by Anna Johnstone | Nov 8, 2022 | Offers, Service
Hi all.
In the last eighteen months, I have been proofreading and copyediting the business emails and letters of an ESL client. Not only is this proving to be hugely rewarding work (I love being helpful) but it’s a service I am keen to extend to a wider audience. If you, or anybody you know, would benefit from this service please share this post with them, and I would be delighted to hear from them.
While free tools like Grammarly have their uses they can be a touch on the comma-happy side. If you want that personal touch of having a person at the other end of the service, then there is no substitute for hiring an editor to double-check your business correspondence is top-notch before you send it out.
Benefits include:
- No upfront charges.
- Work is itemised and invoiced monthly rather than per item. I will invoice for all the work submitted in a given month on a rolling account that is free for you to stop at any time. No contract charges will apply.
- No set minimum amount of work is expected. If you only have one or two letters or emails for me to check per day then that is absolutely fine. Just email them to me and send me a text to let me know and I will get them back to you as soon as I can: usually within the hour depending on how busy I am.
- All work is priced at a set rate per word for you so you will know exactly how much it will cost before you send it.
Service Ts & Cs
- Invoices are issued on the first of each month and are due for payment by the end of the 15th.
- The client acknowledges that by sending work they are agreeing to pay for work completed on time and in full.
- Failure to pay on time will result in late payment fees of £10 per week and withdrawal of all services until the account is clear.
- My working hours are between 9:30 am and 5 pm GMT Monday to Friday. Work sent for completion outside these times will be subject to a 50% increase.
by Anna Johnstone | Feb 7, 2018 | Service
This is just a quick note to all who have received emails from me about account details.
In order to reduce the time I spend managing admin (I would really rather be reading, writing or editing), I am migrating my invoicing system over to my online store to keep it all in one place. The added bonus is that WooCommerce handles the reporting side for me, but…no…No more horrible admin talk! This also means that my clients will automatically be kept updated with offers and other information about the service.
by Anna Johnstone | Dec 17, 2017 | Blog, Service
Great news!
The plugin problem has been fixed (thanks to my in-house, coffee-fuelled IT department), and the quick booking service is working again!
by Anna Johnstone | Dec 5, 2017 | Blog, Service
Due to something to do with updates which ran overnight, I have had to disable the Quick Booking part of this website, along with anything to do with WooCommerce and PayPal Quick Invoice Payments until I can get it fixed. I will let people know as soon as I have sorted this out. This post is just to let you know that I am aware of these problems and am working on a solution.
For the moment, all bookings are going to have to come directly to me but you can still contact me through this website. A list of prices and services is also available from the header menu. If you would like to make a quick payment for works received you can still use either PayPalMe or the BACS information at the bottom of your invoice, Please be sure to include your invoice number so I can easily process your payment.
by Anna Johnstone | Nov 28, 2017 | Advice, Blog, Service
A sample edit is an indicator of many things; the professionalism and ability of the editor is only one factor. The sample indicates the level of the work to be undertaken and it allows the editor to asses pricing but did you realise it also shows the editor the level of respect they hold for the skills of the editor?
These did not develop overnight and it is not something that just everyone can do. In the last fourteen months, I have lost count of the number of sample edits I have completed. Some of them took me a whole morning and others took me the best part of a day, depending on the amount of work that needed to be done.
‘But why should authors pay for what they can get for nothing?‘
The reason to pay for samples is two-fold.
First. Refusal to pay for sample edits signal, at least in part, an expectation that editors are automatically obligated to give up their time, and should be grateful for every scrap of attention an author puts their way. Given that this is an attitude that many of us in the creative industries have to explain when companies and individuals want to pay us in ‘exposure’ and think that the satisfaction of completing the work should be its own reward, it saddens me when we have to deal with this from other creatives. The willingness of an author to pay for a sample edit is a clear indication that they acknowledge that your time is as valuable as the skills they want to employ. It says ‘I understand there is a person at the other end of this email who is working hard to make a living, and they deserve to be paid fairly for the work they put in‘. It tells the editor a great deal about the author: remember they are assessing the author every bit as much as the author is evaluating them. Simply put, it’s a matter showing respect between author and editor.
Second. Many service industries charge a call out fee to cover the time it takes them to assess the work in question, and a sample edit is no different. You would not expect a plumber, cleaner, gardener or electrician to come to your home or to give up a morning of their time for nothing. In my view, creative services are no different. The sample fee implies the level of commitment of that potential client. Even web developers charge a consultation fee, This is not to say that editors should not offer free samples if they so wish, only that you should not be put off when editors do charge for their sample edits. By ignoring the editors who don’t offer free samples you could be depriving yourself of an opportunity. What you have found is not a ‘greedy editor‘, but a confident and skilled professional who knows the value of both their skills and their time.
by Anna Johnstone | Sep 29, 2017 | Blog, Service
It’s been a while since my last advice post and for that, I can only apologise. Things have been rather fraught since the sudden death of my father two weeks ago and a few things have had to be set aside while I process. I should hopefully be back on top of it over the next few weeks. All I ask is that people please bear with me. Please feel free to click around my nice new website and contact me with any queries etc. I aim to reply to all emails on the day that I get them.
