Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Look at what Project Gutenberg US has done with their Distributed Proofreading? Why not hire people to do proofreading the same way?
|
First, you need to define what you mean by proofreading. It has multiple meanings within the publishing industry. If what you mean is to compare the OCR version against the original version and mark OCR errors, then probably most liuterate people could do it. If you mean checking the editing work, then most people cannot do it -- even though they think they can.
Second, volunteer proofreading for PG will get some well-qualified proofreaders volunteering because PG is seen as a worthy cause. I don't know any professional proofreader who will donate their time and expertise to John Wiley or Random House.
Third, if the volunteer prospect would work for commercial publishers, I think they would have tried it by now. Instead they are trying to get professional proofreaders to accept pay rates significantly lower than what they were even in 1995.