Proofreading

orphiel

I keep thinking of doing proofreading on the side to earn some extra money, but all those adverts in the papers for Chapterhouse etc. make me a bit wary. I kind of assume I'll have to do a course to get a bit of paper saying I can do it first, but having done that, does anyone know if it is actually easy to get jobs, or is the market pretty full?

Any experiences?

Meg

PS stop spell-checking my post :P

Zedkay

I suspect there's a lot of competition for proofreading jobs purely because of the rise and rise of proofreading courses. And I also suspect you need a track record in editing/proofreading if you're to land the jobs. Usual Catch 22. I work as a freelance editor and the jobs I tend to land are those which come via writing contacts and friends. I've given up 'pitching' for advertised jobs because I'm not prepared to work for peanuts.

Sorry to sound negative.

orphiel

Don't worry ZK, negative is good if it stops me from spending money on a course I can't use

homeworkeruk

The Society for Editors and Proofreaders is the best place to start for information. You'll find them at http://www.sfep.org.uk/ They offer courses that will be recognised in the industry as do http://www.train4publishing.co.uk but of course the training courses don't come cheap.

If you just want to decide whether you're suited to proofreading, there's a free trial piece to correct on http://www.homeworkinguk.com/proofreader.htm or for about £15 there's a really good guide entitled "Freelance Proofreading & Copy-editing - A Guide" with loads of exercises as well as how to and where to find work. You should be able to get it through Amazon

PasturesNew

Many people who do proofreading work started off working for the organisation, or have a known history working in the publishing industry.

You would be up against these people as competitors, however, having taken the course, you'd then be having to market your skills to potential clients. So, the first step would be to identify and contact companies who may have a need.

At the end of the day, if you've found somebody with a need and got an appointment to talk to them about their need/requirements, you're 90% of the way there. It might be worthwhile trying to find yourself some clients in the first instance and see if you not being qualified is a barrier. Don't mention it, see if they ask. You might find that you can pick up enough work without any course having been undertaken.

On the other hand, if it is a barrier, you can then enquire if they would potentially have work for you IF you took the course.

In all these things, I feel the most important skills are those of marketing yourself and selling yourself/your service. If you are good at marketing and sales, the small matter of qualification can be overlooked. However, you could have certificates and diplomas all over your walls, but if you aren't managing to get a client signed up those certificates might as well be used in a much smaller room in the house

Good luck