompletely.
- Stage four, on LanguageTool's free tier or your word processor's own checker.
- Stage five, using Word's Read Aloud, the spoken content built into macOS and iOS, or Balabolka on Windows. This is the most effective proofreading available at any price.
- Stage eight, with Kindle Previewer, Calibre and Sigil, on a device you own. All three are free and they find what no file check alone can.
Those four cost nothing but time and they cover the majority of what reaches readers.
If the budget is not zero
Spend it on the stages only a person covers: a professional proofreader for stage five done properly, or a continuity reader for stage six. Those are the stages no tool addresses, and they are where money buys something you cannot produce yourself. Book them early, because a proofreader's calendar, not your schedule, usually sets when stages seven to nine happen.
If there is money left after that, the order to spend it in is the order of what is still uncovered. A book with a large invented vocabulary has stage one uncovered and no general checker will ever cover it, so a whole-manuscript terminology scan is the buy. A book with no invented vocabulary should put the same money into ProWritingAid or PerfectIt, which cover stage four and ordinary English consistency in one purchase. Publisher Rocket is the last one to buy and the easiest to defer, because stage nine can be done by hand.
Where this product fits
The Novel Kit is stages one and seven: a rule-based scan returning every proper noun and unusual term with counts and first appearances, identical on every run, on manuscript files and EPUBs alike. That identical-on-every-run part is what makes stage seven work at all, since two runs of the same book can be compared line for line. Its typography check carries part of stage three, straight quotes, doubled hyphens and stray double spaces; beyond that it does not do stages two to six or nine, and knowing that is the point of a buying guide. The full boundary is in what a manuscript scan does not replace.
A practical next step
Write the nine stages into your schedule with dates, working backwards from the publication day and putting stage six first in the diary because it is the one that needs somebody else. The order is the deliverable here; the products are secondary.
Sources checked
- Best tools for checking a finished manuscript
- How long does final proofing take
- How many proofreading passes
Frequently asked questions
Can any of the nine stages run in parallel?
The metadata and the sales description can be written whenever, and they are the obvious thing to do while somebody else has the file. Nothing else overlaps well: eight of the nine stages either change the text or read it, and doing both at once leaves you unsure which version you approved.
How much should this cost?
It can cost nothing except your time. A professional proofread is the only item with a substantial price, and it is the one worth the money.
What if I can only do three things?
Terminology extraction, a listening pass, and reading the exported file on a device. Named, that is a whole-manuscript terminology scan, free text to speech such as Word's Read Aloud or Balabolka, and Kindle Previewer plus a device you own. Those three catch the most for the least.