Despite the visiting relative (who went home yesterday), I actually have been making progress. That's the benefit of realizing I have many small things to do along with the really big things--when I found myself with some random spare time, I was able to get things done.

Specifically, I was able to hook up with a proofreader! A friend who I used to work with in publishing recommended him--he mostly works for a mainstream book publisher, which I think is a good sign, because in my experience they take proofreading quite seriously. So I mailed the Trang layout to him.

I felt that his proposed fee was quite reasonable, but when I mentioned it to someone I know from writers' group, they were astounded at how cheap it was. Maybe I'm being naive, but it seems to me that this proofreader has set up his business the same way I did when I was a freelance writer--if you're fast (which I was back in the day--fast and efficient, if you can believe it), you can charge a high-enough hourly rate to make a good living, but since any given job doesn't take that many hours, you're still not expensive to your clients. That way you offer a good value, and you build a solid client base because people will come back to you and recommend you to others. This is one of the reasons I'm so skeptical of people offering really expensive services to writers--I don't look at the price tag and think, "Gee, you must be really good!" I think, "Gee, you must have to make money fast before the suckers wise up!"