I'm a professional book formatter (among other things).

I'm a professional book formatter (among other things). This is a piece I wrote for indie authors about whether you should format your own book. If this applies to you, feel free to drop me a line to chat about it. It's a headache, I know!

https://garethsouthwell.substack.com/p/should-you-format-your-own-book

#books #indies #formatting #design #writing

@garethsouthwell Interesting and beautiful. I do English-language editing typically for translated work, and the culture in my country of residence is that the language editor also checks PDF layouts. I've told clients before that doing so is not a part of my skill set, but your illustration only drives the point home.

@Furthering Thank you. So, they ask you to do the proofreader's job? That's a bit naughty! May I ask what country that is?

I think the lines are blurring between a lot of these roles. When I do formatting for indie authors, I often end up doing a bit of proofreading (spotting typos, grammatical errors, etc). This is no substitute for a professional proofreader, as I tell them.

@garethsouthwell Ah, yes, they don't consider editing and proofreading to be separate tasks, and I end up filling multiple roles for the same job (even though I'm no proofreader, either, and don't like proofreading).

I'm in Lithuania, and I think it's similar throughout the Baltics and probably beyond. So I've done everything from creating style guides/making significant style decisions to substantive/developmental editing to copy editing to layout checking. One thing I will not do is "check" end notes/footnotes.

But the freelance work is drying up -- for my translator colleagues, too. So generally, we take what we can get and do what we're asked.

@Furthering Those two things - roles combining and work drying up - are probably due to AI, don't you think?

If you work in English, and have friends who are looking for work, I'm currently setting up my own anti-AI press - https://woodpigpress.com/call-for-publishing-freelancers-creatives-readers-and-reviewers/ - please feel free to share widely.