© Ruth E. Thaler-Carter
Owner, An American Editor
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A recent post to a Facebook group asked about managing weekend proofreading requests. The poster wanted to know how much extra colleagues charge for weekend work that is required by the client. My starting point in response was to ask whether the poster was working on the weekends because a client can’t get their act together to send assignments from Monday–Friday, or because the proofreader needed that weekend time to finish assignments.
The short answer is that for the former, I’d increase the rate for weekend hours. For the latter, I’d try to find ways to get more work done during the week (note that I say “try”; I know that family and regular jobs can take up weekday time), but wouldn’t charge more for weekend time.
It turns out that the original agreement with this person’s colleague was that she would receive material on a Thursday and be expected to turn it around in four days — by 9 a.m. the following Monday. By the time I saw that clarification, comments had closed, so I decided to discuss this here, because setting hours and managing expectations comes up often among freelance colleagues.
For the most part, if not always, this situation would depend on the agreement with the client. If you know upfront that a project or client will involve work on the weekend and agree to being available on that kind of schedule, I don’t see a justification for increasing the editor’s or proofreader’s rate. If the client has a regular flow of requests during regular business hours that sometimes includes having to work on the weekend, that might justify a higher fee.
And, of course, some of this depends on the assignments themselves. Most of the editing and proofreading requests I receive can be handled on the same day, or at most by the following day; that is, I can usually complete a Thursday request by Friday and wouldn’t have to work on it over the weekend.
That speedy turnaround is only for fairly small projects. Handling a full-length book, whether copyediting a manuscript or proofreading a PDF, would take longer than a day or so; so would projects like dissertations, lengthy reports, etc. Substantial and developmental editing could take a couple of weeks, if not longer. Such assignments could involve working on the weekend(s), but that wouldn’t necessarily be an expectation.
However, freelance editorial work — writing, editing, proofreading — is my full-time, only profession, and I don’t have family to juggle against work these days.
When Wayne-the-Wonderful came into my life, we talked about how we would balance my freelance life with, initially, his job as a steelworker with a set schedule and again later, his retirement from that job. Since he often worked on weekends, it wasn’t a problem for me to use weekend time for client projects — but I didn’t tell clients that I would be available outside regular business hours. In terms of that Facebook post, if someone asked me to be available beyond 9–5/M–F, I would add something to my usual hourly fee.
Once he retired, we revisited that topic because time together came first. The most important aspect was for me to remember to let Wayne know what my deadlines were and when I planned to interview story sources; I was used to managing my work time without having to inform anyone of my schedule.
If it weren’t just me and the cat, I’d be less likely to accept weekend requests. I don’t really mind them — it gives me something to do. For colleagues with families, whether a partner or kids, it’s probably different. That’s when the work-life balance issue crops up and has to be planned for and managed, and is something to keep in mind when launching an editorial business.
I do accept weekend requests for editing and proofreading work from a couple of long-time regular clients without an additional fee. One is a law firm, and the attorneys are infamous for not sending documents for copyediting or proofreading until the very last minute, which often means after hours on Fridays or during the weekends. One of them is based in California and works primarily for overseas clients, so the time differences make it somewhat understandable that her requests come to me after regular hours and over weekends.
I also usually add to my base fee for weekend requests from all but those clients.
There are a couple of important realities here. One is that starting, and sometimes maintaining, an editorial business often means putting in extra hours outside 9–5/M–F, whether you make those hours officially available or keep that to yourself. The other is that almost everyone has other demands on their time, primarily family or needing “regular” jobs while establishing our writing, editing, proofreading, graphics, etc., businesses. We can’t always do our editorial work when clients want it, or even when we want to. That can mean working after normal business hours to meet a deadline or turning down requests to work on the weekends, which is very hard to do when you need every assignment, and every penny.
One important element of setting our availability limits is that MicrosoftWord and Adobe Acrobat show the times that we work on documents, so clients might notice if you work on something in the middle of the night or on a Saturday or Sunday, and expect such availability whenever they hit a time crunch. I’ve told people that I might use those off hours to keep to a deadline, but that it doesn’t change my availability limits. And if I need those times to meet a deadline due to something at my end, I don’t charge extra.
Setting schedules and expectations for ourselves, clients and families is one of the keys to a successful freelance businesses — and those expectations include phone or e-mail contact. You can use your website, contracts/letters of agreement and early discussions with clients to establish the best way to reach you and when you won’t, or probably won’t, respond to calls or e-mail messages. This is one of those “Never assume” aspects of business management: People don’t know what you don’t tell them, so don’t assume that clients or colleagues won’t try to engage you in work at times when you don’t want to be available.
The same goes for family: Communication is key. We have to let partners and children, and anyone else we live with, know when we should not be disturbed. Family members can’t read our minds. This is especially important if something in your family life changes. If someone in the household suddenly has a new outside job; changes to a home-based business, whether their own or for someone else; retires; or adds to the family, it will affect the life patterns of everyone in the home.
The most important aspect of all this starts with the initial conversation about rates and scheduling. If a client expects you to work on the weekends and you prefer not to but will make an exception for that client, you’re entitled to charge for your time accordingly — most will understand being charged more for weekend or late-night work. If you prefer not to be available at those times, say so, and let the client know what the differential will be if called on to do so — clients don’t like surprises, especially involving higher rates than they expect. If you occasionally work in the wee hours of the night or over a weekend to meet a deadline because aspects of your life interfered with doing the work in regular hours, I wouldn’t charge more than a usual rate.
How have colleagues here handled this aspect of your work lives?
Ruth E. Thaler-Carter (www.writerruth.com) is an award-winning provider of editorial and publishing services for publications, independent authors, publishers, associations, nonprofits and companies worldwide, and the editor-in-chief and owner of An American Editor. She created the annual Communication Central Be a Better Freelancer® conference for colleagues (www.communication-central.com), now co-hosted with the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (www.naiwe.com) and sponsored by An American Editor. She also owns A Flair for Writing (www.aflairforwriting.com), which helps independent authors produce and publish their books. She can be reached at Ruth@writerruth.com or Ruth.Thaler-Carter@AnAmericanEditor.com.
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