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So what does a proof-reader / copy-editor / transcriber / copy-writer actually do?

09 Feb

Today I thought I’d share a list of the projects I’ve worked on in the last month or so, to give an idea of what I actually do. Remember that I still work part-time in a library, if this doesn’t seem much; on the other hand, remember that I am always available to chat about booking in your work, and have a flexible schedule, if it seems like a lot!

So, since the beginning of 2011, I have…

Copy-edited a report on someone’s website for a US company.
Proof-read/copy-edited PDF and Word documents for 1 monthly and 1 quarterly issue of a Club magazine, various advertising materials for the Club, and half of their website, for the American PR agency which handles their publications (including a re-write on a particularly troublesome article).
Copy-edited 5 blog posts for one blog.
Copy-edited a PhD thesis on linguistics.
Copy-edited 2 essays for an ongoing client.
Copy-edited a PhD thesis on sports science.
Copy-edited part of a PhD thesis on Nigeria.
Proof-read/copy-edited a short newsletter for a physiotherapist I work for on an ongoing basis, including some re-writing.
Proof-read/copy-edited a tender for a company which writes tenders for other companies (another repeat customer).
Copy-edited a short non-fiction book on Bosnia.
Done some background research for 2 websites for which I’ll be writing the content for the web designer to place in the web pages he’s creating.
Set up working agreements with a printing company (to write content for them) and a virtual secretary (to provide copy-editing services) so that we can get going with projects once they come through.

And coming up, I have these booked in…

Another PhD thesis, psychology this time.
Going over yet another PhD thesis (on the EU) which I’ve already worked on once; the author has passed his viva but had to cut word-count so wants it checked over one last time.
Copy-editing a client’s submission for Chartership to their profession.
A novel.
Monthly newsletters for my physiotherapist client.
Monthly and quarterly newsletters plus the rest of the website for my Club client in the US.
Hopefully some more transcriptions of interviews for my journalist client – while I haven’t done any transcribing for her for a while, I did get to read the results of a few of my transcriptions in the magazine she writes for that I happen to read anyway!

And I think I have a topic for my next blog post… what is the difference between copy-editing and proof-reading?

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2011 in Jobs, Organisation, What Do I Do?, Writing

 

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New books!

13 Jan

I had an exciting package of books arrive from Amazon yesterday – half for Libro’s reference section and half for ME (spending some of my vouchers I’d been saving up). I thought my clients, potential clients and Friends Of Libro might be interested in what Libro now has on its bookshelf…

I really need up to date reference materials to use for Libro, especially if I’m going to be blogging about usage, so now I’ve paid my tax for 2009-10 I have used some of my profit for these. Note: yes, there are online versions of many of these, but they cost as much as the hard copy to access PER YEAR, while the new editions don’t tend to come out yearly. So, for the time being, I am using printed copies, although this may change in the future.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary – 11th edition (luxury edition) – I realised my current Oxford Concise was bought with money I had for my 18th Birthday and is the 7th edition. Oh, and luxury means I get a bookmark and there are fingerholes in the text block so you can access each letter easily.

R.M. Ritter – New Hart’s Rules – this is the companion to the wonderful New Oxford Dictionary For Writers and Editors (which I actually adore as it has all those words you’re not sure how to spell or use!) and explains the rules of punctuation, etc. It comes highly recommended by my copy-editing peers.

Chicago Manual Of Style – 16th edition – this is the American be-all and end-all of rules on everything from typesetting to the most obscure parts of speech and uses of punctuation. I do have quite a few US customers (having worked for an American company, I am bi-lingual in American and British English, and really enjoy the differences and similarities), and this is really useful. As well as FASCINATING! I actually have two copies of this in the house at the moment, as I borrowed my library’s copy to check how useful it would be.

Norm Goldstein – The Associated Press Stylebook – another one for my US customers, this is a guide that a lot of PR agencies and other media people use.

What’s your favourite reference book, and why?

 
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Posted by on January 13, 2011 in Organisation, Reference materials

 

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Happy Christmas from Libro!

22 Dec

Happy Christmas / Season’s Greetings / Happy Holidays / Happy Solstice etc., etc.

2010 has been a great year for Libro – I started in August 2009 but things only really took off in April when I was able to devote more time to marketing myself, and gained some long-term repeat customers. Since then I’ve worked on dissertations on supply chain management, theses about Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Taiwan, on religion, economics, typography and the EU, among other things. I’ve helped with websites on sustainable nappies, falafels and accountancy, copy-edited a couple of novels and some books about religion and politics, and several editions of a yacht club magazine, proof-read a Bible concordance and index and a few tenders for business contracts, typed up 80 pages of someone’s handwritten notes and transcribed hours of journalists’ interviews. I love the variety of tasks and subjects, the fact that I’ve learned so much about so many different topics, and meeting (or “meeting”) lovely clients from around the world.

2011 will hopefully be just as interesting and varied. I’ve arranged to go part-time at my day job, allowing me to devote more time to Libro and to claim back a bit of time for myself too. This should mean I can be more flexible and react just as quickly when projects come in, and take on more projects. I’ve already got some blog posts, newsletters, magazines and theses scheduled in for the New Year…

Thank you to all my clients and friends for their support in this first full year of Libro. Thanks to my friends, who’ve put up with me rearranging things or dashing home to sort out someone’s contents page, or staring at my emails on my phone when I should be enjoying my cuppa! And huge thanks to Matthew, IT support, proof-reading widower and pillar of strength.

I’m having a little “office party” today (Wednesday 22 December) to celebrate Libro, my clients and friends, and to look forward to a happy and successful 2011 for everyone. Do join me on Twitter or Facebook today!

