Help me not Dooce myself

August 5, 2009 9:21 AM

Is there such a thing as a human blog editor?

I'm finally taking the plunge and starting a blog under my own name. Since we all know the internet is FOREVER, I am going to try to be fairly careful about how I express myself.
I know that I have no internal editor, so I need to rent one. Everywhere I look for a blog editor, it gives me software. Not what I need. I need someone to help me with grammar, clarity of thought, and keeping things fairly discrete/professional.
Is there such a thing? If so, who does it? How much do they generally charge?

posted by pomegranate to writing & language (15 answers total)

Sure, there are humans who do this. Hire a journalism student.
posted by jgirl at 9:26 AM on August 5, 2009

You could post in the "Paying Markets" section of the forums at AbsoluteWrite.com for free and probably find someone quite good. Or post on MeFi Jobs!

The Editorial Freelancers' Association Suggested Rates page is a good overview of what professionals charge in the US.

Good luck.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:26 AM on August 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

You just need a freelance editor, you can usually find lots of them on craigslist, especially if you look (or post) in major cities' pages. For example, I am one. Rates vary from person to person and project to project. I recently charged one client $15 an hour to go over her personal essays with her and make them more suitable for publication, but I've collected far more than that for corporate or last-minute projects.

If you find an editor who you are able to work well with, you'll probably learn so much from him or her that eventually you'll feel much more confident self-editing.
posted by hermitosis at 9:28 AM on August 5, 2009

I'm no professional, but I do enjoy editing and have been doing it on a favor-basis for friends and family since college (although I did do it for cash in college). After seeing your kindness for mrbill, I'd gladly offer my services to you on a trial basis (i.e. you can feel free to give me the boot at any time you see fit, no hard feelings). If it turned into a longer term / high volume basis, we may need to work something out, but if the possibility interests you, drop me a me-mail. You can read a bit of my own writing, linked in my profile, also my blog is there as well, to get a feel for my style.
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:28 AM on August 5, 2009

Sorry, I meant to type $25 an hour.
posted by hermitosis at 9:30 AM on August 5, 2009

Bear in mind that editors who don't routinely work with blogs are not necessarily the best at dealing with blog-style content. That said, they'll probably get you most of the way there from where you are now — in terms of grammar, syntax, and voice, a regular editor will suffice — but writing for blogs can be a different kettle of fish to typical article writing if you get really serious about it.
posted by wackybrit at 9:54 AM on August 5, 2009

Penelope Trunk has said on her blog that she has a blog editor. You could ask her about it.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:55 AM on August 5, 2009

Bear in mind that editors who don't routinely work with blogs are not necessarily the best at dealing with blog-style content.

Yes. There are lots of professional freelance editors who do work with blogs, though, so the OP shouldn't have trouble finding one.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:56 AM on August 5, 2009

How about just leave every post as a draft for 24 hours, give it another lookover and then publish. That should eliminate any heat of the moment type of regrets, and unless your grammar is particularly horrid, nobody will notice or care about the occasional misplaced comma or dangling participle.
posted by COD at 10:10 AM on August 5, 2009

I'm an editor and I read a lot of blogs, and honestly, most blog content is not that different from any other written content.

One hint (free!): after you've written something and before you hit post, read it out loud. You will catch missing words, homonyms, and other weirdness that you wouldn't catch just reading it silently.
posted by rtha at 10:57 AM on August 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

I also edit blogs for my husband's sports blog, so I'd be willing to help out if you need a back up to allkindsoftime. I've got English and journalism degrees so I have those editing skills, but I read a lot of blogs so I'm really comfortable with the stylistic differences. You can me-mail me if interested, and I can also send you links to the blogs I contribute to.
posted by questionsandanchors at 11:01 AM on August 5, 2009

I'm another freelance writer and editor who does a fair amount of this sort of work, so think of me as another person to memail if need be. Also, rtha is right on to say read everything out loud. Things that sound perfectly normal in your head can have their weirdness exposed when you hear them aloud.
posted by mostlymartha at 11:27 AM on August 5, 2009

You need a friend with an editorial eye who knows you and your goal. Also, and I say this as someone who is sitting in a social media conference at this very moment, this is something that we are going to see more of in the future. It isn't going to be hard to find someone in a couple years who specializes in editing blog content as this all becomes more common and mainstream.
posted by greekphilosophy at 11:44 AM on August 5, 2009

Ditto allkindsoftime, questionsandanchors, and mostlymartha—from 2003 to 2005 I ran a startup blog-hosting site with 500+ users (sadly now defunct), and currently do freelance editing on a fairly regular basis. (I'm also a magazine editor in my day job.) My blog is accessible via my profile. Long story short, if the above offers fall through (or if anyone else reading this thread is looking for similar assistance), this is right in my bailiwick.
posted by limeonaire at 12:36 PM on August 5, 2009

I imagine MeFi Jobs would be a great place to find one, both short and long term. Though I don't have experience in the field, I imagine you can scale pay at will, and you'll get a corresponding quality based on how much you offer.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 3:56 PM on August 5, 2009