Ask HN: Demand for editing as a service

2 points·mswen··4 comments

Would you ever consider using Editing-as-a-Service? Think an online pool of university trained writers/editors who would take on small editing jobs.

Price schedule would vary by the following factors: [1]length measured by word count, [2] urgency/deadline and [3] level of editing assistance required from simple proofing and grammar check(cheap) to full consultative rewrite (expensive)

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I once thought about the simple idea of a place where people could go to improve their writing for comment boxes like this one. Something like a peer to peer writer's workshop where "I am thinking about posting this, what do you think?" would be the basic question. "Here are some changes you might consider", would be the basic answer.

Monetization would have to come from the exhaust fumes...something better than adwords let us hope, but the same general mechanic of not charging for the service directly.

Anyway, mechanical turk editing is another approach. I just think its a depressing race toward the bottom of the income ladder for staff and a slimy race toward upselling for the management. Better to gamify the process.

Good luck.

Thanks for the perspective.

Sounds interesting, and something I might be willing to promote to the authors at LiberWriter.com

There are already services like that, though if you Google around, so there'll be some competition.

It's also going to be hard to keep quality/times consistent across a pool of diverse workers.

Thanks for the feedback.

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