Proofreading is also an ancient profession, and many people should have heard of the official name of the school bookseller. It's just that I'm too pursuing profit now and I underestimate proofreading a little. In fact, proofreading is very important, it is an important link to ensure quality. Digital publishing is not proofread, so there are many mistakes and it is unbearable to read. )
What exactly is proofreading like? Let me lift the veil for you.
The main job of proofreading is to be faithful to the manuscript. Every word, every sentence and every punctuation can't be let go. Is there any standard? Yes Punctuation, number usage, pinyin usage, references, etc. There are national standards, and the correct use of words mainly refers to modern Chinese dictionaries. Almost everyone has a dictionary.
In fact, the most important thing for a book to read is not only the mistakes in words. What is the most important thing to see?
The first is political issues. From proofreading to social leadership, we must strictly control. Zhuhai Publishing House, which was once all the rage, was banned for publishing a book about the position of Taiwan Province Province, and a big club, such as a tall building, collapsed instantly. Books involving religion or controversial political figures such as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang must be submitted for trial.
The second is a factual error. For example, Bai Juyi wrote Song of Eternal Sorrow, but the article said that it was written by Li Shangyin. If there are many such mistakes in the book, the quality of the book will be unqualified.
The publishing house will publish hundreds of books all year round, and some are in a hurry. I will give you the manuscript today, and you must read it tomorrow. Every day, I either read the manuscript or read it on the way.
The publishing house where I work is acceptable, and sometimes I can take it home to read it. It is said that there is a publishing house that rarely takes a break all the year round and asks to work overtime in the company. (Not normal? )
Work never stops, and there are often five or six books in line. Whoever is in a hurry will coordinate with each other and jump the queue. I can only listen to the arrangement, but I can't help it.
Some manuscripts are of poor quality, and sometimes they make me cry and scold my mother. Can such a poor book be published? I can't help it People publish it at their own expense. In order to make money, the company is willing to drink this rotten porridge. Some books are in the system, with a strong bureaucratic atmosphere, but there are few mistakes, so you should read them even if you cry. Some market books are good and worth reading.
You need to read the manuscript in an absolutely quiet environment, otherwise it will be very noisy and you won't find any mistakes. As far as I am concerned, there can't be any noise around, so there are only two people in our office. If nothing happens, we can read each other's manuscripts and say nothing. When in doubt, I will discuss and give some suggestions.
Others seldom come to our office, only when the editor needs to show us the manuscript. In the long run, we feel like outsiders. Others visit each other, discuss topics, and even have dinner together to brainstorm. We can only sympathize with each other and live alone.
The school contrast editor is much lower. Originally, the wage level of the whole publishing industry was much lower than that of other industries.
I'm not afraid to expose myself. I only get nearly four thousand yuan a month. This is when I read the manuscript non-stop, a Harle1340,000 words. One thousand words 1.5 yuan is the standard fee for proofreading in our company. Many publishers have this price. But some societies draw boundaries, and the excess will give higher prices, encouraging you to see more and get more.
Holding such a salary in a first-tier city has long been laughed off by relatives in my hometown. A neighbor once asked me, do you earn tens of thousands of dollars? In their eyes, in first-tier cities, there are tens of thousands. Otherwise, how dare you say that you are in Guangzhou?
The only advantage of proofreading is to do part-time work. After work, receiving some manuscripts from other institutions is considered as extra income. I received very little, because there was a mountain of manuscripts in our club, and there was nothing I could do. However, my leadership is different. He directly refused to edit a steady stream of manuscripts from this institution and read a large number of manuscripts from other institutions. This part-time income equals or even exceeds his salary.
Many people have misunderstandings about proofreading, including my friends and relatives. Let me answer four common misunderstandings first.
Knowing that my job is reading, a relative told me with envy that you read so many books every day and have a wide range of knowledge.
If I read all the useful books and good books, I believe my vision and knowledge will be really wide. Unfortunately, a large number of books in our club have little nutritional value. If you read too much, you will become stupid.
Rigid content, poor writing. I feel uncomfortable and depressed after reading it. No one taught me, and my writing gradually deteriorated. Of course, if you meet a good book, you will still benefit a lot. My leader is very knowledgeable because he has read many manuscripts of other institutions. Almost every industry knows something. There are few words, people or things he doesn't know. In this case, I should also do more part-time jobs.
Because I often take the manuscript home, my mother-in-law saw me revising it and leaned in curiously, but she changed a few punctuation marks and occasionally made a typo, which made it easy to proofread. Once, she told me cheerfully, it's so simple, can I do it?
I find it both funny and sad. Ironically, she only has a primary school education, but she thinks she can take my place. Sadly, in the eyes of others, my proofreading is so despised.
Is proofreading really that simple? China's Chinese characters are extensive and profound, and each word has multiple uses and meanings. If you don't understand, you can't tell if it's wrong. A large number of facts, if you don't master them all, how can you find others misusing them? Although I have been doing it for more than six years, I only know a little fur and master a little knowledge.
I have been a leader for more than ten years, and over time, the general manuscript is not a problem, even if it is very professional, he can chew it. So the club can't live without him, and the editorial leaders of other clubs also ask him to help read the manuscript. If proofreading can achieve this level, it is also great.
Someone has developed a dark horse proofreading software, and many typos can be found. This greatly saves some manpower. But no matter how clever you are, you can't replace labor. The machine is dead, but the words are alive. Some words need to be distinguished to know if they are used correctly, so naturally they cannot be found.
We often go through the dark horse software to find out the obvious typos, and then we still have to proofread it three times. Generally speaking, the quality of a manuscript can be almost guaranteed as long as it is checked three times. But good proofreading is hard to find now. Even if you read it three times, you can't guarantee the quality of the manuscript.
My husband often finds an idiom or an uncommon word to ask me what it means. Sometimes I can answer it, sometimes I don't know. He would say sarcastically, I don't even know this word, and you still proofread it.
Who said that proofreading must know the meaning of all the words? Many times, we need to look at the dictionary again and again, check the difference between the two, and even can't judge correctly. A dictionary, which has been turned over for several months, is broken and broken.
Even so, our knowledge is limited, because the mystery of words is endless, and there are too many unknowns in this world, waiting for us to explore and recognize.