Hiring: Proofreader for GC

[Chase]

Hey gents,

I'm going crazy trying to find a decent proofreader for the on-site articles. Keep hiring folks who don't understand the material, and end up over-editing and switching words around so that authors' meanings get twisted, and/or missing simple typographical and grammar errors. If you're awesome at proofreading, you might also be awesome for GC.

Here's what we're looking for:

• Someone who can proofread Girls Chase articles for grammar and typos and fix these
• Someone who can resist the urge to spend a lot of time or effort rewriting an article in his own style
• Someone who's able to edit throughout the week - doesn't have to be every day, but a few hours a day a few times a week is ideal
• Someone who'll have room to do the job a while - at least 6 months, and longer is better; would prefer not to have to keep hiring new people

You'll be starting out editing 3 to 4 articles a week, which I hope to move up to 6 or 7 a week by mid- to late-February with the addition of some new authors (yet to be determined who those will be). Our previous proofreaders have run somewhere around $10 per 2,000 to 2,500 words proofread, billed hourly, and we'd be looking for somewhere around that - again, you're not totally overhauling things, just fixing grammar errors and typos; some articles will have very few of these (e.g., those by native speakers), while others will require a bit more work (e.g., those by non-native speakers), but still aren't anything too crazy.

So, assuming you can breeze through a 2,500-word article in 30 minutes or so (which is about how long it takes me for most articles if I do it myself), you'd be able to bill $20 / hour for every 2 articles proofed. Not going to make you rich, but if you need a little extra income, this isn't too bad nor is it super demanding work. Once you're done with them, you'll just send them on to Darlene in images, and they're out of your hands from there.

Caveat: I am a stickler for grammar, and if I'm paying for it, I want the job done well. If I'm catching grammar errors after it's done, I'll bounce it back to you with a, "You missed this and this and this and that. Can you step it up?" and if I have to send that a few times, well, it was fun while it lasted. Assuming you've got the stuff though, we'll get along great.

Caveat Part II: if I bring you on and you start switching words around in a way that confuses the meaning of sentences, I'm going to scream.

If you're interested, please send a brief email to Genaro at info@girlschase.com with the subject line "Application for Proofreader Position" with details about your proofreading background, whether you're a native speaker and what part of the world you're from, and your availability now and in the future.

Chase

 

[Humay]

Sending an application now.

 

[PinotNoir]

I do notice misspelled words every now and then, but my grammar is not great.

I think you'll want an English college graduate or someone who at least minored in English. Every English major that I've known have just learned so much outside the realm of high school, including modern grammar usage (e.g., ending a sentence with a preposition is acceptable in most cases).

If an author has a British English background, I assume you'd want to keep the original spelling?

If you're ever in desperate need for somebody, I'd be happy to do it, since I read most new articles anyway haha.

Good luck to Humay.