A Last Look Worldwide Online Proofreader and Text Editor or Copyeditor
Use a "wordwright" in your write-right rites!
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A Last Look Can Help You
Definitions
Docuchecking: proofreading and copyediting, even rewriting if necessary, written communications (documents, manuscripts) of all kinds, including Web sites, by an experienced, affordable proofreader and copyeditor (or copy editor, if you prefer). [Karr's word coinage]Proofreading: v.t. (proofread) "to read (printers' proofs, copy, etc.) in order to detect and mark errors to be corrected." [Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1996]
Proofreader: one who proofreads, one who performs proofreading.Copyediting: v.t. (copyedit) "to edit (a manuscript, document, text, etc.) for publication, esp. for punctuation, spelling, grammatical structure, style, etc." [Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1996]
Copyeditor: one who edits copy, one who performs copyediting. Top"Why Bother?"
You? You should "bother" to obtain proofreading services because you could increase your perceived value to colleagues and clients who read your copy. Do you know a company or individual who makes a great impression (perceived value) but isn't the one best suited to perform a given task? Such companies simply manage to convince others that they are the best choice via smooth, slick, apparently faultless advertising. Your e-zine articles, e-mails, posts, and web pages, not to mention offline documents and submitted manuscripts, are YOUR advertising. Well-written, proofread, and copyedited, they can convince potential clients to do business with you instead of your competitors.Me? I "bother" to offer really reasonable proofreading services to individuals and SOHOs because I know many of them have good ideas that are diminished by the way they are expressed in "print." The web is a veritable gold mine of errors because webites or netizens are in a hurry, not because they're stupid or incompetent. They're so enamored of the ability to instantly react while on the web that they often forget to proof their copy before zapping it off to its recipient. I suffer from this syndrome myself, so I know. My mother always said it's better to respond than to react. The impressions these instant reactions can leave tend to support my mother's axiom. Click here for details. Top
So, How Much Will Proofreading and Copyediting Cost You?
If you've asked this question of proofreaders and copyeditors in the past, I'll bet you've received a lot of different answers. I'll start out simply. It will cost you (US) $0.30 per minute of my time ($18.00/hour).By industry standards, that's "extremely reasonable." Why so cheap? It's an "underdog" thing. I'm a sucker for supporting people who need instead of people who have. I offer my services at an introductory rate that I can live on but that small-office, small-business, home-office, independent-contractor, and freelance workers can afford. I hope to help those who have worthwhile ideas, goods, or services (and are serious about offering them to the world) leave the best possible impression on those to whom they present their ideas, goods, or services "in writing," even though their grasp of the English language, especially as practiced by Americans, may be less than perfect. Top
What Do You Get?
Okay! What you don't get is a finished product, camera ready, just run it through the printer and you're through. You'll get a word processing or HTML file marked up with corrections and suggestions, maybe even some judgment calls. You can reject or accept my suggestions, and you are personally responsible for producing the finished product. My function is to make sure you are aware of what are and what may be blatant errors or subtle nuances in your text. What you do with them is your decision. I am a consultant, not a dictator.Since I hate to JUST proofread, I will actually edit spelling and typo errors. I will correct your punctuation and grammar errors. I will also point out to you phrases or sentences that may be grammatically correct, but that may also seem obscure or confusing to your readers. This, of course, is my opinion, based on my experience, and may not apply to your target readers. My clients, however, have found that if someone outside their industry doesn't understand what they are trying to say, there may be room for misunderstanding within the industry as well. I will also offer comments containing complete rewrites of passages I find particularly obscure, redundant, or otherwise likely to distract or "turn off" a reader. Everything I do to the file will be instantly recognizable by you so that you can quickly take appropriate action.
To keep your costs down, you should submit your "final draft." That is, when your text has reached the stage that you and others who have read it think it is ready to "publish," send it to me. Please remember that, since I work by the hour, the more help you need, the more it will cost you. On the other hand, you've probably noted that my rate is still on the low side of the industry average for straight proofreading, and much lower than the industry average for in-depth copyediting. Chances are good that my services will cost you less overall than those of another proofreader or copy editor, but that isn't necessarily so. There are others out there who are cheaper than I (believe it or not), but at some point or other, the old adage, "You get what you pay for" begins to kick in. Top
How Do We Work Together?
