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Proofreading for Profits
By Barnaby Kalan © 2005 Barnaby Kalan
Proofreading can be a great way to earn extra money as a freelancer. Especially if you are already working as a freelance writer or designer or simply want to work from home.
I use a freelance proofreader who charges between $30/hr. (for regular jobs) and $40/hr. (for rush jobs that require evening or weekend work), with a minimum charge of one hour. Other proofreaders charge by the page.
I’ve been working with her for years, and have recommended her to many clients, yet have never actually met her! We just fax or, more recently, e-mail a copy deck or PDF of the final designed piece to her and she sends us a marked-up version.
It doesn’t matter how many people look at a piece at my client’s organization or even if people who have never seen the copy take a look at it. This proofreader ALWAYS finds typos, omissions, facts to check and more. She may suggest grammatical changes, which we can follow or not, depending on how we want the copy to sound.
Now for your question – how to get started as a professional freelance proofreader.
STEP 1. First you’ll have to educate yourself about proofreading techniques. Proofreading is a lot more than just reading carefully. As you know, there are special “proofreader’s marks” which you will use to show mistakes and changes. And there are a number of special techniques to use. One is reading a document “backwards” after you’ve read it through the first time. At the very least, you’ll want to:
- Make sure the document has been spellchecked.
- Read the document aloud to check for complete sentences and flow of thoughts. - This also helps you find missing words.
- Make sure ideas are organized and in a logical order.
- Check that every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with the correct punctuation mark.
- Check that periods and commas are used correctly
- Apostrophes are used correctly for contractions.
- Quotations are punctuated correctly.
- That names of people and places have been capitalized.
- Each word in a title should be capitalized, except for: and, but, or, a, an, the, and prepositions that are less than five letters long (from, to, in, out, on, over, etc.).
- The first word of a title is always capitalized.
- Make sure the use of common homonyms (there, their, they're; to, too, two, your, you're) is correct.
- Check the accuracy of numbers used in newsletter articles.
- Numbers one through ten should be are spelled with letters. Numbers over ten are written as numbers unless they begin a sentence.
- Accurate abbreviations and acronyms.
- Book titles are italicized.
- Quotations are in quotation marks or italicized.
- You may want to eliminate the use of jargon and clichés.
You should probably do a google search on “proofreading courses” and invest in one course to learn the techniques from a professionally-accredited organization. Ideally, this should be a “distance learning” course that you can complete at home, via the Internet, at your own pace. It would also be good if it gave you some sort of certificate or designation, upon completion of the course. Here are a few resources you might want to check out:
Basic proofreading by distance learning: http://www.train4publishing.co.uk/content/distance/basproof.htm
Writing trainers http://www.writingtrainers.com/center/proof.htm
Many of the leading courses seem to be in Great Britain, which is not surprising, given the love of the English language and the popularity of shows and books on grammar in the U.K.
STEP 2. Once you’re trained and qualified as a professional proofreader, you’ll want to check out your competition. Do not be discouraged to learn that it’s a crowded field. Yes, you’ll have to compete for business. But the fact that there are many proofreaders also shows the ongoing demand for this service.
Check out how much they’re charging, how they promote themselves, what kind of clients they list, how they work, turnaround times, etc. You might as well model a successful proofreading business to get started. Here are a few websites to check out:
http://www.perfect-proofreading.com/ http://www.papercheck.com/ http://www.assistant-for-hire.com
STEP 3. Create your own simple professional proofreading website. Today you can create a simple website for $50 a year. For this tiny investment, you can have an instant business with a very professional appearance to anyone who’s thinking of using your services.
STEP 4. Promote your services. You’ll want to write up a bit of background copy that answers these important questions:
“Why should we use a professional proofreader?” Many people think they can just pass a document to “a fresh set of eyes” and catch mistakes. But, as you now know, a professional proofreader will always uncover more than an amateur.
“What could happen if we don’t use a proofreader?” One of the biggest challenges is convincing people they should really take the time and spend the money to do it right. But the horror stories of people who failed to proofread should help convince them otherwise.
I know of one case where the word “savvy” was misspelled “saavy” and an entire seminar mailing had to be reprinted at a cost of more than $10,000. In another case, the toll-free phone number for a direct mail promotion wasn’t checked. The mailing went out and all the calls went to a wrong number. The entire campaign – tens of thousands of dollars – was completely wasted, simply because of a proofreading oversight.
I’m sure your friends, colleagues and clients have their own horror stories that they can share with you to really help build your case for professional proofreading.
“What makes you so good?” The answer to this, of course, is your special training, certification, your reference materials, and, as time goes by, your experience for a wide variety of clients.
Finally, you will want to hand out or email your background document to prospective clients. This information will also form the basic content for your website. You’ll build on it over time, with articles, client lists, testimonials, etc.
And you’ll start promoting your business through your email signature, writing and posting articles online, emails and mailings to businesses in your area, pay-per-click advertising and more.
Best of all, you can often do this work part-time, nights and weekends, until you build up a clientele. Or full-time from home, with great flexibility. It’s a good way to earn extra income. |
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