I am both a writer and copy editor. In the latter capacity I often try to do favors for people I know by charging way less than I normally do, and up until now I've had no problems with providing this service. In the summer I offered my services to someone I thought was a friend and had been taken advantage of by a previous editor. When she approached me and said she would like me to copy edit the book, I made it very clear to her that I had another project I was working on and that I also had difficulty sometimes because of my back, but she told me she was not in any hurry. In July we did the contract which stipulated we would agree on a date later. I also gave her the option to pay up front or to pay 25 percent down and the balance upon completion; she chose to pay up front.
Initially, there were no problems with our arrangement, but as time went on she started to pressure me for completion even though she had initially told me there was no rush. Not only was she pressuring me for completion, but she had begun to make accusations such as she was afraid to see what I did to her manuscript, I had better make sure she can undo any changes she doesn't want, etc. This was in spite of the fact I had told her many times I would only make grammar and punctuation changes, the rest would be noted in comments boxes in the right margin. She accused me of being dishonest because it is not October, and she had paid me in July with no stipulation about payment. One day she was fine with it and a few days or a week later she was back to complaining again and throwing accusations around.
Before today the previous email had been okay, and she had told me to "try to finish by Halloween." Then a few days later I got another email that was again slamming me. Now you want to keep in mind this manuscript was not edited by the previous editor for grammar at all. It included misplaced commas, missing commas, unnecessary commas, sentence fragments, extra long sentences, dangling participles, and tense inconsistency within a sentence. I notified this person of this problems and told her they were taking longer to fix because they were so numerous, and while I didn't tell her this, I will honestly say if I had known the former editor had not done any grammar checking, I never would have agreed to do the work at such a cheap price.
Now today I woke up to find out I cannot get into my Windows profile which has all my documents because there is only one administrator account on my computer. I emailed her to ask her to send me another copy of the book after I explained what had happened. Instead of being sympathetic to my turmoil, she went on another rant, demanded I return ALL of her money even though I had already done a substantial amount of work on the book. She tried to accuse me of a Breach of Contract even though there was no date set forth in the contract, and she clearly told me "no rush." This is the first time I have come across anyone who told me "no rush," so I trusted her word and did what I could when I could as my health issues and other projects allowed. In spite of that, she attempted to file a complaint with Pay Pal for the return of ALL her money even though I had already told her I don't even have it right now.
In the final email she accused me of being a scam artist and claimed other people had warned her about me which I know cannot be true. If they did, they are surely not people with whom I have ever worked. I have told her numerous times if we had set up a definite date I would have worked around other things, but when you tell me "work on it when you have time," I take you at your word. This is a lesson well-learned; I will never again agree to work for anyone below my customary fee nor will I agree to provide a contract that does not clearly spell out the terms. Sadly, it is an experience I will not allow to repeat itself, but in the meantime I have to live with someone telling lies and her claims that others told her the same kinds of things.
So much for trying to do someone a favor...
