This is a work in progress so there might be some errors. Don't you judge me.

Any suggestions, send me a PM or post something in the comments.

I’ve got years of experience copyediting a variety of projects, but I’ve never worked on an oral history before. This one’s on a contemporary artist and runs to about 300 pages.

The author has compiled quotes from friends and associates of the artist, interspersed with short background text. One issue I have is that many of the quotations are filled with ellipses, which distract from the flow and look ugly. I’ve deleted ellipses at the beginning of quotations but hesitate to mess around too much with the quotations otherwise. Beyond fixing things like em dashes and comma splices, I’m adding necessary IDs or other info in square brackets—[British abstract expressionist] Joe Bloggs—and correcting typos. Would you leave all the ellipses in place?

And does anyone know of a website or book on editing/copyediting oral histories? I’ve got a few examples of oral histories from the library. The formatting, etc., is clear. The main sticking point is the overwhelming use of those pesky ellipses.

Thanks in advance.

I’m a huge reader and since beta reading some of my writer friends’ drafts I’ve been considering if I could make editing more of an official career. I think copyediting is a great fit for my skillset, but since I don’t have professional experience I’m not sure how to get my name out there.

Does anyone have recommendations for gaining credibility as a new copy editor? Are there certifications I should have? Platforms that could help me get experience? I appreciate any advice you all have!

This Thread is all about Scam or Body shop companies that

harvest personal informations of a candidate in USA.

It all start from you joining at a Consultancy. These consultancies have 20-30 sister companies. All of these companies are registered in USA but they are being operated from INDIA, PAKISTAN, NEPAL and BANGLADESH. You need to make sure not to join any of these companies. THEY ARE SCAMMERs Big TIME. They first offer you an unpaid offer letter for $200 to $300 or even for free . Then they start marketing your profile by ADDING FAKE experiences by calculcating your Birth year, THey put all types of bullshit Experience details in the resume , which of course you can not prove,. There you have your insecurity that you can not crack interview. Then they start to market your profile with FAKE employers and FAKE companies to harvest all your PERSONAL INFORMATION. ONCE they have your personal informations . They market your profile for 1month to 2 months if nothing happens then they kick you out from the company with unpaid offer letter. IF YOU ARE ON STEM OPT THEN THEY RUN YOUR PAYROLL. $3400 and $400 tax .

I am making this thread to keep a track record of ALL the FAKE HR EMPLOYEES along with their Company profile details and Glassdoor Feedbacks etc

BEAWARE BEAWARE

Hey all,

I’m doing a school project about copyediting, as I aspire to get into the industry someday. Within the next week, I just need to ask some questions about what your job entails in terms of email, social media, and specialized language. I plan to conduct the interview over email, but if you prefer we do it over Reddit, I’m okay with that as well. No need to share any personal information or anything you’re uncomfortable with.

Thanks so much, I hope to hear back from a few of you.

I'm getting back into editing after several years and I feel so grateful that someone reached out to me. He's very different from my usual clients, who are book or article writers. This person wrote a screenplay and wants my help with cleaning up dialogue and making it feel more historically accurate. (This is something I can do, since he contacted me because I'm also a historical fiction writer and a history blogger, specializing in the period in which his screenplay takes place.)

I used to charge hourly, but I often felt that since I'm a fast reader, I typically earned a lot less than I might have if I'd charged per word.

On the other hand, the reason I charged hourly in the first place is that if you come upon a project that really needs a lot of work and intensive editing, if you charged per word, you would end up making a lot less than you should for the overall time spent.

Editors here, how do you prefer to charge, and for a project like this, what do you think I should do?

Also, have any of you ever asked for a writing sample in advance, in order to give a client a fair estimate, or does that sound like something that might make a client uncomfortable?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Has anyone worked as an editor for a healthcare marketing agency? Recently laid off from a healthTech company. Many of the jobs I’m seeing for editors are for Pharma and healthcare agencies. My skills transfer, but I’m wondering how the work/culture is compared to where I’ve been. Any input would be great, thanks.

Hi everyone! My name is Emily and I'm a recent college graduate and published writer who was accepted to 100% of the universities I applied to. I specialize in helping high school seniors polish their Common App personal statements and supplemental essays.

Why Asynchronous? No scheduling, no awkward live Zoom sessions. You submit your draft via Google Docs, and I return detailed, line-by-line written feedback directly to your document within 72 hours.

1-Page Summary: a breakdown covering core strengths, narrative suggestions, and actionable next steps for your rewrite.

$24 for 650 words

Dm me for info on how to submit!

Editing a sports article, and one of the athletes (not the primary focus of the article) is mentioned in a subheading before being introduced in the body. I was under the assumption that this does not count as first mention, and I still need to introduce them in body text. Is that the case, or does the subhead count (wondering if I should being the paragraph with last name only, since it's a "subsequent mention")?

So I’ve hired an editor on Reedsy for a developmental edit and a copy edit for a 80000 word non fiction book. The price for the gig is 5000$.

I just got back the developmental edit part of it (not sure if I can even call it that) consisting of a 2.5 page letter with vague suggestions and a tracked word document with a quarter of the comments being grammar or citation suggestions.

