INVISIBLE: REFLECTIONS ON STYLE CORRECTION

For Miguel Ángel Asturias, the novelist's job was to make the invisible visible with words. Book professionals know that proofreaders, on the contrary, should not be perceptible. An old master proofreader used to say that his work was entirely sanitary: odorless, colorless, impalpable and silent. It is true, no other hand should be noticeable in the writer's work. How many times have we heard that a book or a writer needs a good proofreader; but we do not hesitate to exclaim: how well corrected this book is! The reason is that readers do not have the manuscript to check it and, sometimes, between what the authors deliver and what is published, there is a long and winding road. Invisibles. Reflections on Proofreading is a thank you to those who take care and polish the texts, to those professionals of the arts who are as essential as they are removed from the spotlight and, unfortunately, on many occasions, from the editorial credits.