Tues. Nov. 19, 2013: You Get What You Pay For

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Waning Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Cloudy and cold

I’m trying to remember yesterday. I know I pitched for jobs, worked on a big critique project, and juggled three screenplays. I had to do some layering on one, upping the stakes early on, and then just did opening sequences for the other two, so I wouldn’t lose them while they were hot.

As I suspected, a client who’d booked me for a big project needed before Thanksgiving flaked. Forfeited slot, deposit, and specially negotiated rate. Had another person contact me who’d ranted and raved at me that I was too “expensive” on the rate quoted to line edit a novel. Fine, I respect that, go somewhere else. The client hired a cheap-ass editor, and now is getting rejected by publishing houses because of all the errors in the manuscript. Now the person comes back to me and says that I “HAVE” to re-edit the messy manuscript — for $150, because the writer spent so much money n the other person.

Honey, I don’t “HAVE” to do anything. I choose my clients, the same way writers choose their freelance editors. And I’m not going to work at a fraction of the price I quoted because YOU made the wrong choice. When you come back and expect me to clean up the mess, the price goes UP.

In negotiations for a long-term gig on a cool site; hope it works out. I’d get to work on a wide range of topics.

Got to get a lot done this morning, because a team of us are going to the Writers Center storage unit to clean it out this afternoon, then I have a development meeting at NMLC and then I’m helping a friend of a friend with a live chat during a TV show.

Busy day, but at least it mixes it up a bit.

Devon