Our initial contact will most likely be by email. While this is a comfortable medium for me, it may not be your favorite. I am happy to engage with you on the phone, via Zoom or Skype, by email, or through text messages.
Your communication preferences will largely shape the methods we use to work together. This covers everything from establishing the terms of our engagement to schedules for deliverables (you to me and vice versa) to interim checkpoints on the project.
We’ll start by ensuring that we have a common understanding of what you want to achieve, the level and scope of edit for the project, expectations for start and completion times, agreement on fees, and any particular concerns you may have. Often, this is best done in a telephone call; but I’m equally comfortable with email or chat if that better fits your personal situation.
For new clients, I offer a sample edit at no cost prior to finalizing an engagement. This gives both of us a chance to evaluate how we’ll work together and assess the scope of the project. The latter is helpful in setting expectations for overall cost.
For a book, I can accept a partial delivery of the manuscript and begin work on that so long as we have a shared understanding of when the remainder will be available (for schedule planning purposes). This can be helpful if you’re trying to do parallel processing of your own final draft and the formal edit. For fiction, I’d like to have at least the first third of the manuscript before beginning the edit to ensure I get the right sense of your voice and style.
Once a project is underway, we can have a regular cadence of checkpoints or discussions … or we can have one major wrap-up after the final edit is complete. For small projects, a final wrap-up may be all that is needed; for large ones, interim checkpoints may be useful. The choice is yours.
I’m confident we can easily settle on a collaboration style that suits both of us.