Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Some seem to think that proofreading will be farmed out to the crowd on a per page basis, but I feel that anyone who edits a page needs to have an understanding of the entire work for their edits to have any worth.
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per-page editing is not going to be much better than computerized by-word spell-checking or by-sentence grammar checkers. To do more than "first-pass" proofing and go into proper editing you need to read the whole work. (Or Watson-class supercomputers.)
On the other hand, first-pass editing is a suitable entry-level position for a professional editing service. Let the interns clear up the obvious stuff so the experienced editor can focus on the deeper stuff. There's a business there.
The ebook evolution isn't going to stop with "do-it-all-yourself" self-publishers; before the dust settles were likely to see all sorts of new professional services businesses built off the bureau approach. Instead of hunting a cover artist, you sign up a Cover Bureau and their inhouse staff offers up a variety of styles and the author chooses the general type of cover desired, whether photographic, CGI, abstract, etc...
Once the monolithic traditional publishing model is not the default for every author or project, there is going to be a lot of options out there.