Thanks for stopping by Sherryl. You handled your situation very well and wound up making more money — good for you!

It’s always a good idea to address changes/additional work in the contract, even though it may only rarely be an issue.

There was one article that I wrote where there were more edits than I had expected but I explained that the article was more complex than we had originally thought. (My editor wanted me to go into much more detailed explanation that we had originally discussed.) That article turned into a 3-part series and tripled my original fee. Maybe I’ve just been lucky up to this point but you definitely have my attention! Thanks.

I think anyone who has interacted with more than ten people in his/her life has probably wanted to go with option 1.

And I’m also a fan of the serial comma. One of many reasons AP Style gives me hives from time to time, but nobody has asked me to help them revise it, and you do what the client wants.

Thanks for sharing your perspective Anne!

I think we’ve all wanted to do option #1 at some time or another.

I usually go for a combo of 2 and 3 – I’ll tell the client/editor, and yes, I know the difference, but I’ve successfully pushed back with both, why I think it shouldn’t be changed, or suggest a change that incorporates some of what we both want. With a client I’ll always defer, not always with an editor.

Fun vid John

We could probably all retire from the revenue of our imaginary books. 🙂

Adrienne, I really appreciate your editor’s take on this subject (and Jodi’s comment above).

I’ve also had editors take my clunky or pedestrian sentences and make them much better. Overall I’m very happy to have a good editor give my writing a thorough edit.

I hear you Lori.

I had a situation awhile back where a client decided they wanted a quarter of the project redone from scratch because he had changed his mind on what he wanted. He said it was part of the rewrite process. There was a stand-off for a couple of weeks, but I finally figured I wouldn’t get any of my money if I didn’t do what he wanted, so I caved and just quickly cranked it out.

Sometimes, I am the writer being edited. The universe hasn’t folded in on itself yet because the editors always seem to identify the phrase I struggled with most, and suggest a fix that I just couldn’t work out on my own.

When an editor suggests a change that just gets it wrong, I consider these possibilities:
– they aren’t the right editor for this project (e.g., raising the reading level 8 grades above the target reader, or removing all the meme language from a blog post)
– my writing was unclear. Their change isn’t right, but the line obviously needs work.

Allow yourself that moment of tantrum, contempt, superiority… Then get over the paralysis and find your professional self; get on with the task of making the client’s life easier. Short of breaking a law or putting someone’s life in danger, I’ll write whatever they want however they want it. I am no auteur, I am a business.

*Can I make one request? Don’t argue with changes that are made to match house style: preferred spelling, colon use, spacing, citation style, and such. The content of what you write is important – those minor style choices are not worth fighting over and are largely non-negotiable.

And I’ll admit to having that first reaction once. It was after the fifth or sixth round of edits and I was DONE with the nitpicking. If there are that many revisions, there’s a big communication gap.