Re: What does $3 a page mean to you?

["Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>]

J. Ressler wrote:
>>> I see my error. They hoped I wouldn't notice, and I didn't. They
are
>
> very clever indeed.
>
> So even an agreement doesn't protect you. You have to be careful
when
> you think the publisher is just restating already agreed terms that
it
> may in fact be changing the terms of your agreement as was the case
> here. Very sneaky. <<
>
> Or maybe, just maybe, they really didn't do it on purpose, and they
> assumed book pages as they do for all of their projects. We all know
> the problem with assumptions, and if they assumed, and you
> assumed...well, it can get ugly. Perhaps their email was legit, and
> their reasoning was truthful.
>
> Maybe I'm optimistic that way, but I doubt that they were purposely
> clever and sneaky.
>
> Sorry bout your 600 clams, it's an expensive learning lesson.


The publisher wrote: "I know it sounds a little backwards, but that's
the way it is."

If they knew that, they should have stated "book pages" when they
stated their terms.

In fact, I could buy your argument on one condition -- if they hadn't
put "book pages" in the memo at all. You see, they are making the
distinction based on a memo, not on our agreement. They are relying on
that memo, not on our agreement. In other words, why did they see the
need to put "book pages" in the memo but not in their offer of payment
terms? Had there been nothing about book pages in the memo, I might be
able to accept the notion that book pages was their assumption all
along. But because that distinction appears -- and quite rightly
*should* appear somewhere -- only in a cover memo that had so many
other technical editing-related queries involved with it that I just
didn't pay attention at all to the fact that they were inserting a
word that had not been in our agreement.

At any rate, they win.

I have decided that I *am* going to say to them that they might want
to consider informing their future copyeditors about it being book
pages at the time they state their terms to avoid confusion. I will
make sure it is very neutral. There's no reason for me to hide the
fact that I "misunderstood" or "made an error." I did. But, in my
opinion, if they didn't intend to hoodwink me, then they're just very
sloppy.


Bonnie Granat
www.granatedit.com







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