This is what I've just paid £395 for! Yikes! It's a folder, with some sheets of paper in it, and it came with the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation 'for free'. Now, it doesn't look much for the money, (and actually this is not the whole thing - there are some more sheets of paper to come!) but I'm hoping that this little unassuming bit of thing is going to be the gateway to the good life for me. Oh yes. Well, that may be overstating its potential (and mine) a little. We'll see. But I am going to learn to be a proofreader. Hopefully this little course with The Publishing Training Centre at Book House will lead to some more courses, and some paid proofreading, and some mentoring (for me, not by me) and then an accreditation if I'm good enough. Knowing me though, I'll be bored after a bit and decide that I do want to be an astronaut after all.
Book House is a well-respected provider of this kind of training. I wrote an email to Penguin Books a couple of weeks ago, and asked for some advice on the best proofreading training, and they recommended Book House. In fact, they said that they only use proofreaders from Book House. I then felt proud of myself for being able to sort the wheat from the chaff in a Google search, because I had picked out Book House as the best course provider myself, before the Penguin lady had even got back in touch with me. Aren't I clever?! Well. Lots of people, professional and not, advised me against using Chapterhouse - I was wary of this company as soon as I saw its website. It offered the cheapest course - but that rang alarm bells for me. Cheapest so often means lowest quality. And this was confirmed for me when someone my mum knows advised me that Chapterhouse passes almost everyone who takes the course, even if they're not very good, which is why publishing houses don't tend to use freelancers who have a Chapterhouse certificate.
So that'll all be quite exciting and interesting. I've got work to do again! Weird feeling. But I'm looking forward to it. I shall start my reading tomorrow.
But when will I write? Oh. Well, I'll just have to see how this week goes. I'll read some of this material and see how quickly I think I'm going to take it in. If there is no room for writing for a few weeks then so be it; I'll just have to tough it out.
Oh, does anyone want a copy of the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation? I bought myself a copy of this very same book a few months ago, when I enrolled on the MA in English with the OU (which I might have to defer for a year, but we'll see), so I now have two! It must be a sign that this is what I'm supposed to do next! Though it can't be, because I don't believe in signs. Must just be a coincidence then.
Far too many exclamation marks in my post today! I'm supposed to be learning to be a proper writer, and a proper writer should never need to use an exclamation mark!
Well, there should have been lots of other things for me to write about today, such as the Scout Festival, and risotto, and the beach, and the rain and thunder storm (storm, ha!), and something else that I've forgotten. But I've got to go to bed and get some sleep now. Busy few weeks ahead.
Night all.
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