A Little Continued Education
- Andrew Heasman (Author)
- Jun 9
- 2 min read
Work as a freelance book editor and proofreader is a mixture of highs and lows (as in any other industry). We quite often have periods where we are overworked, having to schedule projects months in advance, followed by periods where you can see the tumbleweed rolling down the street and have to dust the keyboard of the computer through lack of use.
Okay, I exagerated a little. Lol. But at this time of year, for some unknown reason, I always seem to have a quiet spell (Don't worry - it usually picks up in June).
However, rather than sit twiddling my fingers, I decided to re-educate myself, whilst at the same time, conducting a bit of "market research" into a couple of the free author education courses available online.
As I offer basic formatting as an additional service to authors, I chose to explore the "Book Design" course offered by IngramSpark. I also looked at the SEO course run by the same company.
Having learnt how to format for KDP by experimenting with my own books, I have a pretty good "basic" grounding in the settings required to produce eBooks and print copies so I wasn't expecting this free course to go into that much detail. I was right. While it gives a good overview of the elements of design required to produce internal files and covers for books, it didn't go as far as to deal with settings (the information pages on KDP are far more detailed, and if followed carefully, produce good results).
The SEO course, on the other hand, was quite interesting (as much as SEO can be described as being interesting). It certainly gives you something to consider when you are setting up your book ready for self-publishing (keywords, categories, etc.)
So, if you have a bit of spare time and are about to self-publish your novel, why not have a look at these courses to get a bit of background knowledge.
They can be found at https://ingramspark.learnworlds.com/courses
Alternatively, you could always contact ProofwriteUK and add a basic format to any of the editing or proofreading packages on offer.
ProofwriteUK is a no-AI book editing service. No AI will be used to assess manuscripts, be used in the production of reports, or used in any way that exposes the work to AI bots.
For information of my copyediting, line editing, and proofreading services, go to https://www.proofwriteuk.com where all of your questions will be answered.
If you'd like to discuss your manuscript's requirements, or would like to obtain a FREE quote (or a FREE 1000 word sample edit), please contact me through my website's "contact" page, email address, or via Facebook or X (Twitter).
Email: AJHeasman.ProofWrite@aol.com
I also offer my services through Fiverr
