December 11, 2006...5:07 pm
I get paid to read
I’m such a lazy reader on my own that even though I’ve run up a credit card debt from (too many) Amazon book purchases, I’ve had little time to read them and sometimes just enjoy them as the ornamental objects that they are, slim books lining my makeshift shelves in one extraordinary font and color scheme after another. I think that someday, when I buy a real bookcase, I shall read all the books, hopefully in one sitting, and become saturated in a composite world of Chinese architecture, art, and history, and dreams, death, and beautiful sentences. A dream, but a fun one to think about.
So to force myself to read these days, especially from cover to cover, and especially to stay in touch with today’s literature, I proofread in addition to my day job. (Oh, right, it’s to earn extra money, too.)
I take on mainly adult literary fiction; as my time is divided between writing, my day job, my dog, J, dance class, and mindless TV, I’d rather take on books that will either teach me something about the craft of writing or introduce me to a writer I’d never read on my own but who I’ve always been a little curious about because of the adulation or vilification heaped on him or her (such as John Banville or Maile Meloy). After I’m done with a job, I jot down some notes on what I’d learned from that particular book.
For this space, I’d like to share some of these notes,* partly to articulate for myself why I am attracted to or repelled by certain kinds of books and partly to promote those that particularly affected me. Proofreading, never mind writing, is a lonely job, and though in person I try to be tactful about the work I proofread and the work I write, I find myself sometimes so frustrated and puzzled by which books get a huge amount of attention (such as Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children) and which don’t (such as Philippe Claudel’s By a Slow River), that I just want to vent. I don’t know that I’m an articulate or smart venter, but I will try hard to be articulate if I can’t be smart.
* Note that for the current jobs, I’m not sure how much I can reveal about the book, as I don’t want to violate any tacit agreement between freelancer and contractor (i.e., keep your mouth shut till the book is published), so I’ll just withhold the ID of the title, author, and character names in the post, and then, a few months down the road after the book’s been published, I can feel safe to reveal.
With that out of the way, I’d like to just say: When Thomas Mallon’s new novel, Fellow Travelers, comes out in April next year from Pantheon, go go go add it to your shelves. A young Rock Hudson would play the lead character, utterly and devastatingly. You’ll see what I mean.
3 Comments
December 30, 2007 at 1:02 am
[...] things about the craft—which is what a good book should do for a writer. One reason I started freelance proofreading (aside from earning some spare change) was to stay up-to-date with contemporary writing. Well, to [...]
May 6, 2008 at 10:05 am
I am a voracious reader myself but have been proofreading since my teens. My mother was a newspaper writer/ editor and would give me volumes to proofread. Now that I have more free time, I would like to look into proofreading and editing in order to make some extra money. Any information you could send me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Janet Jones
May 6, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Janet, if you’re familiar with Chicago Manual of Style and Webster’s Dictionary (11th ed.), and have had some experience with proofreading books, you should be able to find work at any of the trade houses. The presses will have you take a proofreading test first, though, so be prepared. Good luck!
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