Terms & Conditions

These are the terms and conditions for working with Liz Dexter at Libro.

Note that if you have your own agreement document with me, that agreement document over-rides information set out here; anything listed here which is not listed in your agreement stands as here.

Quotations

I will provide a price and timescale quotation to you in good faith and based on the information you provide to me. I reserve the right to request a sample of the document or tape in question, and I am happy to provide a short test piece (up to 1000 words or 5 minutes of audio tape) upon request.

If there is an issue with the document or if a personal issue arises for me, such that I am unlikely to make the original deadline or price quotation, I will inform you as soon as I am able, and will stop work while you decide how you wish to proceed.

It is important to contact me for a quotation in good time, even if I’ve worked with you before. I can get extremely busy and do not like to let my clients down. I reserve the right to offer an alternative timescale, charge extra for urgent turnaround times, or to refuse a certain piece of work.

Content

Please note that I reserve the right to refuse work, even if I have worked with you before, if I do not feel comfortable with its content.

I am fine with swearing, drug and alcohol references in books and tapes to be transcribed, although I am not comfortable editing or transcribing explicit scenes or erotica. I am not comfortable working with material that actively promotes or glamorises smoking, heavy drinking or illegal drug use.

I am unable to work with material of any form (documents or tapes) that has scenes of extreme violence and/or cruelty, or any scenes of violence or cruelty to animals.

Note: I am not a qualified medical or legal transcriptionist so do not take on wholly medical or legal transcription work.

Thank you for respecting my preferences and boundaries in this respect. If you have work which I am unable to carry out, I will endeavour to find a recommended proofreader, editor or transcriber for you.

Illegal content: if the content of your tape, book, or other materials encourages or condones any practices that are illegal in the UK, I reserve the right to stop doing the work, cancel our contract and delete all materials relating to the matter. This includes but it is not limited to content that promotes racism, homophobia etc., incites hatred or encourages or promotes fraudulent activity.

Booking my services in advance

When you book my editing, proofreading, transcription or localisation services in advance, I will expect you to tell me the date when you will send me the work and the deadline by which I need to complete the work.

If you book in advance, we will need to agree a date when you will send me the work and the date I will return it to you. For longer documents (such as a PhD thesis or novel) this will mean deciding/agreeing on an approximate date. You will confirm this date nearer the time, and at least two weeks in advance.

If for any reason you cannot send me your work on the agreed date, I reserve the right to reject the project, even if we previously confirmed it.

Please do not send me the work and expect me to complete it without having booked in the work in advance and / or having told me about any delays. I have a full schedule and do not always have the time to fit in a job that arrives when I am not expecting it.

If I have to reject your project because I cannot fit it into my schedule, I will recommend a trusted colleague to do the work.

If you are unable to meet the previously agreed deadline for sending me the work, please …

• advise me that you won’t be able to meet the deadline as soon as possible (this may mean I can slot another job into my schedule)
• advise me when you expect to be able to send it to me, so that I can decide whether I can fit it in, then keep to the new deadline or keep me informed of any further delays or changes
• confirm when you will be ready to send it to me (with at least a week’s notice)
• accept that I may not be able to work to the new deadline (I will tell you as soon as possible if the work cannot now be fitted into my schedule)

The same rules apply if your document is significantly different to or longer than the project originally agreed – I reserve the right to turn down the work in that eventuality, or to adjust the deadline.

Recommendations

If I am unable to take on your project, it is likely that I will be able to recommend a suitable alternative proofreader or transcriber to you. My recommendation is a personal recommendation and does not carry over any of my terms and conditions. The price and service you arrange with the alternative supplier is outside of my concern and your arrangement is with them personally. I am not liable for that relationship, service, price or work.

Corruption and viruses

I reserve the right to use corruption detecting software on the documents you send me. If I find that your document is corrupted, I cannot undertake to promise that all formatting I undertake on the document, including setting up headings and tables of contents, line spacing and other display procedures, will remain stable when you open the document.

If I find corruption present in the document, I will inform you and EITHER we will agree that you accept that the document may not remain stable OR I will cancel the job and return the document to you with no work. If I have worked on part of the document before the corruption became an issue, I will reserve the right to charge for the time spent OR word count worked on, at my discretion.

