I’ve had several people ask how to break into editorial freelancing. Freelance proofreading can be a good way to begin working in the publishing industry, but rarely is there enough proofreading work to make it a sole income source. University presses often spread the work out among many freelancers, carefully matching each book to the person proofreading it. If you look at my list of completed proofreading projects, you’ll probably notice a pattern. Moonlighting as a proofreader while working at a regular job or combining freelance proofreading work with indexing and other levels of editing can help smooth out the low spots.