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Ask Writing World: Is it possible to make money at home by proofreading?

 

Is it possible to make money working from home as a proofreader?

This is one of the questions I get asked most often, and the short answer is: yes.  It is.

I happen to think most things are possible if you work hard enough, though, so perhaps a better question here would be: is it EASY to make a living working from home as a proofreader?

Actually, I suspect this is what most people who ask the first question really wanted to know anyway, and the short answer to that one is: no. It most definitely isn't.

How much should you charge for proofreading? The jury's still out...

I let this particular poll run for a couple of extra days because every time I looked at it the results were split equally three ways, and I wanted to be able to give you some kind of definitive "answer", if such a thing exists (I suspect it doesn't). Well, close but no cigar: when I finally closed the poll today we'd lost the three-way-slot, but were left with a two-way tie instead. It seems that most of you would charge anything between $30 - $100 to proofread a 500-word page of text, with 17.9% opting for $10 or less.

(Note: 3.6% of you also said you'd charge $300 or more, but the image was too long to fit that result in the space!)

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this result. I had expected it to reveal proofreading as one of the poorest-paid freelance writing jobs, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Of course, I was basing that assumption on the sheer number of emails I receive from people telling me that they're "really good at spelling" and "always notice mistakes in the newspaper", and who have decided that they'd make excellent proofreaders.

Of course, I'm not saying that they wouldn't. But having attended professional proofreading training, I know that proofreading is a far more time-consuming job than many people seem to think, and it requires a considerable amount of skill and patience. In addition to the emails from would-be proofreaders, I've also had my fair share from would-be clients asking me to proofread text, either for free or for close to free, because "it's only a couple of pages, it'll take you five minutes." Er, no. It won't. Or not if I do it properly, anyway...

This week we're taking a break from our What to Charge polls and you'll find a completely different poll in the right hand sidebar, so please go ahead and place your vote!

UK based freelance copyeditors and proofreaders wanted

I received an email this morning from a company called Sensei Learning & Performance who are currently trying to expand their portfolio of freelance copyeditors and proofreaders, in order to keep up with increased demand. They're based in Belfast, but don't specify where the need freelancers to be based. Contact details can be found at their freelancers wanted page, and they'll also interested in hearing from freelance technical writers.

Good luck if you decide to apply!

Proofreading & Editing clients: Why do they always lie about their wordcounts?

Two of the services we offer are proofreading and copyediting. To be perfectly honest, they're my least favourite tasks, so they're not services I promote very hard. Nevertheless, every now and then someone will contact me looking for a quote - and almost without exception, they will lie about the amount of text they need to have proofread/edited.

It happened again this morning. I answered the phone to find a woman on the other end who had two articles she wanted to have edited. She tried very hard to get me to give her a quote for this over the phone, making me explain over and over again that I'd really need to see the documents in question before I could give her an estimate.

The reason for this, of course, is simple. I charge by the hour, and while some copyediting jobs are straightforward, with only a minimal amount of changes required, some clients send me large swathes of text that are barely comprehensible, and which require a considerable amount of time and skill to untagle and turn into something resembling English.

"Oh, these are very short, though," my caller insisted. "Only about 200 words each. They won't take you very long at all, so surely you can give me an estimate?"