What is it like to work with an editor?
If you have never worked with a professional editor or proofreader before, you may be wondering what to expect.
Even if you do have experience working with someone in the publishing industry, everyone works a little differently.
Let me explain what you can expect when we are working together.
So that there is no confusion, I’m setting out in plain language what services I can provide to you and what I will need in return to ensure that we have the best working relationship possible.
I aim to complete the work within your time and quality requirements.
These terms and conditions list the guarantees and limits of the services that I provide so that you know in advance what to expect.
These are my general terms and conditions. They apply to any of my services and agreements with any client.
If we do not have any other contract, then these are the terms and conditions that apply.
If we have a specific written contract, however, it will supersede the terms on this page.
Before asking me to work with you, please read these terms and conditions and make sure that you understand them.
If you request any of my services, you are explicitly agreeing to the terms and conditions that are on this page.
If you do not agree with these terms and conditions, you are not under any obligation to offer me work.
In the same way, I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, including things like documents that contain or refer to things that are illegal, dangerous, unethical, or immoral.
I only take on projects that I know I can get done with the quality and timeliness that you need, so I am not always available to take on work.
I will finish your project by the deadline that we agreed on.
I will approach your project with respect, honesty, integrity, and discretion.
I will complete all the services involved in your project myself. I will not subcontract any editing or proofreading projects, or parts of projects, to anyone else.
I will complete the manuscript evaluation, beta reading, line editing, copyediting, proofreading, or rewriting required for your document to the highest standards laid out on my website and in our contract.
I will do my best to accommodate any special requests that you might have.
I will follow through with any commitments that I make.
Although there may sometimes be things that are out of my control (I can’t do anything about ice storms, for instance), if something interferes with getting your project done on time, I will communicate with you as soon as possible so that we can figure something out that will work for both of us.
Please tell me any deadlines, style preferences, and special requests.
Please only send me your completed document. If you make changes and want me to re-edit parts, there may be an additional fee.
Please send your document at the time that we agreed on, by email or Dropbox, and format it as a Word document in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch side margins, and indented paragraphs. (Unless your project is poetry, a script, or something else that requires a different format.)
Please make your payments on time, too. I will start work as soon as I receive the 50% deposit, and the last 50% of the fee is due as soon as I return your edited document.
Please ask me if you have any questions at all, no matter how big or small. I will do my best to answer, and, if I can’t, I’ll try to direct you to someone who has the answer.
I will use the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, and the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary unless you request and provide a different style guide.
I will use Microsoft Word’s tracking features to keep track of all the editing or proofreading changes to your document. And I will use the comment feature to ask for any clarification or make notes in specific areas of the document.
I will give you the evaluation documents that we agreed on in our contract.
These can be a critique, in-line comments on the document, or both. I won’t change the document itself.
You will then have the opportunity for one round (a maximum of one hour) of follow-up questions about the manuscript and critique, either by email, phone, or Zoom.
The most efficient way to do the follow-up is for you to email me your questions a few days in advance, so we can use the time wisely.
I will give you back two versions of your document: one that includes the tracked changes so that you can accept or reject each one individually and one that has all the changes accepted so that you can see what it looks like as a clean copy.
If I make comments and give advice as part of the line editing or copyediting service that causes you to revise parts of your document, I will re-edit those parts as a follow-up service.
This follow-up service only applies if you are changing a reasonable amount of your document.
For instance, if you take my advice to revise the first scene so that the language is more specific, I will happily re-edit that scene for you as part of the follow-up.
On the other hand, if you decide your novel would work better in the first person, so you change the viewpoint throughout the entire manuscript, I can’t re-edit the whole document as part of the same contract; that is beyond the scope of my follow-up service and will have to be renegotiated.
I don’t fact-check. You are responsible for any factual information, statements, conclusions, or claims in your document.
I don’t look for plagiarism. Plagiarism software is available, but I don’t have it or use it. When you send me a document, you assert it is your own work and that you have the rights to use it.