If you desire proofreading or copyediting for an Internet article, e-mail message, or discussion group or forum post, you can send your project (less than 1 Meg or zipped) to me either within or as an attachment to an e-mail message. For these purposes, I can edit both text and html files. I'll save your project as a file, and then I'll save it with a different name, edit the copy, and attach the renamed version to an e-mail reply. You will thus have your original version plus my edited version (with the edited text readily identifiable by you) so you can compare them. You can then take the appropriate action to accept or reject my edits and comments/suggestions, copy the "document" into a new post or message, and post or e-mail it to its intended recipient.If you would like to retain me to proofread a web page or an entire web site, you will have two options. You can either send the .htm or .html page to me as an e-mail attachment, or, if the pages are already uploaded to a server, you can send the URL(s) to me in an e-mail message. I will download the web page, rename it, and edit it. I will then e-mail the renamed file to you as an attachment. You, of course, will be responsible for comparing my file to and making the appropriate corrections to your web site.
If you have a need for me to proofread or copyedit a manuscript (fiction or nonfiction, manual, magazine article, story, novella, novel, play, etc.), you can send it to me as an e-mail attachment one chapter or other short segment at a time (smaller than 1 MB files), preferrably in Rich Text Format (.rtf) because there are several word processors that can read and write this file type and no viruses can be transmitted. However, I can edit Microsoft Word, Lotus WordPro, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, and many other formats. I will save the file with a different name, proofread and edit it in a manner that makes it easy for you to see what's been done, and then send it back to you. You can accept my edits or change them back and then take the appropriate steps to submit the manuscript for publication. Since I do make editing changes, instead of just marking up your manuscript with proofreaders' marks, your own time spent re-editing (i.e., accepting some changes and returning others to their original form) is minimized and you won't have to re-type your manuscript. Top
Availability of Service
I am generally online beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern time, and I usually check my mail for the last time at about 8 p.m. Eastern time. My actual working hours are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except as noted on my calendar. Clicking on my calendar icon(you will have to click your browser's "back" button to return to the current page from my calendar) will let you view my To Do List and appointments so you'll know when I'm going to be off the Internet or which blocks of my time are already allocated to other clients. If no blocks of time are shown to be taken up with appointments (look next to the times listed directly under the day/date), you may assume that I am able to "fit your small project" into my schedule within a reasonable time frame (24 - 48 hours depending on the size of "your small project") once you've become a retainer client.
I can sometimes be reached on AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo!Messenger. My "nickname" is Heylyn2. Top
Billing and Payment Options
If you are satisfied with my online availability, your next question should be, "What about billing and payment options?"For large projects spread over a relatively long period of time and not likely to repeat frequently, you would send one-half of the estimated cost of your project before I begin, and one-half of the estimated cost when the project is half-completed (at which time you will receive the first half of the project). Option 2 would be to have me edit your project in stages, sending a retainer for each stage before I start it.
For clients who are likely to have several small projects over a fairly extended period of time, the retainer option (yeah, like a lawyer only 95% cheaper) kicks in. You would send a payment for an amount with which you feel comfortable, typically $25.00-$50.00 ($100 - $200 for high-volume clients once the relationship has been established). I "work off" that amount, and, when your balance nears 0, you determine whether you wish to continue our relationship. If you wish to continue, then send another payment for whatever amount you think will suffice for the period of time you wish to cover. This method guarantees prompt action (within 2-24 hours during business hours) when you send me your small projects.
As for payment methods, I have been working on accepting credit cards for quite a while; however, I haven't yet found my idea of a "reasonable" cost:income ratio with the average "accept credit cards at your site" vendor. God Himself only asks for 10%, but the companies that set up credit card acceptance (is anybody surprised?) want total fees of about 25% of my income. Now, I may be semi-retired and, yes, I do this to help people and to generate a little cash flow, not to "make a killing," but these fees seriously deplete that "little cash flow." In order to accept credit cards through these "service providers," I would have to raise my rates, which would defeat the purpose of my web site (to offer AFFORDABLE professional services).
