AcademicWord freelance editing experience?

May 23, 2005 12:30 AM

Does anyone have any experience or first-hand knowledge about working for the AcademicWord company? Is it a legitimate operation or is it too good to be true? I'm confident I have the skills, do they pay their bills? (MI)

If not, does anyone know of any other similar contract editors? I enjoy proofreading and editing. Something about the process triggers some pleasure center in my brain - it feels like the same spot that gets tickled when I play Tetris. I could use the extra income. I have experience editing online and off. I've done technical writing, marketing copy-editing for Statements of Qualifications and proposals for engineering firms, user manual creation, resume creation/editing and more.

posted by loquacious to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: I don't have first-hand knowledge, but looking at their website, I'd give pretty good odds that they are legitimate. I'm not sure why you think they might be "too good to be true" - the entire website is focused on getting customers (academics) to pay for editing of articles - not exactly something that lends itself to fly-by-night operations. The advisory board consists of people who are eminiently verifiable (I didn't), and there is a street address, not a PO box.

Since this will be part-time work, you're not risking anything except a relatively few hours of your time. (Under no circumstances should you pay them anything, of course, but I really, really doubt that this will come up, unless you make the huge mistake of asking.) You can certainly tell them you'd like to start slow (say, no more than 10 hours a week), if they say that they want to hire you. If they're legitimate, they'll want to go slow with you, too, to see if you meet their requirements.

As to whether they pay their bills, there are places to check for complaints - Better Business Bureau, court records, local government agencies, I'd guess. Whether it's worth spending the time to do so is another question.

In general, for freelance editing questions, you might start with this discussion board.
posted by WestCoaster at 5:18 PM on May 23, 2005

Response by poster: Much thanks for the comment and especially the link, WestCoaster.
posted by loquacious at 7:33 PM on May 23, 2005