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In this series, I’ve been trying to encourage providers of writing services to try editing. In this post I hope to illustrate the process with an example.
Over the transom.
I still hear the ‘plonk’. Even though it’s a virtual manuscript hitting my in-box, I hear the sound of a ream of paper falling solidly on my desk.

You never know exactly what you are going to get, but if you’ve done the prep-work well enough, you have a pretty good idea. The initial sample you received from the buyer and the subsequent discussion gave you enough information to set your rate. But there’s still the plonk.

Here’s an example:*

Creating a Healthy Mindset

Do you feel like you could have a healthier attitude toward life? Would you like to change your attitude or simply approach things in a different way? It can be difficult with all of the stressors in your life to lead a healthy lifestyle, but the way that it needs to start is through a healthy mindset. Many people think that they are just meant to be a pessimist or they just aren’t as optimistic as a lot of the other people in their life. You can achieve a healthy mindset; you just need to go about it in the right way.

How You Can Have a Healthier Mindset

Many people sit back and look at their lives and wish that they could look at things in a more positive manner. Instead of working toward being positive they beat themselves up for being negative or not having the responses or attitudes that they wish they would have naturally. This is a typical response, but it doesn’t do any good. Instead of getting mad at yourself for responding the way you do, go about the desire to have a healthier mindset in a positive way.

What the buyer had to say.
“It’s too smooshy, too loose. Can you punch it up and have it read better?”

A little Q&A revealed that this was written to be SEO friendly. The original writer had her hands tied. I explained the trade-offs between readable and machine readable. The key phrase was ‘healthy mindset’, and I promised I would try to keep as many instances as I could while still keeping in mind that actual humans were the target audience.

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If you are still nervous about taking on editing/proofing jobs (and you haven’t yet taken the oDesk test) here’s a resource for you: www.newsu.org. You can find free courses there- both general writing and one called “Cleaning Your Copy” which runs through the material found on the oDesk test. There is also a practice quiz that helps identify your weaknesses.
Spinning
There is an odd sort of job which pays very well if you can sell it. A buyer already has something readable (an ebook or a website or a sales letter) and they want it redone to change the tone or the target (by target, I mean the reader it is meant for).

It could be something they already paid for and published. It might be an article they got from the net. Although this is really a rewrite, you will find it posted as an editing job. From the buyer’s perspective, the material is usable and written well enough, it just doesn’t ‘fit’.

Be very careful here. If they wrote it themselves, they aren’t going to be happy when you call it the worst piece of junk you’ve seen in a year. Tread lightly.
First translate
Translate what they tell you into your own language.

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The Need
I’ve noticed a trend on oDesk and other contract writing sites. The trend is to hire as cheaply as possible and then either the buyer edits the material into something usable or hires someone else to do it. (And when they get someone else to take a second look, you can bet the posting will include the phrase, ‘easy job’.) In other words, some buyers set out knowing they won’t get a good product out of the box and hire writers based only on the lowest hourly rate. Editing is part of how they are thinking about the job.

Feeding into this same trend are first-time or amateur authors (of web sites, sales letters and content) who realize, after struggling with a project, the results aren’t what they imagined. They are also looking for editing services.

Finally, a still rare but growing area is ‘freshening’ a website. An older site has gone stale over time; the company or product has evolved or the website just gets a worn-out feel. Although I consider a new set of clothes rewriting, these jobs are seen by some buyers as simple editing.

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This post is going to wander a bit, so please do bear with me.

I’d like to start with an announcement:
oDesk is going to end support for Internet Explorer 6 some time in September 2008.
I thought I had better put that out there just in case we have some readers who still use IE6 and don’t check the oDesk Community often enough.  If you’re in that group I really recommend going out and getting Firefox 3, or either upgrading to Internet Explorer 7 or Opera 9, or even Safari if you’re a Mac user.  Internet Explorer 8 is already in beta, so there’s no reason to be two generations behind the curve.

My own preference is for Firefox 3, although I use other browsers when I have to.  (I admit it, I’m a browser junkie and have four installed on this machine.)

Now that we’ve finished that important public service message, we now return you to your regularly scheduled posting.

In a previous post, I discussed some of the pros and cons of Google Documents and other forms of ‘Cloud Storage.’  While I do think Google Documents make a great collaborative tool I still have serious issues with storing client data on someone else’s machine.
Luckily, I have found an alternative.
Before I go into it further, I recommend you brace yourself, as I won’t be surprised if Nelson fires off a full broadside at this one (I expect him to look at it with his blind eye due to the source.)

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I’m still fairly new at writing for money. I took the plunge January 1st, this year. In many ways, I’m still a rookie. So when buyers contact me directly with an invitation, I am delighted and a little amazed.

The usual pattern is: read the job board, find something that I can do within a buyer’s budget, construct a cover letter, submit samples, apply, and wait. And wait.

The thrill comes when this process is turned upside down and interested buyers email me. Yippee!

What was it about my profile or my portfolio that had them picking me (and maybe a few others) out of the vast herd of writers at oDesk? Whatever it was, it’s a great feeling when it happens. I’m suddenly no longer a 5-drink Lucy (the one who only gets propositioned at the bar after suitors have had a few) and I’m the budding starlet plucked from an obscure waitress job to work on the big screen. (That would be a better set of metaphors if I were female.) Anyhow, it’s really nice.

