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.

Friday, March 11, 2016

If You Can't Shill for Your Own Spawn . . . Chicago -- "Hey Peter, Bye Peter"

"Hey Peter, Bye Peter" at the Annoyance Theatre, Chicago

Joey Mitchell

Already extended a week, and it hasn't even opened yet. If you're within 100 miles of Chicago, or farther, carve out a Friday night in the next five weeks and go. There's a 20 percent chance you'll see me there.

You're welcome.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Fog's Rolling In

The present book I'm indexing and the last two -- from three different publishers about three different topics -- have some of the same entries and subentries. I gave up trying to remember which client I'm working for a few days ago (not that it should matter that much), but I'm growing very confused.

I'm also getting older. As I tell mi esposa these days, "I've sat down . . . and I can't get up."

Not an endorsement.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Basic Typing Rule

If the first character of one of your pieces of communication begins with a shifted character on the number line that's not 4, 8, 9, or 0, I probably don't want anything to do with it.

This notion goes to everyone  out there who want to engulf me in # this and @ that. When did everyone's thoughts become so important that I'm exposed to them in the place of fact? On an election night when Wolf Blitzer is on the air, the only thing I want to know from the Twitterers are what desk they're under.

CNN is the worst, and that's from an admittedly limited sample. I don't need to know EDfromLA9642's (sorry if you're really out there) 140 characters or less about anything in the context of a freaking news story.

I just went to look up information on a company history, and before the page loaded I had to watch a mosaic of a buncha huge quotes from people's Twitter feeds. That makes me care about the company less.

I protect my flip phone these days because I know where its loss, failure, or accidental laundering ends up next, and I don't like it.

Be There or Be Square

Click the link.


2016 Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium, June 10-11, Enhancing Pride in Appalachian Literature and Culture


I'm in there with a group of regional intellectual heavyweights, it appears. The conference has stepped up its game since my last go-round in 2010. I'll get by with my usual unscripted 45-minute ramble and rant, followed with 15 minutes of questions. Last time I presented, I was off-topic within the first 15 words of my prepared comments, and that was it for the prepared comments.

The author listed below me in the symposium engages the Land on Demand editing staff, so that's fun.

Photo at the link was taken by the czarina in a wonderful new brewpub in Bristol, VA, called Studio Brew. While Bristol is a Good Place to Live (the sign below says so), going into Studio Brew makes you feel like you've gone into a different city, which sometimes isn't a bad thing at all.

(If you can't read the caption, it says "Picture of a Mountaineer in Virginia, His Ass in Tennessee.'")