My first post 16/05/2012 (Australia)

  Hello there world. Welcome to my little corner.
 Even as recently as a month ago, I would not have believed I would ever do this.  All because of buying a Kindle reader to save money on buying books, and accessing some that I could never hope to find in this godforsaken country.
 Then, when I started reading "Kindle books" I got so irate about all the errors, that I cut loose on Amazon.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they were willing to correct their books, but they would first PULL THE BOOKS from their website, and that corrections could take 4-6 MONTHS to correct. And, if you don't mind, I had to find the errors that I objected to, and provide them with Kindle reference numbers.  After that, when/if Amazon would correct these errors, I would receive a corrected copy, and the books would be re-instated on their sales lists.
 Now, strange as it may seem, I didn't accept that as a fair deal.  Especially for the authors!
So, I thought, what happens if I approach some of these authors directly??? ( You know, the old mountain and Mohamed bit).  I was amazed at some of the responses I received.
 Suffice to say, some good, some hostile, and none from others.  I always thought that authors would be only too happy, to have some-one offer to help them with better quality control for their readers.  Seems that I was wrong.  I've since been told that most authors have a very touchy ego, and ANY comment is perceived as negative, and criticism. Oops. Not what I was trying to do.
I've only been reading proper books since 1955, in 3 different languages, and I've read a LOT. Maybe I only retain somewhere between 60 and 85 percent, but that's still a lot! So what would I know about what readers want?
 So far, I've been offering my my 'suggestions' for corrections for free, but some of the authors who have accepted my comments have been so impressed that they have suggested that maybe I could legitimately use my talents to provide a service for authors;  For a FEE.  To be honest, I like that idea.
 I can't do much in the way of physical activity, because I have a severe heart condition, but , read and type? Yep, that I can do.  I've often been accused of having swallowed a dictionary, a comment which in Australia is considered an insult.  It's perfectly alright to drink yourself stupid 6 nights out of 7, as long as you can still roar out the local team's song. ( Never mind that the local code of 'football' is one that would shock the Visigoths.) But; to actually aspire to quality in a literary sense?  Bulls are full of it, 'mate'!  If you want to see some-one get stroppy, just ask my son about dictionaries, and lexicons.

So, I decided to look around at the prices charged in the industry.  WOW.  How do struggling newcomers afford them? They not only seem unreasonable but the words "exorbitant", and "excessive" feature in there somewhere for me. Given that e-books sell for a LOT  less than printed books, and are quite often short, (anywhere between 30 and 150 pages seem to be the norm), I would think fees for proofreading should be commensurately lower. By the same token, you, as an author, don't want to pay peanuts for a shoddy job, either. Because then you have to get it done again, and pay a higher fee anyway, There's no point in that, and , heaven forfend, it may even make your book worse, not better. Plus it delays the publishing of your work.

  So, my offer is this; Anyone who wants to sample my skills, may send me a sample of their work; ( no more than 50 kindle pages please) and have it proofread for FREE.   That is a 'One off' only, for each author.  After that, we can negotiate. Send it to me as an attachment to an email, in a Word doc format please.  I will return it the same way, with a separate doc giving your version, and my suggestions, and/or spelling corrections.  This is for books written in standard English, and I can adjust for 'English' or 'American' spelling.   I was considering a flat fee of $25 USD for anything up to 50 pages, and depending on how big the book might be, a reasonable rate for anything bigger. I'm happy to consider any suggested rates.   My door is open.  Just remember, I live in Australia, and my time zone is ridiculously out of synch with most of the civilised world in the northern hemisphere.