At long last, someone has heard the plea of "the little guy" and come up with a solution. This "someone" is called PayPal. With PayPal, anyone with a credit card, bank account, and an e-mail account can e-mail money from said credit card or bank account to anyone else with an e-mail address. No fancy machines or accounts necessary. The transaction fee for a business entity, such as myself, cheap by comparison to "regular" credit-card processing companies. For private citizens, it's free! And it's free for everyone who's sending funds. So, if you have a credit card and an e-mail account and would like to pay anyone using said credit card, click here to set up a PayPal account, and have a ball. If you don't have a credit card, you can fund your PayPal account using your bank account and still e-mail money to anyone with a valid e-mail Address.
Your other payment option is to snail-mail a personal or business check, bank draft, or postal money order to me in US funds, but, first, let me make it clear that no money changes hands until I have done a free estimate for you. After you request your free estimate, you can decide how you wish to pay. If you decide on PayPal, you can come back to this page and click on the PayPal link. In the future, there will be links for various-sized retainers, and you will be able to click on more than one link or order more than one increment of any link to total the amount you wish to pay. I'm still working on finding the time to get this up and running. Top
Free Estimate
The free estimate is a document or portion of a document or project that you send to me and I proofread/copyedit for free. It is usually 2 to 3 double-spaced pages or a couple of web pages (depending on the size of the pages). I will return to you the edited work, tell you how much it would have cost you if I had charged you to do the work, and give you the per-word cost. I will use this "test" to estimate how much similar projects or the rest of the project will cost and the time frame in which I can complete the project(s). You will use this "test" to decide whether my work is good enough that you wish to enter into an arrangement with me.Please be aware that there are several things that can affect the actual cost of a project, resulting in higher or lower final bills than were estimated. These include but are not limited to the following:
(a) differences in the number and types of errors on different pages
e.g., If, for my estimate, you send me pages that you have proofread and edited, but you do not have time to proofread and edit many pages for the rest of the project, the bill will be higher than the estimate. It is a good idea to send pages from the middle of the project, so that I can arrive at a more accurate estimate.(b) multiple authors within the projecte.g., If you, personally, authored the pages you send me for the estimate, but your associate, who is a language whiz, authored the bulk of the project, the final bill may be much less than the estimate. Of course, if your associate only "thinks" he/she's a language whiz, the bill may be much higher than estimated ;^>, unless those are the pages sent for the estimate! It is a good idea to send 2 pages from each author.(c) changing desires of the author or publisher during the editing process.e.g., If you decide, after I have given you an estimate and started on your project, that you want to reverse the capitalization of certain words or phrases, or you want to change the style of all your headings, or you want the text volume reduced by a certain amount, etc., you will be looking at a higher final bill. I need to know all the parameters of the project before I give an estimate.There are other things that affect the final billing, but these are the three I run into most often. Please understand, you are paying for my time. I will try to warn you of the possibility of any cost discrepancy in advance (as I see it happening). I will fully explain, with examples, why there is likely to be a discrepancy in your final bill. You will then have two choices. You may tell me to stop where I am so you can try to find someone else to finish the project more cheaply, or you can authorize me to finish the project, accepting the fact that the final bill will be higher than the estimate. Either way, you will be responsible for paying for the time I have expended on your project. Top
Refund Policy
If you are not happy with the results of my service, you may request a refund. All refunds are prorated based on the percentage of changes made to your text that you dispute versus the reasonable improvements that have been made to your text.If you are a retainer client, the unused balance of your retainer will be refunded to you, and our relationship will be permanently severed.
If you are a "large-project" client, you will either be refunded a portion of what you have paid or you will be responsible for paying only that portion of the remaining balance of your estimated costs based on the prorated percentage we agree upon. Upon my payment of your refund or your payment of the prorated balance due, our relationship will be permanently severed.
