Should I revise for free?

[helenabester]

Hi guys, I need some advice here.

I’ve got a buyer who is ‘writing’ these long rambling blogs and hires me to edit them. Her English is not very good, so the sentences are sometimes horrifying and give me headaches. It is more a ‘rewrite’ than an edit.

Recently, the blogs got longer and longer. At first, it was about 2000 words, then 4000 words, and then, the one I got today: a whopping 5200 words.

I jumped from asking $35 per blog at first to $75 when we hit 4000 words. Today I quoted $120 (which, by the way, I still think is too little, considering the headache I am going to have to try to make some sense out of 5000 word’s worth of terrible writing.)

The buyer accepted my offer - but added a condition.

I must ‘revise’ an earlier blog.

Now, she never asks for revisions, although I offer them. She is a repeat buyer, but I’ve been thinking recently that perhaps our journey together has been going on long enough.

What should I do? I haven’t seen the task yet, but should I revise the earlier blog (which she accepted AND wrote a glowing review for)?

I feel this is a bullying technique and a way to ‘punish’ me for quoting more in this round.

Ideally, I should refuse, as the previous order has long come and gone, and a revision at this stage warrants a separate order.

Or what do you think? @jonbaas @thatwordchick @cyaxrex @humanissocial??

[catwriter]

Hi guys, I need some advice here.

I’ve got a buyer who is ‘writing’ these long rambling blogs and hires me to edit them. Her English is not very good, so the sentences are sometimes horrifying and give me headaches. It is more a ‘rewrite’ than an edit.

Recently, the blogs got longer and longer. At first, it was about 2000 words, then 4000 words, and then, the one I got today: a whopping 5200 words.

I jumped from asking $35 per blog at first to $75 when we hit 4000 words. Today I quoted $120 (which, by the way, I still think is too little, considering the headache I am going to have to try to make some sense out of 5000 word’s worth of terrible writing.)

The buyer accepted my offer - but added a condition.

I must ‘revise’ an earlier blog.

Now, she never asks for revisions, although I offer them. She is a repeat buyer, but I’ve been thinking recently that perhaps our journey together has been going on long enough.

What should I do? I haven’t seen the task yet, but should I revise the earlier blog (which she accepted AND wrote a glowing review for)?

I feel this is a bullying technique and a way to ‘punish’ me for quoting more in this round.

Ideally, I should refuse, as the previous order has long come and gone, and a revision at this stage warrants a separate order.

Or what do you think? @jonbaas @thatwordchick @cyaxrex @humanissocial??

Now, she never asks for revisions, although I offer them.

Since you do offer revisions, if she goes to Customer Support and tells them that she haven’t spent the revision(s) she got but you don’t want to revise the work, they might side with her.

[cyaxrex]

Hi guys, I need some advice here.

I’ve got a buyer who is ‘writing’ these long rambling blogs and hires me to edit them. Her English is not very good, so the sentences are sometimes horrifying and give me headaches. It is more a ‘rewrite’ than an edit.

Recently, the blogs got longer and longer. At first, it was about 2000 words, then 4000 words, and then, the one I got today: a whopping 5200 words.

I jumped from asking $35 per blog at first to $75 when we hit 4000 words. Today I quoted $120 (which, by the way, I still think is too little, considering the headache I am going to have to try to make some sense out of 5000 word’s worth of terrible writing.)

The buyer accepted my offer - but added a condition.

I must ‘revise’ an earlier blog.

Now, she never asks for revisions, although I offer them. She is a repeat buyer, but I’ve been thinking recently that perhaps our journey together has been going on long enough.

What should I do? I haven’t seen the task yet, but should I revise the earlier blog (which she accepted AND wrote a glowing review for)?

I feel this is a bullying technique and a way to ‘punish’ me for quoting more in this round.

Ideally, I should refuse, as the previous order has long come and gone, and a revision at this stage warrants a separate order.

Or what do you think? @jonbaas @thatwordchick @cyaxrex @humanissocial??

I jumped from asking $35 per blog at first to $75 when we hit 4000 words. Today I quoted $120 (which, by the way, I still think is too little, considering the headache I am going to have to try to make some sense out of 5000 word’s worth of terrible writing.)

I’d simply drop the client and drop the rewriting and editing side of things altogether. There is no reason why anyone should charge less for editing and rewriting. It always takes longer than writing from scratch and bad writers like your client are extremely hard to please because they think they are Virginia Woolf reincarnated.

