As part of my plan to become a ‘professional editor,’ I have today submitted my application to join the Society for Editors and Proofreaders, which is a UK association. I’ve spent many an hour on their website, reading up on various levels of membership, training courses and other such advice. I shall start on the bottom rung of the ‘virtual’ ladder – as an Associate Member – and from what I’ve read, I then have to pass certain criteria to progress to an Ordinary Member.

It’s a long process for someone like myself who is just starting out, but I don’t mind because it will (hopefully) show potential clients my level of commitment to editing. To upgrade from an associate member to an ordinary member, I have to have taken training courses within the last thirty-six months and have fifty hours of ‘editing hours worked,’ I would also need to supply two client references. It all looks rather complicated, but I don’t mind that as I’ll work my way through the stages one day at a time.

I plan to begin with the ‘Introduction to proofreading,’ although I have no plans to become a proofreader, I had a ‘play’ on the Sfep’s free proofreading test and didn’t do quite as well as I thought I should.

This doesn’t mean I don’t have the experience to edit in the meantime. I’ve always been a reader and a writer, and have worked hard on both personal projects, and through various English Literature degree modules to improve my creative writing, while the year I spent as an intern for an independent publishing company engaged my interest with regards to the submission and editing process.

Anyway, I’ll end this post with a link to the documentation on the routes to Sfep memberships, just in case there is anyone else interested: http://www.sfep.org.uk/pdocs/routes_to_membership.pdf