In general, working with me will follow these steps:

Contact

Send me an email or reach out to me on Bluesky. Describe the work and what it’s for. I will need to know the work’s topic, purpose, mood or level of formality, and word count. (E.g. “I have a 400-word article about potatoes in need of editing. It’s meant to go in a newsletter and has an informal, educational tone.”)

Appraisal

If the piece is short, I will generally ask for it to be sent to me to review it and get an idea of how much work will be needed. If the piece is long (2000 words or more) I will ask for a sample of about 500 words to review.  From there, we will correspond about the degree of work needed, and the price and timeline of the work to be done.

Contract

After discussing the requirements of the work, I will send you an editorial contract that describes the price and degree of work to be done, the timeline and deadlines of the job, and contains general policies and agreements for working with me. Upon negotiating and signing the contract, I will begin work on editing the piece.

Some documents may need more attention than others; if a document needs multiple passes at more than one “level”, it will be priced accordingly. If only one level is deemed necessary (E.g. A client is more concerned with having a strong structure than correcting grammar and usage), the boundaries of what work will and will not be done will be described in the contract.

Work, Queries, and Revisions

In general, a contract will include one round of revisions to the work in the quoted cost. For larger works, several rounds of revisions may be required, which will be discussed in the contract-writing phase.

Once a contract is signed and the deposit paid, I will complete the work as outlined in our agreement. This can mean directly editing the document or leaving comments or annotations on a document – to your preference and specified in the contract.

While working, or for revisions, I may send you “queries” or specific questions about the work. Often queries are issues where input from the writer is needed to resolve the issue in question.

Revisions and queries can be discussed via email, Zoom, or another platform. Please be aware that corresponding for revisions must still fit within the original timeline set out in the contract.

Payment

A deposit of up to 50% of the total project cost is required before I begin work on a project. This deposit is then credited against the total cost of the project; once the work is finished and submitted to you, the balance of the project cost is paid. I am willing to negotiate reduced rates for working with charitable organizations. Should the project be cancelled for any reason in the middle of work, I retain the initial deposit paid. All payment is to be done via e-transfer for Canadian clients. Other methods can be arranged for US or International clients.