Reflecting on 2024
2024 was a significant year for me. In short, I completed my proofreading training, set up The Editorial Geordie, and started making moves toward my professional development as a freelance proofreader. Admittedly, it was exciting, overwhelming, frustrating, and most importantly, rewarding.
In February, I completed the CIEP’s Proofreading 3: Progress training course. Although I didn’t pass with the mark I had wanted, it made me realise how demanding the job is and what I needed to work on to improve. My main critique was finding grammar and punctuation errors and being able to fix them accordingly. In March, I enrolled in the CIEP’s Getting to Grips with Grammar and Punctuation training course to help consolidate my knowledge, which will help not only my proofreading abilities but also help me follow style/house guides and create style sheets.
Around this time, I and a few of my University friends decided to start our own small publisher titled The Platypus Project, where we would collaborate on a passion project called 31 Frights which is a collection of short stories set in the fictional town of Able, modeled after the North East of England, where the project members are mainly based. We started this project by allocating roles to which I became the Chief Proofreader. This meant I became a member of the Chief Team, who essentially run the project and are the first points of contact for our writers. We set up our Facebook page which was a success.
In July, I decided it was finally time to start establishing myself as a proofreader and get my name out into the world. For weeks I researched where to start and how to do it, this included official guides, blog posts, and advice from fellow proofreaders. I curated a business plan where I rifled through potential names, and different website providers, and figured out what I actually wanted to proofread. Once I decided on a name, I started designing my website (which you are currently on!) which was very tedious as I didn't really have a vision before beginning the process. After many days and an accidentally deleted draft of the website later, The Editorial Geordie was born!
As a way to keep The Editorial Geordie brand active whilst job-seeking, I started writing regular blog posts on all things relevant to proofreading, beta reading, and ARC reviewing. To get started, I planned two blog posts a month, intended to be quick and easy reads catered to people who are new to the publishing industry. In 2024, I produced nine blog posts. Alongside these posts, are corresponding posts across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for promotional purposes.
This year, I was approached to become an official Reedsy Discovery reviewer. Once my application was approved, I was able to join a community of reviewers who aim to help support indie publishers by providing honest reviews. A good perk about joining Reedsy Discovery is you are given the opportunity to access hundreds of new titles and be regularly updated about new releases. Across Reedsy Discovery and Goodreads, I wrote 22 book reviews in 2024. I also applied for my first ARC read, which I was accepted to, and wrote my first ARC review.
In my search for freelance work, I started cold-emailing publishers. The aim was to have my name added to as many freelance rosters as possible, with the hope of gaining regular proofreading work. Across a five-month period, I emailed 41 different publishers and heard back from five. I am currently on four publishing freelance rosters, and I am signed on to work for a local charity on an external basis. I have my first proofreading job lined up for 2025, which I am very excited for.
In 2025, I plan on doing the following:
finding regular proofreading work
write more blog posts
become more consistent across social media
read more books and write more reviews
apply for more ARC teams
continue working for The Platypus Project.
Hopefully, 2025 will be equally as rewarding, if not more, as 2024 has been! I will be signing off for the year this week and will be picking back up in early January. My social media platforms are linked at the bottom of the page, so please follow them to keep up with me and my work. See you next year!
Lauren Ternent | The Editorial Geordie