Back to Basics: Resuming Old Work I Used to Do... Editing and Proofing
As you have no doubt gathered from my occasional "railing and wailing" in our day and age, I have been looking uneasily at the possibility of having to go back to the world of having a "normal" job.
No, this doesn't have much to do with slumping crypto markets, it has a lot more to do with slumping demand across pretty much all the sales based businesses Mrs. Denmarkguy and I own and operate — and have been, since long before there was Steemit.
Just wanted to make that clear.
Fog over the Pacific, Big Sur, California
Back to the Past?
Anyway, I am holding out hope that it may still be possible for me to not leave the comfort of self-employment... at least not quite yet.
Recently, I have started "putting it out there" that I am back in the editing and proofreading business, and amazingly enough... work has already been flowing my way. Nothing major yet... but at least I have a couple of projects working now, and they are paying gigs, not just "favors for friends."
Whereas editing isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world, I *am" very good at it... and it's contract work I can do from the house. And those are definite upsides.
The industry is a little different from the last time I was involved... but the "good news" is that people's writing has actually gotten shittier, thanks to people writing on tables, using voice-to-text, and autocorrecting. Seems a bit odd to say that, but the result is that there's actually work to be found, if you know people who still care about putting a quality product out there.
Spring Flowers
Time Here, Time There...
I suppose it does mean that I might have less time to be active in the community here — which makes me a bit sad — but you have to do what you have to do.
For now, time will tell.
Interestingly enough, the pay rates have gotten better again, after an initial massive slump in pricing when people discovered they could outsource editing jobs to people in South East Asia with English degrees from American and UK Universities. Seems the "$5 hourly wage" isn't as much of an issue as it was 10-15 years ago.
Little glimmers of hope!
Hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!
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Created at 190316 00:11 PST
0933
I feel your pain my dear friend. At our age, we certainly 'should' have people doing "normal" jobs for us and not the other way around. ;)
Well, if that's the case... please, throw me a loud whistle if something well written in 'weird spanglish' knocks at your door in need, to try lighten a bit your heavy load. LoL
After all these years of being self-employed, the idea of going back to an "office job" (I last had one around 1997) is really not very attractive. But it's not the first time I have had to "reinvent" myself... and it probably won't be the last.
Well, the last paid office job that I had while working for others, was nine years earlier than you. And certainly self-employment has been my spearhead since then.
After that, a lot of grand projects with a bunch of partners on my lap. Other times, with plenty more humble & lonely projects only upon my back exclusively. And more recently, neither the one nor the other but the opposite. };)
So you'll tell me what it means to reinvent yourself all the time. This has been a daily trait from long time ago. Since it has already become the neverending story for everyone thus far. :)
Nice, wish you all the best. How did you start editing?
Pretty much started back in my college daze... my freshman English professor was confused as to why I was in his class... "You don't need to be here; you write at a PhD student level... I'll give you an A if you help me grade essays; you don't need to come to class."
Since then, I've mostly free lanced through knowing people in the publishing industry.
Lol that's really nice and funny, and somehow awesome, I wonder how your writing's must have been then. I'm in this writing line myself, but you're a bunch of years ahead of me, I hope to make a career out of it, a future, I'm really passionate about it, though at some point I think it takes more than passion to live a life as a writer if you're not a million copy seller. What advice do you think will help me on my way? By the way, here's my first attempt at a book, it will be a blessing to have you take a look, just an opinion will be amazingly satisfying,
https://steemit.com/bigwaves/@mistakili/monster-love-and-bloody-hands-manuscript-t02