PROOF READING - Has anybody done it?

[mawbroon]

I am toying with the idea of doing some proof reading from home.
Have you done it?
Is it worthwhile in terms of how much money you can earn?
How would I get started?

Thanks in advance

MB

I have looked into this and the only way forward that I can see is to gain some proof reading qualification over the internet by sending money off to some organisation. I am not prepared to do that (too many scams going round in my opinion).

So if you find another way into proof reading, I will be very interested to know what it is.

Too right. That sounds well dodgy. Just the kind of thing that Watchdog is full of!

I have seen those ads in the paper asking you to spot the mistakes, but have never followed one up. They too might lead to a request for cash.

Perhaps if you contact publishing houses directly?

MB, those ads are just from places like Chapterhouse (think that's what they're called) anyway.

My Aunt IS a qualified proofreader. She has worked for many years for a small but well regarded specialist travel publishers. They sometimes put work out to freelance proofreaders if she hasn't the time.

She says that the Chapterhouse qualifications (and others like them "spot the deliberate mistake") are laughed at in the industry and you will be lucky to get any work. Apparently with even the right qualifications, it's still hard to get "into", not least because many publishers have in-house proofreaders.

The qualifications which her company prefer are those via the Society for Editors and Proofreaders:

SFEP

Their courses don't come cheap, because if you're starting from scratch there seem to be a number of different ones to complete if you're going to be taken seriously.

Proof reading when you can find a non dodgy company (which itself is very hard) is very very difficult and not a career to take up if you just want to earn some extra cash and deffo not one to do if you have kids at home IMO

I would have thought you'd have to be a qualified editor or journalist to do this. My sister, now retrained as a teacher , has her bachelor's in print journalism and worked as a journalist for a long while before having two girls. She picked up some proofreading work, but it was hard to come by even w/her contacts and the bulk of her income came from freelance journalist work.

Thanks for all your replies ladies. My apologies to any proof readers out there, but those ads gave me the impression that it was the kind of thing that was easily available and could be done from home. Perfect for doing once the baby was in bed type of thing. I suppose that is exactly what you are supposed to think before parting with your hard earned cash whilst the companies behind these ads laugh all the way to the bank.

I have been reading a book recently which is full of mistakes which gave me the idea that it was possibly something I would be good at.