| Services: Fees and Details
FEE SCHEDULE
WORDCRAFT EDITING & WRITING SERVICES
WILLIAM E. BARNETT, PH.D.
I truly appreciate your patronage. Thank you for your confidence in my editing skills.
Note that, in keeping with my pledge to estimate scheduling realistically, I cannot guarantee meeting the cutoff dates for priority pricing tiers. I will do my best always to hit or beat the cutoffs, but if I fail by a day or two the fee will drop automatically to the next level. When clients make it clear that a scheduled target date is a hard deadline that cannot be missed, I redouble my effort to meet or beat that target date. Also, if at any particular time my schedule enables me to complete a job earlier than the earliest cutoff for a given priority tier, the fee that was scheduled will be the fee that is charged. If, for example, a client opts for Tier III Priority scheduling (11–15 days) and I am able to complete the job within, say, 9 days, the fee will remain at the Tier III Priority level rather than rising to the Tier II Priority Level that is $5 per hour higher. In other words, I will always complete jobs as quickly as possible, schedule permitting. There will be no arbitrary delays simply because a job was scheduled at a particular tier. The purpose of this fee schedule is to distribute work more evenly over time, not to grab every penny of new revenue I can generate. Thus, I will charge the rate for the priority tier that a client chooses, even if I return the documents earlier than the day that tier first applies.
Official holidays that I observe (New Year’s Day, MLK Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Easter, Independence Day (July 4th), Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day) are not counted, so if a job is scheduled around one of those days the chosen pricing tier will include an extra day—so, for example, a six-day turnaround will be billed as a Tier I Priority job.
Tier I Priority Service
Job completion within 5 days:
Comprehensive editing: $80 per hour
Copy editing: $75 per hour
Proofreading: $70 per hour
Writing: $100 per hour
Tier II Priority Service
Job completion within 6–10 days:
Comprehensive editing: $75 per hour
Copy editing: $70 per hour
Proofreading: $65 per hour
Writing: $95 per hour
Tier III Priority Service
Job completion within 11–15 days:
Comprehensive editing: $70 per hour
Copy editing: $65 per hour
Proofreading: $60 per hour
Writing: $90 per hour
Tier IV Priority Service
Job completion within 16–20 days:
Comprehensive editing: $65 per hour
Copy editing: $60 per hour
Proofreading: $55 per hour
Writing: $85 per hour
Standard rates apply to all jobs completed in 21+ days:
Comprehensive editing: $50 per hour
Copy editing: $45 per hour
Proofreading: $40 per hour
Writing: $70 per hour
EDITING SERVICES:
The basic service level is proofreading: line-by-line correction of text either electronically or on hard copy with proofreader's marks, correcting/improving grammar, spelling, punctuation, some aspects of readability/style and some matters of word usage, at the level of the sentence. This service is $40 per hour. The next level is copy editing: everything included in proofreading (also a line-by-line process), plus brief annotations/comments accompanying more in-depth text analysis aided by a set of abbreviations (see below); also covers style issues such as improving sentence-to-sentence continuity---emphasizing clarity of expression. The fee is $45 an hour. The next level is comprehensive editing: this includes everything mentioned so far, but the notes/comments are more extensive, the analysis/editing involves a holistic approach, and includes attention to argumentative cogency and appropriateness of evidence, organization, general structure and coherence, plus just about any other type of assistance I can offer, including Internet-based or library research (I have access to the Cornell University library system). The fee is $50 per hour. These three editing services provide progressively more comprehensive and in-depth improvement of your work, with progressively more attention paid to readability and style and more extensive revision or rewriting. By design, comprehensive editing provides the highest level of professional/scholarly quality.
In addition to the abovementioned services, comprehensive editing also covers editorial analysis and developmental editing. Prior to or independently of performing editing services, I will read and analyze your nonfiction or fiction document to determine its potential for reaching your target audience or for being published. I will send you a detailed report providing you with the results of such an analysis with a game plan for achieving your goals.
When performing copy editing or comprehensive editing, I use the following abbreviations to supplement the numbered comments attached to your work. With these levels of service, I can make author queries to ensure that corrections and revisions accurately reflect your intentions. Proofreading corrections are mainly confined to those in the first section of the list. Copy editing covers that ground plus the entire second section and, where appropriate, the third section. Comprehensive editing covers the entire list plus other services.