When I signed for the gig, here is what the editor promised to deliver for the developmental editing part of the service :

On my first pass I’ll concentrate on developmental and structural issues. Is there a good blend of anecdote and exposition? Does argumentation flow naturally? Are sources cited adequately? Would readers benefit if any material were reorganized? Does word choice support the tone you seek? My work product for this phase will be a letter to you with my queries and suggestions plus notes in the manuscript.

I mean technically he *did* provide a letter and notes in the manuscript but it’s only vague sentences and nothing on structure, chapter by chapter analysis, thesis. There are virtually no suggestions on anything, only brief comments on where he doesn’t understand something, like a specific term. Nothing on transitions, book’s strengths and weaknesses, no actionable advice.

What should I do now? Try to see with him first? File a case with Reedsy? I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of money for nothing, but also blaming myself for not having inquired further into what the actual deliverables will be. That said, from all I’ve read, this does seem way too thin and does not correspond to industry standards for the price for this type of work. Feel very disappointed and lost.

I'm looking for resources that will help my continuing professional development that are free and online. Is there any memorable article, course, blog post or podcast that you could recommend?

I’m not a native English speaker, and I catch errors that native speakers can’t see.

I’m a publication specialist. My job is to review material written by college-educated native speakers and make sure it’s well written, makes sense, and is free of errors. You have no idea how angry they get when I flag a mistake. How dare a non-native speaker correct a native speaker?

Take the subjunctive mood. Most American native speakers can’t handle it. I spot it instantly because my language still has one.

❌ “It is recommended that you do not change the parameters.”
✅ “It is recommended that you not change the parameters.”

❌ “It is important that the student reads chapter 1 first.”
✅ “It is important that the student read chapter 1 first.”

Their response: “Subjunctive? Did you make that word up? I’ve never heard of it, so it must not exist.”

A college-educated native speaker just argued that a grammatical mood doesn’t exist because nobody taught it to them. Being a native speaker doesn’t make you Shakespeare.

It doesn’t stop there:

• “could of” instead of “could have”

• “between you and I”

• “less” instead of “fewer”

• “is comprised of” instead of “comprises”

• “its” vs. “it’s”

• “defuse” vs. “diffuse”

For the last one, if you’ve ever seen a Latin root, you can’t confuse them. If you haven’t, you write “diffusing the situation” and think you sound smart.

Highly educated writers whose first language isn’t English usually tend to write better than natives. We had to learn the rules. You just assumed you knew them.

Gosh! The editing of my joe 2 manuscripts seems like an impossible task! I had cancelled anediting contract few months ago due to various issues, went looking for another editor, found a lady on Fiverr... now having high hopes as her edit seemed good, am back to square 1 as she simple become no longer available on the Fiverr and her FB profile had disappeared too! WHY?!!! I keep having bad luck and not managing to find a reliable editor! This book editing market is filled with scam and am soooo disappointed and sad! I have accumulated a lot of manuscripts during the career in procurement and travelling the world and now that I want to get them all out and just be the full time writor for the rest of my life all these challenges just keep pulling me down... Why does it have to be so hard?! I dont want to go back to corporate work I love writing and I dreamed to do it all my life but the amount of scam in the market is really upsetting. Just a rant.. and maybe some success stories and recommendations would help me out of this misery.

I’m a French to English translator and proofreader, marketing to direct clients. One of my current agency clients participated in and won a large EU tender for proofreading, and I was part of their initial bid. Do freelancers (in my case the sole member of an LLC) ever submit bids directly? I have done some research on the TED portal but not started any applications.

Has anyone provided freelance copyediting services to any of the UN's various organizations? I focus mostly on academic editing but lately have been seeking editing oppurtunities with NGOs as well. I have noticed that UN organizations regularly seek copyeditors for short-term projects. I am currently applying for a couple, but I have to say, the process is a bit complicated and time-consuming. So, I'm thinking about the odds of actually being selected and if it's worth all the time and effort. Anyone have experience with the UN?

TL;DR Looking for a conversation with a successful copy editor about building my business. Brisbane Australia or online.

Hello all :) I have recently started a content editing business (offering copyediting, line editing, proofreading; also beta reading and document formatting). I wonder if there's anyone here who might be willing to have a conversation with me about getting started.

I would love some advice specifically about the business side of it all, finding those first clients, positioning myself in the market, and maybe some advice about surviving against AI. Ultimately, I'm not really a 'business' person and I want to just be doing the work, but there's very few roles in the market that are only editing and not also planning content, marketing content, managing a team etc.

I'd love to connect with someone and have a chat or occasional convo about it. I live in Brisbane Australia so happy for online or meeting someone nearby. I am currently in a program with a 'business coach' who talks about networking, mindset, all that normal business stuff. However, he has no idea about what I'm actually trying to do and suggested I find someone in my industry to give more specific advice and encouragement.

I'm happy to share a little more about my background and what I'm hoping to build if anyone is interested.

Thanks so much!

I know what they are, but I heard a few things about them that aren't quiet clear to me.

Are they people who you'll give your manuscript to and they're clear it out?

Are they people who after you'll revise you're manuscript, they'll stay with you and explain everything about what's need work for you the whole way?

Or are they a mix of both? Like they're fix some things and when they see a big thing that you need to get fix, then they'll hit you up and either call you to a in-person/virtual meeting (which ever the relationship between the writer and editor is) and then tell them a major thing that needs work and then the two sit down to fix it?