01/28/2015
Okay, I just want to tell clients and potential clients one diehard rule that I am adopting as of this moment in time:
I format EDITED manuscripts. Formatting is the absolute last thing you will be doing to your manuscript, en masse, other than some final readings, before it goes out to your beta-readers and/or gets published.
I do not edit myself, as I do not feel that I am qualified for that job. Editing is a very in-depth process, with many different levels of sophistication. Editing is not just proofreading - please remember that.
If I format your book, and you suddenly decided to add a chapter, or redo one completely, then unless you know what you're doing, you've totally screwed up your formatting. This is not as delicate a situation with an e-book, but with a print book, you may have completely mucked things up.
Now if you need changes, I'm more than happy to accommodate - just let me know what needs to be changed and I will be more than happy to change it for you. Naturally, there WILL be a fee. But if you send me a manuscript I've already formatted for you and want me to do some major reconstruction after you're finished "re-editing", then I'm going to have to charge full price for a second formatting job. There are times when it's quicker to just reformat the whole thing than try to figure out and repair a shotgun wound you just gave to your book.
I'm not trying to scare anyone off, but time can be a precious and expensive commodity for us all. I slack about enough to know we should try to make better use of it. Let the professionals do their work: Writers write, editors edit, formatters format. That's our job.
