Principles of quoting on the rush-job, today, in my How To column at Copyediting.com.
The topic of less-than-ideal circumstances and how to break out of that cycle is a series I am working on for the end of year, carrying into a series that are sort of New Years’ resolutions. This post rose to the top today in response to a post on An American Editor. The principles on which Rich based his estimate are sound, but I reacted strongly to the overly-long justification message that was suggested. It came off whiny and reprimanding to my ear.
Over-explaining opens the door to negotiations I am not going to entertain, in my experience. I want to help clients — to meet their current crunch and to get better results next time.
Talking word count from the get-go is one of my tactics. That way I don’t risk having to tell a client that they were wrong in estimating the number of pages because they didn’t know the standard was 250 words per page. I prefer not to set up clients for admonishment.
Using character count rather than words is smart of Rich, however. Especially for the topics we often deal with, which are heavy in really-super-long technical terms such as electromagnetic, phosphofructokinase, and deoxyribonucleic.
We’re going to make 2015 your best business year yet.
Here’s what you can look forward to in the series
- when it’s okay to do less than your best
- editorial triage
- getting paid
- spotting bad clients
- how to “no” your way to success
- building your ideal client roster
- and more
You might also like How to Use Rush Fees.
Photo by Amira, used under CC BY-2.0 license.
