Full Disclosure Builds Trust
Details about how we can best work together. My policies. Please ask for clarifications if needed.
I have worked with hundreds of authors and am aware of both the pleasures and pitfalls of it. These notes are part of our working agreement.
- Sometimes authors want to rewrite or polish their manuscript after I copy edit it, and that requires a second round of copy editing. Re-editing attracts a $250 fee, payable in advance, for each full or partial review/edit after you make changes.
- The art and design for your cover are included in the fee when assets are available from standard graphics and font sources. Any custom painting or other custom art is at the sole extra expense of the author and does not affect my fee. I am happy to discuss your cover expectations during the initial free consultation.
- Once you approve an interior design mock-up and want changes made after the interior design is in progress, there is a $250 fee for each set of changes, payable in advance. You are free to choose your interior design from the alternatives I offer and make suggestions for alterations, but you cannot change your mind later without paying the fee.
- Mutual communication procedure. This is a sensitive subject, so please understand my perspective. Know that my goal is to serve you and that I want open and free communication. Yet, some clients have overwhelmed me in the past, and my purpose here is to avoid that.
- Email me anytime. But only one email per day unless I respond and we converse for a while by email. Sadly, I have received 4-12 emails in rapid succession daily from some clients, which is not an efficient way to work. Save your questions and put them in one email. I always respond within 24 hours Monday-Friday (M-F), but almost always in a far shorter time.
- Feel free to telephone me if you are in the US. I’m pleased to talk with you. But send me an email with the date of your call with the expected time (use US Pacific time zone, not your local time zone). That way, I can be sure I am at my desk and can respond to you. Unscheduled calls go to voicemail, and my response will be slow. It is the desire of my heart to be responsive to the Christian authors I shepherd, but I am not available “on call.”
- My favorite way of communicating with you is by Zoom. We can see each other face-to-face, eliminating the confusion often associated with email. All Zoom communication can be scheduled in advance by either of us by mutual agreement via email.
- Please note that I prefer to communicate M-F between 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time. However, I am glad to speak with you by phone or Zoom outside those hours if necessary if you make an appointment for a certain date and time in advance.
- An important word about perfection. When I complete all the work on your book, I assure you it will not be perfect. Traditional publishers pay about $25,000 for various phases of editing and book production, and it is easy to find errors in published books even after all that great expense and care. Nevertheless, I work very hard on your behalf to do quality work. I agree with famed football coach Vince Lombardi. He said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
From my perspective, our goal is to have a happy, creative working relationship. We want to respect each other and honor the Lord. We are engaged in a collegial mentoring-type relationship, not an adversarial one. I want the process to be educational for you and fun for us both.