proof reading

[ismellofbabysick]

Has anyone done a proof reading course? If so did you find any work? I'm thinking of doing this, but don't want to shell out money and fid there's no work to be had after it.

If you do a course through The Society for Editors and Proofreaders or the Publishing Training Centre you may be in with a chance. Avoid others.

My sister did one of the others (forget which, so won't risk naming and shaming) and it was a total waste of time.

Do you have contacts in publishing?

Agree with OldLady that those are probably the only two courses worth investing in.

I worked in publishing until recently, and always got a lot of letters from people who were hoping to score some proofreading work but had no relevant experience. But maybe you do have some -- eg if you've worked in publishing in some other capacity, or if you've done a lot of serious work on student publications or something of that sort?

A course alone, even a good one, probably wouldn't have been enough to convince me to give you work, tbh. There are just so many experienced freelancers out there; the only reason to pass them over and choose someone with no experience would be to save a little money. But most editors don't consider this a risk worth taking very often, as there is a good chance the job will then need extra in-house attention and time spent on it to compensate for the proofreader's lack of experience. If there's one thing publishers generally have less of than money, it's time!

Sorry to sound negative. Maybe someone will come along with a different point of view.

Did you find the letters were all the same? I looked into proof-reading myself a while back, and read comments that some of the distance courses provide template letters that make it obvious you're a noob, in the worst possible way.

I think you're right that there are template letters out there, and we did get some that gave that impression; but we also got a wide range of other random letters from people who were obviously trying to be persuasive in their own unique ways

It was just kind of obvious, in a hard-to-pin-down way, when people were thinking "I really like reading, my English language skills are good, and I'm always noticing mistakes in books; therefore, I have what it takes to make money at this and it'll probably be quite easy".

And of course there is more to it than that -- it's so much about things like temperament, consistency, and having the ability to keep caring about insanely niggly details for hours at a time without getting so bored that your focus drops and you miss something ... none of which you can really get from a course.

thanks ladies - you've helped me make my mind up