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In a previous post, Becoming Invisible I mentioned some errors that shock readers out of the spell you are casting with your fine writing. I’ve accumulated more for my list and here they are.
Gaffs to avoid
These are mistakes I have collected from writing I have read or edited (and some I’ve made myself).

accept/except - She accepted (agreed to) the gifts, all except (excluding) the one from me.
principle/principal - The principle (rule) of parsimony was the principal (first, primary) reason I kept the article short.
discrete/discreet - The one means circumspect or prudent (discreet) and the other means separate from some group or category (discrete).
belief/believe - My belief (noun) is that you believe (verb) things I do not.
proceed/precede - To proceed is to continue or move on, precede means to go before in space or time, as an introduction might precede the main body of a book.
illusion/allusion - She mentioned the magician’s illusion (a false impression of reality) when making an allusion (implication or passing indirect reference) to how fake my passion seemed.
lay/lie - Lay is the action of placing something down (usually horizontally), while lie is the condition of being there. So, if I lay a book down on the table, it is lying there and it lies on the table.
to/too - The second means extremely, very, or in addition to. I am too (very) short for dancing and I am roundish too (in addition).
capital/capitol - Capitol is the building where the legislature meets, either in Washington D.C. or in a state. All the other meanings are capital.
then/than - Then is used for time and than is used in comparisons: I had more sense then (time) than (comparison) I have now.
accede/exceed - Accede means to agree to and exceed means to go beyond some measure or expectation.
access/excess - I had access to the secret vault where I found an excess of top secret documents.
all ready/ already - It’s already noon, are we all ready to go?
all together/altogether - We were all together on the train, although it was altogether too crowded to breathe.

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As a writer, I’m interested in the written word. How it connects my mind to yours and how that process goes awry. I’d like to point out something that happens to me quite often on the Internet. I’m reading along, and like an electric shock, some error or other jumps off the page and jolts my noodle. The unseen, jarring pothole throws me off and for awhile I can’t focus on whatever the writer was saying; I can only ’see’ the error.

OK, we all make typos and grammar flubs. That’s not exactly what I mean. What I mean is a sort of usage error that has you publishing, ‘Don’t loose your bowel.’ instead of the intended: ‘Don’t lose your bowl.’
What the psychologists say.
Evolutionary psychology proposes that we are pattern formers because it allowed our predator ancestors to pick out the unusual from the background. And these ‘things that don’t fit’ meant food or danger or ‘go look– be curious’; survival for the guy or gal who could best pick out errors in the pattern.

The point is that the feeling of abrupt interruption is hard-wired in our brains. We can no more turn it off than we can turn off the ‘I think my foot itches’ switch. The significance for writing is that we strive to become invisible to our readers. Unless an article is about me, I shouldn’t appear in it. The dissonance our readers feel when a proofreading error gets onto the page yells out, “Look, someone wrote this– and they goofed.”

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Each freelancing job is unique in some respects and we are constantly dancing with new partners. It’s one of the reasons we like freelancing; the variety keeps it fresh and interesting. A consequence of the variety is the initial back and forth we do for each job while we are coming to grips with this buyer- their particular expectations and requirements.
Getting a handle on a new project quickly is important. Relevant questions help, and they accomplish two goals. They frame the job as clearly as possible and they show buyers that you are a focused professional.
If you don’t ask meaningful questions and get good answers, you and your client are left without concrete milestones and objectives. We are writers; we are communicators; soliciting key information from your buyer is the first chance you have to show off your skills.

There’s one other side to consider- the buyer’s perspective. They are as much in the dark about you as you are about them. When you ask good questions they can see you are taking the project seriously. This instills confidence. It’s happened to me more than once: I asked questions on the message board to narrow down a job’s scope and landed the job before placing a formal bid. The buyer could tell I was interested and focused on the problems and specific needs of his project.
Buyers appreciate that you need some essential information to bid accurately and unless they are experienced at posting jobs on oDesk, they’ve probably left something out of the description. Here’s the top five questions I need answers to before I start work:

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In my first post on going it alone, I mentioned that you don’t have to sever ties with oDesk right off, rather, a mixed strategy was best. Here’s some more tips and tricks along those lines.
Funnel through oDesk.
This has already worked for me. A client wanted to link up in Skype. The job listing wasn’t through oDesk, but from another brokered site. Now, there’s a lot of back and forth when you’re chatting live. I’m trying to get more info about the project (word counts, number of pages- the usual) and he’s pressing me for a price. In the middle of this he asks about references. Off the top of my head (I’ll be prepared next time) I tell him my profile is at www.william.morrison.name. You might remember from the previous post in this series (which goes over how to claim your .name) that this URL currently points to my oDesk profile.

Well, it worked. He was impressed by my profile enough to hire me on the spot.

So, bottom line- you’ve spent some time getting your oDesk profile right. Don’t waste that effort. If you just pull up your profile without knowing about oDesk, you will see what a great ad it is. Funnel prospective clients through it, regardless of where and how they are hiring you.

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I recently posted on a Microsoft launch event that I attended in Washington DC, and Nelson made a comment about the sheer nerdish superiority of Linux over any Microsoft product. As a nerd/geek/computer addict I have to admit to a certain love for Open Source. Linux is a wonderful thing, even if I can’t get dual monitor support to work properly out of the box and have to fiddle about with command lines to do it.

As the Bard once said, “Aye, there’s the rub.”

As an enthusiast, I enjoy nothing more than fiddling with arcane configuration settings, overclocking, tweaking and half a hundred other nerdy pursuits. As a working professional, I don’t have the time. I use my computer for work, and every hour I have to spend working on it to get something configured ‘just so’ isn’t being spent earning money to pay the bills. That’s a problem.

Another problem I have has to do with the simple fact that lots of companies use Microsoft products, and if you want to work with them you need to have something that can read the files they send you. They also have to be able to read the files you send them.
If your job involves sending them several different files and the only one they can read is the invoice you won’t get paid.

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