(Does that make sense? Maybe if you've lived in a small town that few people ever leave.)

I'd LOVE to see the ice fishing! I'd love to participate even more! But that fear of ice cracking keeps me on the shore. 🙂

Gabriella, that's frustrating! I'm the same. I can give you a price, but if you change the parameters it's not going to be the same price. Maybe just give her a ballpark based on the current word count? Really stress that it's only for that number and will change if the details change.

Sal, I know what you mean. You can't wait to leave. You feel smothered. Everyone knows you, which is great, but everyone knows you, which is bad. I had a great group of friends (who are still my best friends to this day), and I miss seeing them. But it makes the reunions that much nicers. 🙂

When I got hurt in college and lost my scholarship, I headed home. Unwillingly. 4 weeks later I was enlisted in the Navy and 2 more weeks I was headed out to basic.

Not really sure why. I had a bunch of friends, but I think I knew if I didn't get out (and if I ever went back, for that matter) I wouldn't ever leave. I looked at the people I had known growing up who stayed there and didn't want to be where they were in 5 years.

Anyway, all that being said, I love getting back together with people who I haven't seen in a LONG time. It is fun to see where everyone is at in their lives and how much has changed in the past X years.

Glad you had a great weekend. It was cold here, but no 4 degrees by any stretch of the imagination. More like 30 (but for someone who thinks 50 is freezing…I would argue to the end that it was indeed – WAY COLD!)

🙂

Ice fishing was the big thing going on this weekend. The big tournament they had in Brainerd seemed to spark a frenzy in those who stuck close to home, in our area. Not me though. I'm just glad that they weren't any vehicle fatalities. It drives me nuts to hear about vehicles falling through the ice-needlessly. Brand new ones, too!

My problem with the rates is that all the info I have at this arranging-the-assignment stage is that the editor thinks it'll be about 13,500 words. (She's getting this info from her client, who hasn't sent the book or requested revisions yet.)

I asked if it was interviewing and/or research, or just rewriting, and the editor said rewriting with maybe a little research.

Bottom line: I don't have enough info to make an informed decision. Yet this is a client who could become regular if this initial project goes well. So I don't want to push back so hard that I lose the project before even seeing it.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thanks again.

Paula, I'm glad for Buffy! It means you took time off. 🙂

Ashley, prayers going up! You'll do fine. 🙂

Anne, my hometown folks probably think I've gone a little batty, but none seem to hold it against me. Instead, they embrace me, weirdness and all. 🙂

Gabriella, that's a question I struggle with sometimes, too. Here's what I do – I figure out how many hours I think it will take. I multiply that by my hourly rate, then divide that by page count to determine how many pages I need to do in an hour. If it seems like too few/too many, I futz with it until I come to a total that works for the amount of work involved.

I'm the idiot with the rear-wheel drive BMW who rues the day she ever bought that car every time there's more than two inches of snow!

Man, I have several bags of salt and gardening pebbles in my trunk to weigh that damn thing down, and I still get stuck sometimes. Grrrr! Next car: a sturdy, small SUV that's higher off the ground and has FWD or all-wheel drive.

P.S. The car's 11 years old, been paid off for three years, and has only 63,000 miles on it. I pine for a new car, but so far, I can't justify the cost. Double Grrrr!

Anyway, workwise, I finished a deadline spree last week, so this week will be at a much more livable pace. Thank goodness!

And like you said last week, the clients are coming out of hibernation now after the holidays. Getting busier and busier.

By the way, can anybody give any insight on what to charge for book revisions/edits? I have a potential client who started at $.15/word and when pushed said she could get to $.25/word.

I can't tell the scope and depth of the work necessary, so I can't tell whether that'll be decent overall pay or crap pay.

I'm toying with asking for an hourly rate, but I wonder if I'll be shooting myself in the foot, because if the rewriting/editing is easier than I think, a per-word pay may be much higher than hourly.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

I still got a tiny bit of work done, but most shifted to Sunday…which is when I woke to cold water. I'd never had to re-light a gas water heater before, so I was greatly relieved that A) I didn't smell any gas, and B) the water heater I had installed 5 years ago has a simple ignition system so there was no long-match-over-open-gas-jet fear to confront.

Later I knocked out two small jobs ahead of time. (That wasn't easy with the idiot couple next door standing out front about 10 and 25 feet, respectively, from my closed office windows, in the cold, screaming and cursing at each other for about an hour – grow up already!)I'd hoped to transcribe two short interviews, but upon realizing it was 6 PM on a Sunday I decided I'd already given up enough of my free time for a project that doesn't pay as much as I'd like.

This weekend I toyed with the idea of joining Twitter after one of my editors told me the magazine had sent the final proof of that big rush job to the creator-producer of the series in question. Apparently he's a big Tweeter and they're hoping he'll alert fans to run out and buy the magazine.

This week is looking so busy I had to tell one client I won't be able to take on any of their quick assignments that would be due this week.