Hi folks.
I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Claudette. I started editing books this year. I never thought I'd end up doing this. The idea of starting up a business offering up my editing services came after I purchased a Kindle Fire at the beginning of the year. After Borders went bankrupt, there were no big bookstores left in my area, so I fell out of touch with my favorite authors. Once I bought the kindle, I purchased all the books they'd released and went through them. Within a few months I had read them all, and was left with no reading material. That's where I turned to the top 100 free list on Amazon.com, and I started downloading free books like crazy.
I found many new books by authors whom I'd never heard of, but I also found that many of these books had not been thoroughly edited before being published online. In fact, upon reading the reviews on the books with an obvious lack of proofreading, it became clear that most of the bad reviews came from readers who were angry about the lack of editing, claiming it made the reading experience unpleasant. I was able to detect the mistakes myself, and I wished I could do something about them, but I was too shy to contact the authors. One day, however, I came upon Joseph Lallo's 'Book of Deacon'. I downloaded it for free from my kindle and started reading it. I put it down less than one day later, having read basically nonstop for about 20 hours. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. However, it was riddled with errors. I thought it was an absolute shame that such a good story was getting bad reviews because of these mistakes which could've been easily fixed, so I decided to contact the author and offer my insight.
I was not expecting to hear back from him, but Joseph quickly replied. He said he'd allow me to prove my worth, and to go ahead and send him whatever mistakes I could find. I helped him out with that first book, then, with his approval, I went through the rest of his books, finding countless mistakes and pointing them out. With his endorsement, I posted my story on an online forum offering my services, and the rest is history. Many independent authors gave me the chance to prove myself and hired me, and I am happy to say I have not failed them. They're very happy with my work and they help spread the word about me. I thought I'd return the favor through this blog. It will be my place to post about the books I've worked on, as well as a place where future clients can view my résumé and find my contact info.
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