Proofreading jobs

by: Garry Pierrepont (30 June 2011)

Searching for proofreading jobs may quickly reveal a number of opportunities and websites that may give you hopes of getting a job in proofreading.

However, don't be easily misled. Most of the websites you see which appear to offer proofreading 'jobs' will actually be for freelance work. You might say that that is exactly what you are looking for, but even that may be misleading, because many of the websites offering proofreading work will actually expect you to sign up and "bid" for work. These website act as a kind of exchange.

It works like this:

• Clients sign up to a site and request work. They usually outline the work required and in most cases submit a budget range (e.g. £50-£100).
• Proofreaders sign up to a site and bid for work. They look at the list of available work (usually filtered according to specified criteria) and bid a price for the work on offer.

That all sounds fair enough.

The problem is that budgets are usually very low and apparently there are plenty of people out there willing to work for very low rates of pay. Although there are options for clients to look at examples of previous work, one can't help but feel they go for those bidding at the low end of the budget range.

It's not the most encouraging entry way to find proofreading jobs.

It is better to build up your profile on a number of websites (including one of your own) and show people a list of your clients and indicate what you can do and who you can do it for. In this way, you will get better paid work than by the exchange websites, but it may take some time to get there.

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