Change of career - any Copy Editors out there?

[Yamyoid]

I'm interested in training to be a Copy Editor but don't really know anything about the field.
Any advice would be appreciated, ie is it very competitive? Are there certain courses that are better than others?
I don't have an English degree, only A Level English Lit, is this a problem?
I have gaping holes in my grammatical knowledge (didn't pay attention at school) but I'm confident I can learn. I have good attention to detail when I know what I'm doing. And a terrible habit of reading over colleagues' letters and wanting to correct their mistakes
Also, I wonder if I'm too old at 36 to start again.
Many thanks to anyone who can help.

First off, please don't pay out for one of those ripoff online 'we'll teach you to be an editor' courses if you are expecting it to lead to work. They may be a useful intro but are not generally recognised or needed in terms of finding work.

Copy editing is a small and competitive niche. It is unlikely you would find enough work to pay a full salary equivalent unless you already have contacts and experience in the publishing world. Frankly I wouldn't consider it if you are going to need to pay a mortgage out of your income. You will have to have a good 'in' and then build an excellent track record of work.

A good intro to proof reading is Project Guttenberg. They take volunteer proof readers, provide some simple training, test you out and then let you loose on a text if you're up to scratch. Perhaps worth testing yourself if you're not sure about your grammar?

www.pgdp.net/c/

Great, thanks Slambang. I'll look at the link, it sounds interesting and I'd love to just have a go. .