I don’t give legal advice. I can’t advise you on copyright, taxes, accounting, or anything like that. I can only advise you on where to put your commas.
I don’t check references or quotes. While I will check the format of the references in your bibliography and the manner of the quotes in your text, I don’t go back to each original source to check if they are being used correctly to support your ideas.
I don’t make guarantees. I will work with you to make your writing the best that it can be, but I can’t guarantee you’ll get a specific grade, or receive a book contract, or be accepted for publication.
I will follow all of the laws of the United States and the State of Oregon while working on your project.
As part of our agreement, you agree to hold me, Tamara Ann Alba as The Righter Writer, harmless and indemnify me from all claims or demands, including legal fees, that come because of any alleged libel, copyright infringement, or other legal or contractual issues created by you when you’re writing, revising, publishing, or otherwise using the document.
I will not be liable for any amount over the fees that are due according to our contract. This limitation on liability also applies if information or materials are damaged or lost through no fault of mine.
No, it won’t.
I say that for a few reasons.
First, editing is highly subjective.
If you take the same piece of writing and give it to three different editors, you’re going to get back three different edits. None of them is wrong, they are just slightly different versions of right.
If you give those three edits to a bunch of different readers, each reader is going to have their favorite; they are not all going to agree.
So, I can’t promise that your work will be perfect when I’ve finished editing because no one really knows what perfect it.
Second, it matters a lot what other editing has been done on the project.
Traditional publishers hire several people to each make more than one editorial pass through a document, and there are still mistakes that sneak through in published works.
If you have had one editor do a structural edit, and then another editor a line edit, and a third a copy edit, and now you have come to me to proofread your work, you will get a lot closer to perfection.
If I am the only editor that has looked at your work and am only contracted for one editorial pass, I can’t do the work of four people.
Last, while I aim for the highest standards in editing and proofreading on every project, I can’t promise that your work will be one-hundred percent error-free after a service.
I’m human, and I miss things.
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading says, “Rather than using percentages to express an acceptable (or unacceptable) error rate, it’s better to think in terms of the proofreader making the text ready for publication—suitable, and of a high enough standard, for the purpose and audience required. There should be consistency and clarity, and no barriers to the reader understanding the message of the text.”
You own the copyright to your work.
Even after any edits or changes that I may make—or that we make together—it is still 100% your work and you own the copyright. Editing doesn’t change that.
Anything that I create on my own while working with you on your document (a manuscript evaluation document, for instance) will be available for you to use under an Attribution-Noncommercial CC–03 license.
That basically means that you can use it for whatever you want, as long as you say that I wrote it, and as long as you don’t sell it. You can find out more about the license here.
If you want to mention me in your finished product, you can mention either my name, Tamara Ann Alba, or my company name, The Righter Writer.
I would appreciate it if you would let me look at what you’ve written about me before you publish.
I may promote your work on different social media sites as an advertisement for my services, or I may mention the project on my website or in my blog.
If you would rather that I didn’t use your name or the name of your project, just let me know and I will only use initials or talk about it generally so you can’t be identified.
I may use feedback from you as a testimonial if you give me your permission.
If I can’t complete the services that are outlined in our contract because something happened that neither you nor I could control, I will refund the part of your deposit that is more than the services that I’ve delivered.
For instance, if you have paid a 50% deposit, but I have only edited 25% of your document and then can’t finish the project (maybe because of that ice storm from an earlier paragraph), I will return half of your deposit.
Either of us can cancel our contract with at least seven days’ notice.
You will still be responsible for the fees for any work completed. I will return the part of your deposit that is more than the services that I’ve delivered.
If either of us wants to change the terms of our contract, we will need to do that in writing.
Email counts as “in writing,” so let me know in an email what you would like to change, and we can negotiate.
By requesting my services, you agree that I’m not liable for any damages or refunds.
If you are dissatisfied with any aspects of my services, your recourse is to cancel the contract and stop using my services.