Terms of Service
Last updated on June 28, 2024
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These terms of service cover everything you need to know about what to expect when you hire me to edit your manuscript.
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Since I am currently offering my services for free, any terms that mention payment are invalid until further notice.
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What Happens After You Place an Order
Within 48 hours of your submission, I will email you to let you know if I have decided to take on your project. If I agree to work with you, I will ask you to send me your full manuscript as a Word document so I can verify the word count.
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After I receive your full manuscript, I will send you a PayPal invoice, and you will be asked to make a deposit of CA$250.00 to hold your place in my schedule (this amount will go toward your full fee, to be paid later).
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I will also send you an email with an Editorial Agreement to sign. This agreement will include your fee and the start and completion dates for your project. If the deposit is not made and/or the Editorial Agreement is not signed and returned within one week of the time this email is is sent to you, your order will be considered abandoned, and your place in my schedule will be lost.
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Once you’ve locked in your place in my schedule, the full fee for your project is to be paid at least 72 hours before the start time of your project indicated in your Editorial Agreement. Failure to make your payment by this time will result in the automatic cancellation of your project, and your deposit will be retained as a cancellation fee. If you cancel earlier than this, your deposit will be refunded (see “Cancelling or Rescheduling Your Order” below).
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During the interval between paying your deposit and the due date of the full fee, you may continue working on your manuscript and email me an updated copy when it’s ready. The final deadline for submitting an updated manuscript is one week before the start time of your project. If the word count of the final copy of your manuscript increases or decreases the estimated time required for your project by more than half an hour, your fee will be adjusted accordingly. Any necessary refunds or additional payments will apply if you paid your invoice early.
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Once your full payment is received, your project will be officially confirmed. I will provide the Manuscript Critique or Developmental Edit according to the agreed-upon schedule. Your Story Map, Editorial Report, and (for full Developmental Edits) revised manuscript will be emailed to you by no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on the completion date indicated in your Editorial Agreement.
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How to Make Your Payment
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After I have received your full manuscript and agreed to take on your project, I will send you a PayPal invoice, which you can use to make both your initial deposit and your full payment. PayPal allows credit/debit card payments without requiring you to sign up for a PayPal account.
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All my clients are billed in Canadian dollars regardless of where they live. PayPal will automatically convert your preferred currency to Canadian dollars when you make your payment.
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Note that the Canada Revenue Agency requires me to charge the GST/HST applicable in your province or territory if you are making your payment through a Canadian financial institution.
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Cancelling or Rescheduling Your Order
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If you wish to cancel your order after making your deposit or full payment, you may send an email requesting a cancellation. If this request is made at least 72 hours before the scheduled start date of your project, any payments you have made, including your deposit, will be refunded. If the cancellation is made any later than this, your CA$250 deposit will be retained as a cancellation fee; you will be refunded any additional payment you have made beyond the deposit.
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You are also able to submit a request to reschedule your project if the original start date no longer works for you for any reason. However, depending on my workload, I may need to reschedule your project for a later date than requested.
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To be valid, your rescheduling request must be made at least 72 hours before the start time of your project. If your request is made later than this, your project will have already been considered cancelled. You will need to place a new order, and the deposit you made for your initial order will not be refunded.
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If you need to cancel your project for any reason while I’m working on it, you will receive a partially completed project, and you will be refunded the amount for any portion of the project that was not completed (your initial deposit will be retained in all cases).
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I have the right to postpone a project if an unavoidable personal emergency arises. In such cases, I will contact you to notify you of the new completion date for your project and will keep you updated on the situation to the best of my ability.
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Either party may terminate a contract between us in the case of any serious breach of these terms of service.
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Refunds
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Developmental editing is a very subjective practice. You may not agree with my feedback or find it helpful. However, I always give my best effort and invest a substantial amount of time in every project I work on. Therefore, I do not, under any circumstances, issue full or partial refunds for completed projects.
The “Cancelling or Rescheduling Your Order” section above describes the refund policy for projects that haven’t been started or have been partially completed.
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The Editing Process
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My editing services are intended primarily to guide authors to improve their writing projects through careful analysis and thorough feedback. However, the final quality of any project depends on the author’s ability to apply my feedback. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that my services will lead to book sales, traditional publication, or whatever your writing goals may be.
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After I have performed my service and you have integrated my feedback, you are welcome to resubmit your manuscript for a second round of editing at half price. However, I may charge more if a substantial amount of text was added or significantly altered between edits.
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Editor/Client Confidentiality
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Your manuscript and all the content included within remain your property. In line with copyright law, I will not expose, discuss, copy, distribute, or otherwise share any of the content in your manuscript electronically, verbally, or by any other means.
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Similarly, my edits and feedback are my intellectual property. You may not copy, distribute, or otherwise share any of the materials I send you as part of my editorial services without my permission.
After your project has been completed, I may ask you to provide a testimonial. This is completely optional. By providing a testimonial, you are giving me the right to publish it on my website, along with your first name and the title of the novel I worked on. I may make slight revisions to your testimonial for clarity and/or length while retaining your meaning.
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If you wish to acknowledge my contributions to your book, please ask for my permission before doing so. If a very substantial amount of work was required on your part after you received my service, the quality of the final product might not accurately reflect my abilities, in which case I may deny your request.
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I reserve the right to use your manuscript in my portfolio unless you explicitly ask me not to.
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In case I get terribly ill, severely injured, or otherwise unable to contact you while working on your project, I may give your email address to someone I trust so they can notify you of the disruption in the service, arrange the rescheduling or cancellation of your project, and issue your partial refund if you need to cancel.
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Miscellaneous Matters
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It is your responsibility to notify me before finalizing your order if your manuscript contains any graphic or disturbing content. I will then decide whether I want to take on the project before you are required to make any payment. If you fail to notify me of such content, I may terminate the project part-way through the process, and you will not be refunded the cost of the work done up to this point.
Repeat clients are responsible for checking these terms of service for any updates before submitting new projects.
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Legal Jurisdiction
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These terms of service are subject to Canadian law. Both parties agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the Canadian court system.