About me
Laura Zorrilla
Member of Unión de correctores
I graduated in Romance Philology from the University of the Basque Country in 1999 and, after completing a Postgraduate course in Editorial Project Management at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, I began work as a proofreader in 2006. A few years prior, the publishing house that would later publish the Spanish translation of the Harry Potter saga (nobody knew this yet) kindly rejected my application for the position of proofreader because they considered that I did not have enough knowledge. Indeed, I didn’t have a clue. Once I realised that university studies alone were not enough to acquire the specialist skills for this profession, I dedicated myself to training, through courses on proofreading and copy-editing. To this day, I still wonder if my life would have changed if I had been the proofreader for the Harry Potter translators.
Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to learn the publishing trade in different specialities.
My work experience
- For a time I was a lexicographer. I was part of the team revising the 3rd edition of the Diccionario del uso del español María Moliner, published by Gredos (later acquired by RBA). During this period, I wrote and corrected parts of the abridged version of this dictionary, as well as a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms based on the María Moliner text. This experience later allowed me to work for the SM publishing house, writing and correcting school dictionaries.
- In 2012 I started in medical publishing. I have worked for the most important publishers in the sector and for other companies specialising in scientific fields. My work as a proofreader has been developed both through the translation of English books and the revision of texts written by Spanish-speaking professionals.
- I currently live in the UK and work with publishers of Spanish language teaching materials, which for me is another exciting branch of publishing. Spanish is the language most in demand by secondary school students in the UK and its importance is set to continue to grow. Providing quality and culturally appropriate materials is essential if students are to be given the best opportunities to learn. Personally, I am very happy to contribute to this goal through my work.
A passion of books
Despite all this, my vocation has always been literature-oriented. In 2014 I founded a small publishing house, Las Modernas, based in the Spanish city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Across 4 years my partner and I had the privilege of publishing novels and poetry books by local authors in whom we believed and whom we wanted to support in the best possible way. Although Las Modernas no longer exists, it was one of the best experiences of my professional life.
The summary of my professional career is that I believe in well-made books. I believe in the traditional crafts of the book and in their ability to adapt to new technologies. I also believe, above all, that a well-written book is what every author wants and deserves.
My clients say
