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Originally Posted by greencat
I don't think the next booming profession will be copy editor as companies are looking at reducing the rates they want to pay for many of the reasons outlined above.
It is also fairly difficult work requiring lots of concentration. Sadly it is not the kind of job where you can goof off for a few hours and no-one will notice.=
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And in many cases, doing it right requires specialized knowledge of the subject the book is about.
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I can see a rise in hobbyist copy editors/proofers. Basically these will be people who might have read your book anyway and in exchange for a credit/small sum/free copy/early access will spot the glaring stuff. Perhaps the 80/20 rule might start to apply - ie if most of your amateurs don't spot the error then most of the population won't either. Books might go through beta cycles - pay a dollar for a uncorrected version and get it now or a five when it's complete. Indie authors/small publishers with small dedicated followings might well start taking advantage of this kind of crowdsourcing.
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They might indeed. But one thing that occurred to me is how critical this stuff might be for most readers.
I take my SO as an example. She reads a
lot - usually a book a day, sometimes more. But for the most part, she doesn't
re-read. Books are disposable commodities for her. And she reads quickly enough that errors have to be really glaring to be noticed - she'll automatically correct to what it's supposed to be by reflex and may not notice something's wrong.
For folks like that, crowdsourced copy editing/proofreading might be adequate, as they won't need it perfect, just good enough.
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Outsourcing overseas? Often local English is significantly different than British or US English. I think increasing software based automation is likely though.
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So do I, though you'll run into the limitations of automated processing.
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Dennis