For further information (and don't forget to request your free estimate), enquire via e-mail as instructed below. Top
Privacy and Confidentiality
The only information collected by this site is that which you e-mail to me. All information (both personal and about projects) is kept in the strictest confidence. No information sent to me is ever sold to, shared with, or given to anyone else without your prior permission. You may receive follow-up e-mail messages to update you about my availability and services and to ascertain your preferences regarding your relationship with A Last Look. However these messages will be "few and far between."If, for any reason, you aren't sure I can assist you,
click on the cardfile icon to view the network database. There may be someone here who can help you, even though I cannot. The network changes all the time, so you might want to bookmark the page and come back periodically to see if you can find the perfect teammate. Top
Requesting Information or Services
To request information or services, send an e-mail to the address below. You should receive an answer within 24-48 hours, barring unforseen circumstances. If you do not receive a reply within 24-48 hours, check my calendar to see if I am unavailable. I do take vacations from time to time. Top
There is a lot of information on this site. Different visitors will find different information useful, and I'm sure no visitor will care to read it all. For that reason I will attempt to provide clearly identified links to information of interest to specific classes of readers. If you want to contact me, please follow the instructions below. If you find this site useful, please tell your friends using the popup form triggered by clicking on this button:
Navigation and Contact Info:
Contact Person: Lynda Karr (FYI: Mrs., but we don't stand on ceremony around here.)
Contact Preference: E-mail--see instructions below.
Confidentiality
All communications of any type with A Last Look are private and confidential, and may not be stored by any means or shared in any manner with anyone else without the written permission of Lynda Karr. Communications from you are accorded the same rights. Your e-mail address is never shared with anyone else without your express permission except as demanded by the law. If you receive a communication from me by mistake, you may not use anything in it for your personal gain or for the personal gain or detriment of others, and you should notify me at once, delete the communication, and ignore its contents.Message Instructions: I'm eager to hear from you, but thanks to UCE/SPAM and address-harvesting robots, I had to devise a method of masking my e-mail addresses and/or weeding out serious inquiries from junkmail. My method is to (1) provide a new e-mail address whenever spam overtakes me and (2) provide subject lines for you to use that robots can't use.
(1) If you don't need me now but think you might in the future, bookmark this page and come back here to click on the current e-mail address when you need me. Once you become a client/networker, you'll be given my permanent address.
(2) To enable my e-mail program to filter your message properly, please type or copy-and-paste one of the following subject lines into the subject line of your message. I look at messages with these subject lines first and the rest of my messages when I get around to it. Once I become familiar with your address, you won't need to worry about this step.
I may need a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I am a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I'd like to be a proofreader and/or copyeditor.
I have a comment about A Last Look and/or your Web site.Then click on the "Send e-mail" link.
Once you've clicked on the link, your e-mail program will pop up. Right-click in the Subject line, and click paste to enter the subject line you chose from those above (or just type it in). Then, compose your message including how I should address you in my response, at least your general location (city, time zone), a phone number at which you can be reached in case e-mail ceases to work, and a short outline of what you are hoping to accomplish. If you are requesting a free estimate, please attach your project file(s) or a file containing a few pages from the middle of your project.
Send e-mail
To send a personal message, write a subject line that includes the name I would know you by, like "Do you remember Lynda Sandford, from Maple Shade, NJ?", and click on the following link: Hi, LyndaHaving trouble? If mailer daemon returns your message or if the links above don't appear to work for you, send your message directly to me at dzntwrk (means the link or your e-mail "doesn't work") @alastlook.com, but please don't forget the subject-line instructions above.
If you are a potential client and do not receive a reply from me within one business day, it may be because your e-mail host treats mail from Yahoo.com as spam. Check with your provider to see if placing my yahoo address in your filters or address book will negate that block. If so, send me a message telling me that, and I'll send you the yahoo address to put in your filters or address book (via my ISP e-mail, currently handtechisp.com). If putting my yahoo address in your program won't work, please resend your request, and tell me your e-mail host won't accept yahoo mail. Hopefully your e-mail host will accept mail from my ISP. I move around a bit and my ISP can change, so I prefer to use stable, continuous, able-to-be-reached-from-any-computer Yahoo.
If you are a potential networker or newbie/wannabe, you won't hear from me until network activity increases and I am once again accepting applicants or I have new pages on the site that may be of interest to you. I will keep your information on file for that purpose and that purpose alone.
Thanks so much! I look forward to hearing from you, even if it is to complain about my site (grin)! If you know what you want and I know who you are, you can use the following buttons to fund your retainer.
$18.00 (one hour of my time) $25.00 Retainer $50.00 Retainer $100.00 Retainer $500.00 Retainer