The buyer accepted my offer - but added a condition.

I must ‘revise’ an earlier blog.

This just doesn’t make sense. You are charging more for the increased word count and now your buyer is adding to that word count further.

I’ve been thinking recently that perhaps our journey together has been going on long enough.

At this point, I’d be looking to throw the buyer overboard. 😉

Ideally, I should refuse, as the previous order has long come and gone, and a revision at this stage warrants a separate order.

A revision on a past order like this would constitute a separate order. Just decline this offer to do even more work than you already are for peanuts and find a way to politely beak-up for good.

At least, that’s what I would do.

[thatwordchick]

I jumped from asking $35 per blog at first to $75 when we hit 4000 words. Today I quoted $120 (which, by the way, I still think is too little, considering the headache I am going to have to try to make some sense out of 5000 word’s worth of terrible writing.)

I’d simply drop the client and drop the rewriting and editing side of things altogether. There is no reason why anyone should charge less for editing and rewriting. It always takes longer than writing from scratch and bad writers like your client are extremely hard to please because they think they are Virginia Woolf reincarnated.

The buyer accepted my offer - but added a condition.

I must ‘revise’ an earlier blog.

This just doesn’t make sense. You are charging more for the increased word count and now your buyer is adding to that word count further.

I’ve been thinking recently that perhaps our journey together has been going on long enough.

At this point, I’d be looking to throw the buyer overboard. 😉

Ideally, I should refuse, as the previous order has long come and gone, and a revision at this stage warrants a separate order.

A revision on a past order like this would constitute a separate order. Just decline this offer to do even more work than you already are for peanuts and find a way to politely beak-up for good.

At least, that’s what I would do.

@helenabester, I gotta side with my dude here. I actually took down my proofreading gig because when I sat down and worked out how much time I was spending “fixing” other people’s work, I realized that my rate per hour took a nosedive. I am sure there are some writers that absolutely excel at rewriting and editing, but I am far faster and more profitable writing from scratch. Follow your gut, if you are dreading these pieces and you get a little flip in your stomach every time you see a message from this person, that’s the universe telling you to look for work elsewhere!

[cyaxrex]

@helenabester, I gotta side with my dude here. I actually took down my proofreading gig because when I sat down and worked out how much time I was spending “fixing” other people’s work, I realized that my rate per hour took a nosedive. I am sure there are some writers that absolutely excel at rewriting and editing, but I am far faster and more profitable writing from scratch. Follow your gut, if you are dreading these pieces and you get a little flip in your stomach every time you see a message from this person, that’s the universe telling you to look for work elsewhere!

I actually took down my proofreading gig because when I sat down and worked out how much time I was spending “fixing” other people’s work, I realized that my rate per hour took a nosedive.

At the same time, buyers often see little value in what you do, because they see themselves as providing all the content upfront.

I never take on rewriting projects because ultimately, everyone who asks me to wants a discount and is generally confused why my regular writing rates apply to them when they already have all the words they need.

[helenabester]

Food for the thought! Thanks, guys.

[coerdelion]

I actually took down my proofreading gig because when I sat down and worked out how much time I was spending “fixing” other people’s work, I realized that my rate per hour took a nosedive.

At the same time, buyers often see little value in what you do, because they see themselves as providing all the content upfront.

I never take on rewriting projects because ultimately, everyone who asks me to wants a discount and is generally confused why my regular writing rates apply to them when they already have all the words they need.

they already have all the words they need.

I have the best words - lots of words. Yuge!

I want you to put them in the right order, though …

[cyaxrex]

they already have all the words they need.

I have the best words - lots of words. Yuge!

I want you to put them in the right order, though …

I want you to put them in the right order, though …

Yeah, using this mentality, you could send a seller a dictionary and ask them to edit it into a new Harry Potter sequel. And that is how some buyers think.

[helenabester]

I want you to put them in the right order, though …

Yeah, using this mentality, you could send a seller a dictionary and ask them to edit it into a new Harry Potter sequel. And that is how some buyers think.

:rofl: Noooo, what a mental image!

[catwriter]

I want you to put them in the right order, though …

Yeah, using this mentality, you could send a seller a dictionary and ask them to edit it into a new Harry Potter sequel. And that is how some buyers think.

Yeah, using this mentality, you could send a seller a dictionary

Or a list of all the letters. Hey, it’s all there!