I’ve always been a good proofreader, but I never realized how good. This is because I can’t accurately proofread anything that I have already read. In fact, I’m not so much better at proofreading, as I’m probably much, much faster. Anyone can have good spelling and grammar knowledge, but only an Aspie has a brain hard-wired to spot when something is out of place (indeed, pictures hung on the wall crooked drive me crazy). However, the superpower doesn’t help if I’ve read something before, because the errors look like they are correct.
I was wondering how much freelance proofreaders charged. I thought I could just check on Craigslist, but I don’t see any listings for freelance proofreaders. I couldn’t find much in Google, though I might have to look harder. However, I know one person who does that sort of work, and I looked up her rates. If her rates are typical, proofreaders make $30/hour. However, my friend reads about 3-4 pages per hour. I haven’t checked, but I’m reasonably sure that I could do more than ten. When I feel up to it, I will hang out my shingle at $30/hr for the first few jobs until I have references.
If you know anything about freelance proofreading, I’d like to hear from you.
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