I check all documents and tapes sent to me for viruses. If you send me a document or email containing a virus, I will alert you as soon as I am able, and I reserve the right NOT to work with you / on that document, whatever pricing and service offer we have agreed.

Students

Special terms apply to students and you must agree to these terms before I undertake work for you.

First of all, I only accept full works, including PhD theses and Master’s dissertations, and not documents sent chapter-by-chapter. This allows me to schedule and complete your work in a given time and with high consistency, with no additional arrangements or costs. While you may change the date you have booked with me to an extent (and subject to my schedule), this is non-negotiable.

I am very careful about authorship and plagiarism.

I do not undertake an actual rewriting of your work. What I do is make suggestions on spelling, grammar, punctuation and word order/ sense using the “track changes” feature in Word – this means that you retain the authorship of the work as you need to go through it after me accepting (or not) the changes. This is especially important with academic work where you need to have written and thought about every word!

The reason I leave the errors in the text (crossed out) and the suggestions is threefold:
1. you may learn something about your use of language and be helped to improve it
2. I need to make sure I am not misinterpreting what you say. When you look at each suggestion I make, you should check I’m still helping you to say what you want to say, and I haven’t changed your meaning! I’m not an expert on your field of research, which makes this aspect even more important.
3. Where there are a large number of changes in a part of the text, we need to be careful about authorship – i.e. that it doesn’t look like I have rewritten anything for you – this way you are aware of all changes and have an active role in amending the text. Both customer and proofreader need to be careful about this aspect when looking at something which you will be examined on as your own work!

With regard to deadlines, you need to get the work to me in good time to have it back at least 24 hours before your submission deadline, giving you time to go through my suggestions.

My standard (student) rate can be found here. These prices are lower than my professional fees to companies and organisations. There are probably cheaper services out there, but they often rely on feeding your work through a spelling and grammar checking programme, whereas I guarantee that every word is looked at by me!

The payment will be due upon completion of the work. This final invoice price is non-negotiable.

Plagiarism

My statements on plagiarism can be found here. If I find that you have extensively and/or deliberately plagiarised in your work, I reserve the right to refuse to work any further. I also reserve the right to charge for any work I have already undertaken on your document.

If I find that you have copied another organisation or person’s web or other text, or I am asked to change a text lifted from one source to be used in another without attribution, the same conditions apply.

By accepting these terms and conditions (see below) you are stating that you have not sent me plagiarised work.

Note: If I have completed work on your document before finding the plagiarism, you will be liable to pay me for any work I have completed on the document, however much or little that is.

Invoicing and Payment

In most cases I produce an invoice once I have completed your work. In the case of large projects and entirely at my discretion, I reserve the right to request a down payment in advance, or to return the work to you watermarked “Sample” with the un-watermarked copy being sent to you upon receipt of your payment.

Payment is due immediately for student clients. Student clients must pay me direct, rather than sending the invoice to their finance departments or supervisors. I can provide a receipt so that you can claim back the money.

Payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date for most other clients, unless I have another agreement with your company.

I accept payment by PayPal*, sterling cheque, bank transfer or cash or cheque deposit into any branch of Halifax Bank. I will provide PayPal and cheque payable and/or bank transfer details when invoicing you.

*please note, I reserve the right to impose an additional charge if you choose to pay by PayPal. Although it’s convenient, it does charge me for receiving money, so I may pass on some of that charge to you.

Late payment and debt collection fees

If your payment is late, I reserve the right to apply a late fee of up to 10% of the original invoice. If you pay in installments and this has not been agreed with me and arranged in advance, I reserve the right to charge you for any extra fees that I incur in processing these payments.

If your payment is late, I reserve the right to engage the services of a debt collection agency. I will always give you fair warning before I engage their services and give you time to make your payment.

If I engage the services of a debt recovery agency, you will also become liable for the charges I have to pay for their services, and this will be added to your bill.

Accepting these terms and conditions

When I negotiate with you, I will draw your attention to these terms and conditions. By sending me your work to complete or emailing me to state that you would like me to go ahead with the work, you are accepting these terms and conditions. It is therefore in your interest to read these carefully and advise me of any issues up-front.