So, I'm just getting started off as a proofreader. I don't have my own website yet, but I will soon. I have a pretty strong education and background in English and writing with a graduate degree. I do also like to write, and I'm not quite sure why I don't write reviews on here. I did once years ago and it was rejected and I never felt like trying again. It seems that many of the better review writers on here know certain technical terms relating to music theory that I'm not familiar with but could probably learn.

Anyways, I was wondering: does anyone know of any online (or otherwise) metal magazines/metal blogs that might be in need of proofreaders, editors or even writers? I'm mostly trained as a proofreader, but I can learn to do the others.

I just love reading about music so much that it would be really nice to be able to just read articles about metal and clean up any grammatical or punctuation errors. I mean, it's barely work when you like what you are reading. On the writing side, it would also be pretty cool to be sent cds in the mail or be asked to listen to links and then get paid to review them.

So yeah, I was just curious if anyone knows of anyone out there who needs this kind of thing. I don't charge money just yet as I'm gaining experience and testimonials, but soon I will.

Surely a good starting place to build a public resume might be doing reviews on this very website? If you haven't done it before, your early reviews are likely to be pretty average, but you will quickly develop your own style, vocabulary and persona within those reviews. You will also be able to point to them as you start going for paying positions.

I can't imagine those magazines or sites having much money to throw around. I think you would be better off starting your own site or blog and maybe even try posting videos on youtube and the various other video sites. If you do well you can link to Amazon purchases and or get sponsors and patreon.

CDs in the mail is a very 90s-early 00s thing and is now (almost?) obsolete. It's links. And nobody will pay you to write. I would be very surprised if any of the zines or blogs paid a single dime to their editors. Some magazines might offer you free tickets to gigs though (to write a live report about obviously!)

I'd send a mail to the big ones (Blabber, Loudwire, Metal Injection etc) cause there is a slight (SLIGHT!) chance they might be paying at least something as they at least make some money. I don't read them much (barely at all) because most of the times it feels like paid advertisments ("feels like") or clickbaiting nonsense - so I don't see any enjoyment in it - but YMMV and it could be a thing to put on the resume.

If you do your own thing, you need to be consistent and persevere - and write about what you know. That's the only advice I have. With respect to the site "reviewer for M-A" sounds an awful lot like "instagram model", which doesn't mean that writing reviews here is a waste of time at all (it's great practice and you can get some feedback), just not something resume-worthy IMO.

I think Dungeon_Vic probably has the right take. Sorry. I would guess (FWIW) that it's hard to find decent employment as a proofreader, let alone a metal review proofreader specifically.

It's been a long time (about ten years) since I checked, but proofreading seemed to me like one of those positions that mostly offers irregular/freelance employment - and the more stable and secure positions probably attract a lot of attention from liberal arts and humanities grads struggling to find decent work that isn't completely unrelated to their studies. Sucks to say. Hopefully I'm wrong!

I agree with Dungeon_Vic that writing or proofreading for metal zines/blogs is not really going to make any money. Not sure that I ever thought it would to be honest. Should have been obvious.

However, you are incorrect about people not being able to make money as proofreaders and/or editors. Editors make more money than proofreaders cause it's the harder skill, and eventually I hope to get to the point of maybe being an editor. But as of this year the average salary for a proofreader is $56,000 and change per year. Certainly nothing spectacular, but enough to live a low-key lifestyle (DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE of course...) without a whole lot of extravagances, which I'm aware would be the case for me.

As a freelancer, a lot of it is about how you market yourself and how much attention you can attract to your website. I was just on the phone with my web developer today talking about the logistics.

And as a member of the Editorial Freelancer's Association (probably the biggest online editing org.) and from talking to the people on there it is almost unanimous that proofreading and editing are jobs with FAR more demand than there exists actual legit proofreaders/editors.

There's just SOOO much writing out there, whether online or offline, blogs, websites, articles of all kinds, fiction, non-fiction etc etc. that is HORRIBLY written and where no one ever even checks to make sure that the grammar or punctuation are correct. Some people don't care and put their stuff out there anyway, but there's enough people who want to have their writing actually look good that the demand is certainly there. The challenge comes in 1) having the necessary skills 2) being able to network properly and find those people who need your services.

And really, one of the major things that attracts me to freelancing is that you can make your own hours and work from anywhere there's an internet connection. I have other things I like to do and I don't like anyone telling me what hours I have to work.

Right on, it was just a suspicion I had, but I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that. Glad things are going well for you!

I recently had to deal with such an issue. I received a flyer and there were numerous errors on it and I informed the company about it. They were not amused and told me that they are small and cannot afford someone to check for errors in their texts. Yes, German is a difficult language to master, but such stuff is just embarrassing.

OP you can PM me if you want in-depth info, because some of this I'm not sure belongs in a forum.

But anyway, you're right that plenty of zines and blogs urgently require proofreading, especially those that are written in English by non-natives or that frequently interview non-native speakers using English. Loads of them don't have a proper style guide either. As said, not many are willing to pay though, and most of the writers are doing it for free.

I do all the text editing for Metalegion, which is a print and online magazine, have done since 2018. I'm also a contributor (reviews, interviews) but I'm not the overall editor. I volunteered to do it after I noticed how many errors were in the first issue. In my experience, projects like this tend to be run by someone who knows something about editing but not always with the language background to deal with the texts themselves. Metalegion is run by a Portuguese guy, for instance, and I'm one of few English natives on the staff. FYI, I've never been paid money for this, but I've received other benefits as a consequence.

I'm pretty sure other blogs and zines would like this service, but you'd have to approach them with an understanding of their means and needs. Likely you could work a deal where you're receiving their promos, though that causes a trust issue because you are then responsible for the material (i.e. not leaking it). If you are simultaneously writing content for that publication, it would probably work easier and you would understand what kind of editing is most necessary too. Also, I've noticed that having a style guide is essentially just something that the text editor uses, most writers are remote from the publication, not trained specifically in writing or journalism, and really don't care about learning where commas should go or whether certain words are hyphenated or split. Even to get everyone using the same format for song/album/band names is hard enough sometimes.