What It Is (posts below left; rate sheet, client list, other stuff below right)

My name is Bob Land. I am a full-time freelance editor and proofreader, and occasional indexer. This blog is my website.

You'll find my rate sheet and client list here, as well as musings on the life of a freelancer; editing, proofreading, and indexing concerns and issues; my ongoing battles with books and production; and the occasional personal revelation.

Feel free to contact me directly with additional questions: landondemand@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting. Leave me a comment. Come back often.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Updates on Some Old Stories

Back on September 26, I wrote the following:

Do you think the fun ends there? Looking down the road, I am scheduled to receive the book for proofreading on October 17. The book will need to be read/marked up and FedEx'd back to the publisher. And when do you think the book is due back with them? October 19? October 18?

Stop it, you're killing me.

October 17.


Well, I guess the joke was on me, because I wrote the publisher around November 17 to find out about this and another job scheduled to come in at the same time. Both were under time constraints and went to press without proofreading -- at least not proofreading by me.

Gulp.

Not much I can do about that. But hearing about it from the publisher would have been nice, without having to track it down.

Here's the thing: I actually waited a month before contacting the publisher, because I've waited that long on earlier projects with this company . . . but the jobs always eventually showed up.

Any other publishers, I call the day after I'm supposed to receive something, and they are apologetic, not just for the lateness, but the lack of notice.

I suppose I can be thankful that not everyone does the lack-of-communication thing. Sometimes small projects from independent authors or occasional publishers can run late, but companies that are full-time in the publishing business are usually pretty good about keeping freelancers informed.

Usually.

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A young woman who worked with me as an intern some years back accepted a job last week as production editor with a large religious publishing house, of all things. Yes, English majors, jobs do exist. She also had an MA, though, which she earned after her time in the LandonDemand bunker. Production editor . . . that's sometimes the title of a person who hires freelancers. Hmm. How provident.

Another intern is working with me now, and I am thinking of having her do a guest editorial for the blog. Maybe what she thought editing was going to be about vs. what it actually is, or whether editing still holds any attraction for her after being exposed to three to four months of it. Any ideas?

6 comments:

Aunty Belle said...

Good grief!

I'se derelict--ain't been heah in awhile an' looky at all thas' been written--

An you under a heap o' proofreadin' work...jes' shows that youse a insomniac : )

Let yore intern guest blog--tha'd be fun.

Sorry yore Sunday were distrubed--ain't got much remedy, but KK singin' wuz a fine toss out.

Doan know this feedigt thang-

I hate quotidian too--the sound ain't ordinary, so it ain't a good fit, an' I doan like it--sounds as if it should be in the line-up wif' some of them Jurassic times--ay know? Like:

Ladinian
Tithonian
Bathonian

But capacious is useful--as in,
The Hermes Birkin is a capacious bag, sufficient for IMF chairwoman Christine Lagarde's jet setting needs. ( heh--thas' fer Moi)

Czar--chagrined to admit--I ain't even seen that photo at the bottom of the page--what a fine family!!

An--take heart--we's all a older an' it shows.

But--I doan wanna go back--do you?

Aunty Belle said...

gah!! thas' AN (not "a") insomniac.

czar said...

@Aunty: Thanks for the review.

Bottom line on do I want to go back? Depends on what I've learned that I can take with me. I guess that's the rub. Do I want to repeat? No way.

And no offense was intended, by the way, to the Grand Dame of Ether Capacious.

We have a UVA frosh visiting with us this Thanksgiving from Washington state. Boiled peanuts, Brunswick stew, fried turkey, butter peas . . . he's getting the full immersion.

Thanks for dropping by.

czar said...

And cornbread dressing, sweet tea, red velvet cake . . .

Aunty Belle said...

okay now--that DO sound like a fittin' feast. Uncle would approve--boiled peaniuts? You bet. Cornbread dressin'? of course! Butter peas? Whas' that, exactly? We serv es somethin; called Lady peas or white acre peas--is yore butter peas similar?

Sweet tea? MUST HAVE--an' red velvet cake? Wow--quite a menu.

Happiest of Thanksgivin' to y'all--an' the lucky UVA frosh.

czar said...

@Aunty: Butter peas are, I think the czarina would say, akin to baby limas. Cooked with a lot of butter, they are smooth and velvety, esp. compared to, say, black-eyed peas.

Were you aware that red velvet cake had its origins in Knoxville, at a steak restaurant that's still in business? The czarina and I would see the sign for the Regal Restaurant all the time when going to see our older son in Chattanooga, but never ate there. Some day, we'll take a trip to Knoxville and check it out.

Ironically, one of the best red velvet cakes I ever had came from our neighbor across the street (the woman whose husband was tearing up the driveway). She's Brazilian. Go figure.