Well also in this day and age you’ll also need proof readers. Although these are a one shot thing, as you want to go through the rules as a new customer (so it’s best not to have been part of any playtest group) so that you don’t make assumptions as you are familiar with the game. You’ll need to find a willing volunteer each time you do a new version of the rules for the best effect.

Another thing just before going to print is take the proofs down to a local club with a large notepad (or preferably an audio recording device) and make careful notes of what questions the players ask of the designer and any discussions they have between each other on interpreting the rules (alas I’ve a gut feeling many KS rules designers don’t go outside of their Beta test group to do this these days). If you can find a group of diehard RAW tourney players all the better (as they usually try the “break” the game with RAW to gain just about any advantage (so good for a balance review)).

I used to be a technical author for software packages, we’d usually send the manual out about a week before to the testers and then invite them into the office to see/use the software for the first time (we’d also videotape the whole thing for review later). And we’d also put testers in front of the machine with a manual in one go (as most users actually don’t go through a manual unless they hit a problem). I always remember when you joined the company, the boss would give you a keyboard key cap with “any” embossed on it. As he had a support call with a user who admittedly wasn’t using English as their first language but had spent 15 minutes looking for the “any” key as the manual said “Now hit any key” (lesson here was pay attention to all the details no matter how minor, we also changed all the manuals to say “Now hit the space bar” :D).