Proofreading course recommendations please

[madamehooch]

I've done some proofreading in the past but am interested to know if there is a recommended course I could do from home?

Bump, as I would be interested too!

Courses run by the Publishing Training Centre or the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP).

I would love to know how you get proofreading work and whether you a actually need to do a course!

You don’t need a course, but work is thin on the ground unless you have an area or two of specialisation to offer.
Friends I know deal with translations, law and engineering publications. It’s often peddled as an easy way to earn, but it really isn’t.

I’m not sure about other areas where proofreading is required, but speaking as someone who regularly employs proofreaders for a big trade publisher, it’s incredibly hard to break into unless you’ve had some experience working in the industry. A PTC course isn’t really going to cut it, I already have way more proofreaders than work going, and these are people with bags of experience.

Honestly, I did one about 12 years ago. It was very expensive and work following is incredibly difficult to come by. I would say not to bother

I wouldn't hire a proofreader without training or experience.

If you have a specialism you might get work after doing a course too. For example, a science degree or teaching experience.

I wouldn’t bother. I work for a big international publisher and we use freelancers less and less for proofing or copy editing. It’s a dying trade.

@StarlingsInSummer Genuine question - when you say you're using freelancers less and less for proofing and copy editing, do you mean that these tasks are carried out in-house by employees.

Or do you not bother at all with editing and proofreading?

Shameful to admit, we do what’s called ‘a light copy edit’ (outsourced to various offshore companies) and expect authors to do their own proofing. I’m in academic publishing, don’t know if it’s different in fiction.

NB I suppose the authors might pay freelancers for proofreading.

I work in the industry too and use freelancers all the time but would strongly advise you to save your money and not do a PTC course or similar. Publishers largely use the same proofreaders over and over again and they’re all people with bags of experience and skills who have been on the circuit for years and work for all the big publishers. We all recommend known and trusted freelancers to each other
There is simply not enough work to go round the thousands of people who do these expensive courses and try to break into an industry that is already fairly saturated. Honestly, no publisher is ever going to take on a freelancer who has done a course but has no experience. You’d be almost certain to be scrabbling around for dribs and drabs of (poorly paid) work.