Who am I?
Mary Bate Proofreading:
I have held several senior secretarial/PA positions throughout my career, been a teaching assistant in a junior school for seven years, worked in retail, and am currently working for a financial news service in London, along with my proofreading - which I have been doing since 2014.
Why proofreading?
That is an easy question to answer. In 2008 I joined a voluntary organisation called The Chantry Community Association. We published a newsletter three or four times a year on significant local issues, and it was my task to proofread and edit the letter before it went to the printers. That piqued my interest.
In 2012 I read an author's first book, which he self-published to Amazon Kindle. The book was fantastic: gripping and compulsive reading. But, it had a fair few errors in it - mainly spelling errors, and one or two other inconsistencies. I messaged the author and told him I thought his book was brilliant, but that he should fire his proofreader! When he admitted that he didn't have one because he couldn't afford one, I offered to proofread his next book for him for free.
I was unqualified, but picked up at least 30 or so mistakes, so how many others might there have been? I also proofread his third novel. I enjoyed doing this so much that it spurred me on to train professionally.
This YouTube clip does a brilliant job of explaining why we proofreaders are so important!
So ... here I am ... Check out my testimonials page.
I look forward to being able to help you.
Mary Bate Proofreading:
I have held several senior secretarial/PA positions throughout my career, been a teaching assistant in a junior school for seven years, worked in retail, and am currently working for a financial news service in London, along with my proofreading - which I have been doing since 2014.
Why proofreading?
That is an easy question to answer. In 2008 I joined a voluntary organisation called The Chantry Community Association. We published a newsletter three or four times a year on significant local issues, and it was my task to proofread and edit the letter before it went to the printers. That piqued my interest.
In 2012 I read an author's first book, which he self-published to Amazon Kindle. The book was fantastic: gripping and compulsive reading. But, it had a fair few errors in it - mainly spelling errors, and one or two other inconsistencies. I messaged the author and told him I thought his book was brilliant, but that he should fire his proofreader! When he admitted that he didn't have one because he couldn't afford one, I offered to proofread his next book for him for free.
I was unqualified, but picked up at least 30 or so mistakes, so how many others might there have been? I also proofread his third novel. I enjoyed doing this so much that it spurred me on to train professionally.
This YouTube clip does a brilliant job of explaining why we proofreaders are so important!
So ... here I am ... Check out my testimonials page.
I look forward to being able to help you.
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