 
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Posted by on December 22, 2010 in Celebration, New skills

 

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On sparing your blushes

28 Nov

I was at a networking event the other morning, chatting with someone about how I explain what I do. I realised that, in essence, “what I do” comes down to “saving people from embarrassment”.

– If you’ve prepared advertising leaflets, PR material or promotional goodies to give out to people, the last thing you want is for them to be laughing at your typos rather than marvelling at the products and services you provide.

– When you’re in your PhD viva, you want the discussion to be about your central hypothesis and results, not the glaring error on p. 523.

– People who read blogs (and I discussed this with a few people) do notice spelling and grammar issues. Even if it’s a personal or creative blog, you’re still putting your brand out there. If someone notices a lack of attention to basic questions of clear and error-free writing, are they going to trust your attention to detail in other matters? (before you start foaming at the gills about writing ability, see below)

– Your web page should be there to advertise you and your services/products. Sure, no publicity is bad publicity, but do you really want your URL bandied around the internet as a “funny” on an email to people’s friends and colleagues?

– Readers notice mistakes in novels and it disrupts the flow of their reading and jolts them back into the real world for a moment. As a creative writer, you want them to inhabit your world, not the world of people who scribble out grocers’ apostrophes with a marker pen!

I could go on… but, a word about writing ability. Yes, there are lots of people out there who don’t know the rules or have issues such as dyslexia. I am not criticising their ability or their right to express themselves in writing – of course not! But, if you know you have an issue or grammar/spelling/sentence structure isn’t your forte, get in touch with someone like me who can help you with that. Attention to detail encompasses knowing something is a little awry and calling in someone to fix it, not just writing the piece perfectly the first time.

 
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Posted by on November 28, 2010 in Errors, Language use

 

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New services and price offers

20 Oct

I’m now offering transcription services (prices from 75p per audio minute) so you can send me your audio files on .wma or MP3 and I’ll transcribe them onto a Word document for you. Suitable for journalists, researchers with interviews to check through, linguists, etc.

Do contact me to discuss this new services!

 
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Posted by on October 20, 2010 in New skills

 

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Keeping organised

26 Aug

I’ve been having a great week off the day job, doing just Libro work. I’d like to be able to do this all the time, but really late August / early September are my peak time during the year, with loads of Masters dissertations to proofread, all with similar due dates.

Although I’ve had a couple of longer jobs, and one big project from a repeat customer, it’s mainly been 2-4 hour jobs, and lots of them. Two problems – when to do the work, and how to know whether I can take on another piece of work from someone who just emailed me.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the Gant Chart.

I haven’t used anything fancy, just Excel. No project management software, although I’m sure you could use that if you want, and that’s where I got the idea from. But one of my rules is to keep it simple. A phone that phones, texts, and yes, now accesses my email. A computer and an email account. A spreadsheet with my accounts. And an easy gant chart.

So – dates across the top, one per column. Customers down the side. And you get to COLOUR IN SQUARES! Yes, it’s like O-level revision all over again – most of the time spent colouring in and underlining, some of it spent working.

When a customer books in, I colour in the squares for the days from when they intend to give me the document to when they need it back. In grey. It’s pending. It’s not here yet. But I can see what I’ve got hovering. The document comes in – and it gets coloured in red. Maybe the submission date gets moved, maybe the end date. Now I know what I have in hand – what I have to do. At this point, I shuffle all the rows round so the clients are in order by due date. This way, when I’ve got a lot of work in, I know what I need to do first.

Work done, I write DONE in the cells for the days on which I actually did the work, and colour it in yellow. Invoice submitted – orange. Invoice paid – green! And I leave it on there, to show me what I’ve been up to.

A hint: freeze the panes on your spreadsheet so you can see all the client names but move across the dates without losing them.

Along with email folders for all my current and completed customers, this has kept me organised over the past few weeks. I hope it’s helped some readers with some ideas. Maybe you’d like to tell me your favourite organisation tip?

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2010 in New skills, Organisation

 

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Now We Are One

01 Aug

I actually did my first piece of work for Libro on 28 August 2009, but I registered the company with the Inland Revenue just before that and had a start date of 01 August. So, Happy Birthday Libro!

What have I learnt in this first year? I’m proud that I’ve done it – I’ve been paid to do what I’ve done for people for free in the past. I’ve been successful in my work and gathered lots of lovely references. I’m confident working in different versions of Word and with pdf annotating software, and I’ve worked on lots of different projects, from Masters dissertations through PhD theses, non-fiction books and articles, novels, marketing materials and websites.

I’m particularly proud that I’ve helped people whose English isn’t their first language to express themselves. I’ve been able to aid the creativity of others by ensuring the infrastructure of language and grammar was there to support their work. I’ve kept to my principles, turning down work that wasn’t right for me, and continuing to do a little bit of free work for charity.

OK, the housework and reading might have suffered a bit, but I don’t think my relationship and friendships have, and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve been doing, which I think is the main thing!

Thanks to all my clients who have sent work my way and given me lovely references. Here’s to the next year of Libro!

 
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Posted by on August 1, 2010 in Celebration

 

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Learning something new every day…

11 Jun

So I’m a professional proofreader and I enjoy my work and take a pride in it… but sometimes it’s good to expand your horizons.

I’ve taken on a job sorting out the formatting of someone’s thesis this week. Page numbering, chapter headings forming a contents page, figures and tables; all of that stuff. At first I wasn’t convinced I could do it. But I persevered, took out the stuff at the front that had been copied and pasted, reminded myself of the theory (Word 2007 can be quite different from previous versions) and off I went.

Next time, I’ll know how to create separate figures and tables contents lists (ask me if you need to know how), I’ll know that Microsoft online help is a bit better than the help embedded in Word, and I’ll be confident I can do that little bit more to help my clients present the best possible version of their work.

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2010 in New skills

 

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