After much back and forth with a potential client who continues to expect me to give him my time for free, I sent this message today. What I cannot publish under my own imprint as a book intended for readers and have no interest in subsidy-publishing is only something on which I might be a consultant or editor for a fee. Hence:
[Name redacted], I make a living, or try to, from selling my services. That means selling my time.
Your manuscript is not anywhere close to being a book. What I think of the end is irrelevant. You are not close to having a manuscript on which I could have a meaningful opinion. I do not want to waste time attempting to analyze something that is only rough notes, or to mislead you about what you have. What you have is rough drafts of what might eventually become working material for a memoir, and what it might eventually become could bear little or no relationship to what you have now. You are YEARS of hard work away from having a finished manuscript. I do not know how to make it any clearer than that. I gave you specific advice on how to proceed if you really want to have a memoir that anyone might want to read. I will summarize again:
1. Read dozens of quality memoirs to get some understanding of what makes a memoir.
2. Read a book or two on how to write a memoir. Start here: http://www.theamericanscholar.org/how-to-write-a-memoir/ . Then go here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395901502/ .
3. Spend a couple of years working on your manuscript. Years. Not weeks. Take classes on writing. Join a critique group and get feedback from people who volunteer to exchange that kind of review and comment.
4. Revise, revise, revise.
5. Ask some friends to read your manuscript and give you honest feedback. Then revise and revise more.
THEN, after a few years, maybe we will have something to talk about. But I will still expect a cash retainer in advance and will charge an hourly fee of at least $90 (current, and probably going up) before even looking at the new manuscript. All I have to sell is my TIME. I will not volunteer more unpaid time.
Too many people want to take my time for free. (You are not the only one.) I have had to institute a money-up-front policy after the first hour or so or I will be subjected to unending expectation of free time. Please understand. THIS IS MY JOB. And I have other projects in the works, including books of my own. Giving time away detracts from those and interferes with work for PAYING clients.
I do not know how to make that any clearer. I trust that you expected to be paid for your work on [business redacted] and expect to be paid for your work [redacted]. I likewise expect to be paid for my work.
Best wishes.
Ken
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I don't want to hurt feelings, but what else is a person to do?
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