Busting 12 myths about being a proofreader (Part 1)

Thinking about becoming a proofreader? Here are 12 myths you should be aware of.

None of the following statements is an absolute truth. 

1. You can't get work unless you have contacts in the publishing industry
2. The market is shrinking
3. Training courses are a waste of time and money
4. Training, by itself, is enough to get you work
5. All work goes to former editors and former workmates of publishers
6. All proofreading work is poorly paid
7. It's easy to run a proofreading business
8. There'll be times when you have no work, no matter how experienced you are
9. There's no demand for professional proofreaders because of grammar- and spell-checking technology
10. All proofreading work is done in-house
11. Proofreading means the same thing to all client types
12. Word of mouth is a good enough promotion strategy

In this article, I look at Myths 1–6; in Part 2, I’ll cover Myths 7–12.

Myth 1: You can't get work unless you have contacts in the publishing industry
If you want to proofread for the publishing-industry, it can help if you have a contact. A contact will give you a foot in the door. That’s all it will do, though. Publishers won’t just hand you a book; you’ll most likely have to do a test to prove your competence.

Of course, if you don’t have a contact, you’ll have to make one – you can pick up the phone, write a letter and enclose a CV, or send an email. If you have the skills that publishers are looking for, and you contact them and tell them this, there’s no reason why you can’t acquire work from this sector even if you have no existing in-house friends or colleagues.

Ten years ago, I had one contact in the publishing industry. The rest I acquired through targeted direct marketing – letters, emails and phone calls.

A more significant problem with this myth is its presumption that all self-employed business proofreaders and editors work for publishers, and only for publishers. Publishers are only one type of client.

Ten years ago, 90% of my clients were publishers; these days, 90% of my clients aren’t publishers.

Myth 2: The market is shrinking
The market is not shrinking; it’s changing. It's even expanding in some sectors. Increasing numbers of people are recognizing the benefits of ensuring that their text is professionally presented.

Our world is more public than ever. Anyone with an online presence (e.g. a website, a blog, an online report, an ebook) has a public presence. And if that public presence is represented by words, those words need to be polished. That’s where the editorial professional comes in.

The independent-publishing market is booming, with self-publishers uploading fiction and commercial non-fiction to public spaces on a daily basis. Many of those writers are commissioning proofreaders. So are NGOs, businesses, marketing and communications agencies, packagers, schools, public-sector organizations, students, charities, poets, musicians and traditional publishers.

The challenge lies not in the myth that the market is shrinking, but in the myth that it's easy to be visible in that market. 

Myth 3: Training courses are a waste of time and money
This myth argues that editorial training isn’t worth investing in because the work isn't well paid enough to give you a return on that investment. Some proponents of this myth also state that no one pays attention to editorial qualifications.

• First, it’s not all about the money. Rather, it’s about learning to do the job so that you’re fit for purpose. If you haven’t had any training, you could struggle to fulfil some clients’ requirements (see, for example, Does Training Matter? What Publishers Say about Proofreading & Editing Courses).
• Qualifications are one way (though not the only way) of building trust. I wouldn’t let my hairdresser anywhere near me if she hadn’t learned how to do her job properly. I’d rather pay a decent rate and trust my barnet to a professional. Proofreading’s no different.
• Actually, training to be a professional proofreader is a lot cheaper than training to be a doctor, dentist or electrician. Landing a few book-sized jobs will cover the cost of your initial training, so the no-return-on-investment argument is nonsense.

Myth 4: Training, by itself, is enough to get you work
Having espoused the benefits of training, it’s equally important to debunk the myth that training alone will get you work. It doesn’t matter whether you have distinctions and accreditations coming out of your ears, and lots of real-world experience – if no one knows you exist, they won't be able to be impressed by all your training!

To get work, you must put yourself in front of your clients – that means being visible, which means marketing.

Myth 5: All publisher-based proofreading work goes to former editors and former workmates of publishers
This myth is similar to (1). Yes, it can be an advantage initially, but plenty of people without a publishing background who’ve made the effort to market themselves using a chunky box of promotion tools have been able to secure work.

The governor of the Bank of England knows that you need more than one instrument to stabilize an economy; the business of proofreading is not so different. Proofreaders, too, need more than one instrument to generate a stable client base and income stream.

• You can contact publishers and packagers direct, via email, via letter or via the phone.
• Target those whose publication lists reflect your own knowledge base (e.g. your educational or career background).
• Find out what their requirements are and learn those skills (e.g. use of proof-correction language; familiarity with industry-recognized style guides; ability to mark up PDFs or paper proofs).

Myth 6: All proofreading work is poorly paid
This myth has several problems:
​

• What you consider poorly paid may be rather well paid by someone else’s standards. See Rich Adin's discussion of relative success in The Order of Things (An Occasional Series) I.
• Not all clients pay the same rate. Some publishers pay higher rates than others, and many expect quite different levels of intervention for the fee they're paying. Then there are other clients types, such as businesses, students and independent authors. These non-publisher clients don't set the rate – I do: publishers offer me rates and I accept or decline the job; non-publishers are offered my rates after they've asked for a quote, and they accept or decline. In other words, I make sure that I’m earning a rate that I want to earn and that meets my needs.
• Some organizations will pay premium rates for fast-turnaround work. For example, one of my clients is a greeting-card business who always needs a fast turnaround. Each print run involves printing thousands of sheets, each with 32 cards per sheet. Each print run costs them tens of thousands of pounds. One error on just one of those 32 cards means the entire print run must be junked. It’s not like a miss on a website, which can be amended easily – in this business’s case, there are no second chances. Quibbling over a few hundred quid isn’t what they’re about. It’s all about quality – every time.
• Having a few higher-paying clients gives you the freedom to accept lower-paid work from others, simply because you want to do it.
• Ask yourself what you’re comparing proofreading rates with. Cleaning, stacking shelves in a supermarket, hairdressing, plumbing, farming, carrying out plastic surgery, or being the CEO of Microsoft?
• ‘Poorly paid’ means nothing unless you know what you need to earn in the first place, i.e. it's subjective. If I need to earn £50K per annum as soon as I set up my proofreading business, I’ll be in trouble, but if I need to earn £20K per annum in year 3 and my current job is paying me £12K a year, I could well be in great shape, provided I do what’s necessary to ensure my target clients can find me. 
• It always takes time to set up a new business, and you might decide to accept work from lower-paying clients while you are building your client portfolio (seeI’m a Newbie Proofreader – Should I Charge a Lower Fee? for a discussion of this issue).

​Don't get me wrong – success won't happen overnight. As is the case for any new business owner, it will take time and hard work to build a decent income stream and client base. Work won't just fall into your lap. But if you behave like a professional business owner in terms of quality and visibility, the concept of low pay (however you’re defining it) doesn’t have to define your editorial business.

In Part 2, I’ll bust Myths 7–12.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.