Proofreading Poorly Written Work

[jenspeck]

My gig is for proofreading/light copy editing romance novels and it’s been going well; however, it’s happened a few times that I’ve received a manuscript that is just so poorly written that I almost can’t proofread it. These are manuscripts that likely need some serious content editing, which is not a service I offer. Any suggestions on how to handle this sort of thing? 

Can I request a sample of the manuscript and then accept or decline an order based on that? 

[donnovan86]

3 hours ago, jenspeck said:

Can I request a sample of the manuscript and then accept or decline an order based on that? 

As I writer myself, I understand the pain. There are some people that want me to "edit" their work at a cheaper price than just writing. And I end up with stuff that's so bad I have to write it again.

If you are a part of the Seller Plus program, you can stop people from ordering with the "Request to Order" feature. If not, I recommend asking for the entire thing, not just a sample. You want to go through everything, because they might "manicure" the sample. That means the final thing might be really bad. It's just my opinion, of course. But for proofreading, I always recommend checking the entire thing and not just a sample.

[melanielm]

I have a similar issue at times. There is a difference between editing and completely rewriting things because they are just awful. I do ask for a sample of the writing before I tell the potential buyer what service they truly need. Most people contact me before ordering anyway, but using the Request to Order feature as Donnovan says makes a lot of sense.

[mpb0707]

Hi @jenspeck Hope all is well! I agree with both of the above suggestions. It is best to make use of the "Request to Order" feature if you are frequently receiving orders that require far more editing than your gig offers. I have run into this a few times with my own proofreading services. When a new buyer reaches out, I will usually send a small blurb explaining exactly what my services cover and what they do not (such as deep rewriting and fact checking, etc.)

Hope that helps!

[courtellyn]

Yeah, I was wondering about this while waiting for my WP form to go through. Good to know there's a way to screen potential projects by being able to look over a document before agreeing to take it on. I've worked with some doozies in my time, and not for pay. I don't mind a challenge, but come ON!

I'm curious to know if these suggestions worked for @jenspeck.

[jenspeck]

@courtellyn I ended up revising the description of my gig to be very specific. I added in a brief line of the writing/editing/publishing process and where proofreading falls in that process, as well as encourage buyers to contact me prior to ordering if they are at all unsure. 

And when a buyer messages me first, I make sure to ask where they are in the process and if they’ve worked with an editor yet. If they haven’t, I strongly advise them to do that first. 

Another thing that has helped is stating that when it comes to tense, I’ll fix the first 10 instances and after that, I will note it for the buyer to fix. I’ve found that when tense is the error, I end up having to re-write the content surrounding the tense errors. That’s a slippery slope that ends up with me doing line editing for the cost and time frame of a proofreading. 
 

Since revising, the quality of the pieces I’ve gotten has definitely gone up. 

[courtellyn]

16 hours ago, jenspeck said:

@courtellyn I ended up revising the description of my gig to be very specific. I added in a brief line of the writing/editing/publishing process and where proofreading falls in that process, as well as encourage buyers to contact me prior to ordering if they are at all unsure. 

And when a buyer messages me first, I make sure to ask where they are in the process and if they’ve worked with an editor yet. If they haven’t, I strongly advise them to do that first. 

Another thing that has helped is stating that when it comes to tense, I’ll fix the first 10 instances and after that, I will note it for the buyer to fix. I’ve found that when tense is the error, I end up having to re-write the content surrounding the tense errors. That’s a slippery slope that ends up with me doing line editing for the cost and time frame of a proofreading. 
 

Since revising, the quality of the pieces I’ve gotten has definitely gone up. 

Ah! Excellent! Thank you for explaining the things that made a difference. Hugely appreciate it. I'm excited to get started, but nervous, too, about encountering difficulties like this. I'll be keeping these tips in mind.