PROBLEMS WITH MECHANICS
AGR: Disagreement in number, tense or gender involving verbs.
AGR-P: Disagreement in number or gender involving pronouns.
AMB: Ambiguity caused by sentence structure or word usage.
CAP: Improper capitalization.
CIT: No citation or improper citation of source; provide adequate documentation.
D: Word improperly divided; or word should be divided.
DANG: Dangling phrase or modifier.
FS/CS: Fused sentence or comma splice--two independent clauses inadequately conjoined.
GD: Improper construction with gerund.
INF: Split infinitive (I advise avoiding split infinitives only when the phrasing is awkward).
MOD: Modifier mistake; modifying word or phrase should, or should not, be set off with commas.
MW: Misused word; check usage manual or dictionary.
NQ: Need quotation marks.
NS: Not a (full) sentence.
NW: Not a word.
WO: Word order error or suboptimal word order.
P: Punctuation error.
POSS: Possessive apostrophe needed or missing.
PRO: Pronoun error---you used the wrong case, for example, "her" instead of "she."
Q: Improper use of quotation marks.
RF: Reference unclear; check pronominal antecedent if applicable.
SB: Subjunctive needed or used improperly.
SP: Spelling error; consult a dictionary.
UNP: Unparallel construction.
X: Apparent typographical error.
PROBLEMS WITH STYLE
ACT: Use active voice in this context.
AWK: Awkward sentence construction; ill-sounding language.
CL: Clutter: too many superfluous words; verbose; choose simpler terms.
NC: Sentences or paragraphs need continuity; train of thought is difficult to follow.
RP: Repetitious or redundant.
RS: Rambling sentence, lacking coherence or focus.
TL: Sentence too long: divide into shorter sentences.
UNC: Unclear; I don't understand, and I don't think it's my fault.
VA: Vague; be precise; sharpen your language.
WW: Wrong word(s); choose more appropriate language.
PROBLEMS WITH CONTENT
BX: Be more explicit; spell out your point; explain your assumptions.
BY: Be yourself—use your own words to make your point.
DEF: Define your term or terms.
ILL: Illogical; this claim is inconsistent with or contradicts another claim of yours.
MQ: You have misquoted the author of this passage.
NA: Your point needs more argument; your claim is insufficiently justified.
NT: Not true; implausible.
OTHER SERVICES:
Writing: The creation of a document or part of a document in which I provide original or transformed copy based on the client's specifications and supporting materials or my own research. This service also includes adaptation of copy from one medium (for example an academic journal) to another (for example a professional trade journal) and other degrees of re-writing for a particular purpose. The service fee is $70 per hour.
Logical analysis: My doctoral degree in philosophy from Cornell University and more than 15 years teaching and writing philosophy uniquely qualify me to evaluate the argumentation of your manuscript, analyze the arguments and exposition, provide research assistance and edit/revise the writing. My knowledge and training enable me to understand philosophical concepts, follow philosophical arguments, and provide useful feedback based on targeted research. I can also analyze arguments and formally show clients their logical structure. The service fee is $60 per hour.
The lines separating the service levels I offer are sometimes a bit blurry. Comprehensive editing can provide you with a pretty thorough overhaul of a document, but at some point extensive editing becomes rewriting. These are judgment calls that I make in consultation with clients. I will never charge you the fee for a particular service level without your acknowledgment and agreement.
Providing me with advance notice of upcoming work will make it easier for me to begin the work when needed, and in rare cases avoid priority status for a job, but even with advance notice a request to edit a full-length academic paper (roughly at least 25 pages of text that is double-spaced and in 12-point font) within a time window as specified in the above fee schedule will be assiged the corresponding priority status. A rush job is a rush job, no matter how much notice is involved. Requests to edit shorter documents within five days of my receiving them will also be assigned priority status. I will not charge priority service rates without notifying clients before the work that it is subject to those rates commences.
Weekends: Although I work on most weekends by choice, I also lead a life that includes household chores, yardwork, and time with family. I therefore assign any job that forces me to work on a weekend to an appropriate priority status.
PAYMENTS:
I use QuickBooks Pro accounting software. I send invoices via e-mail (PDF attached) and accept payments by credit card, direct debit/bank transfer/debit cards (both using standard secure payment pages), or check. I can send QuickBooks-generated receipts for those needing them for reimbursement.
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