I am going to make this post brief and short as possible because I had reposted this but lost the caption that was very descriptive and honestly don’t have the energy to rewrite it but I need advice.

I am wondering if I got scammed on my editor. I am new to the publishing business as this is my first book I am publishing. I was told you need an editor, proofer and publisher. Now I am questioning if I could’ve done all of these things myself, I think I would be in a better position.

She charged 1264 for 31,000 words so that equates to four cents per word. she understood that I was younger, and I am not a millionaire and in my opinion knowing that information you should do your very best. honestly you should always do your very best that’s your job but specifically if you know that $1200 is a lot to someone you should definitely do a good job. attached below is a picture of the 12th page of my book. this is what the edits look like. It is very obvious she skimmed, and pretty much bypassed entire paragraphs, including the syntax grammar and everything she promised she would edit.

“Copyediting for syntax, grammar, and word choice • Checking for grammar, style, and voice • Provide suggestions where necessary • Make suggestions for content clarity, expansion, and organization • Making edits and suggestions to the text of the manuscript • Make formatting suggestions for flow and readability The total word count of the manuscript consists of a total of 31,613 words. The cost will be calculated at a four cents per word (.04 cents). The total cost for this work is $1,264.52 (total word count x .04 cents).”

she specialized in academic writing, and since my paper was academic and studious based I felt it was a good match, and she agreed after reading my sample. It was in her realm of work believe she was familiar with the topic, but the quantity must’ve been something that was out of her scope , she gave herself four weeks to do 70 pages.

I found this weird because I told her she didn’t need a deadline she could take as long as she wanted so when she decided it was four weeks I was a little alarmed. I noticed after the second week she only got a fourth of it done and I assume she would extend the deadline having understood that it’s going to take a little bit longer than she anticipated.

Instead, she kept the same deadline and the remaining two weeks she finished 3/4 of the work, and it was clearly rushed . But honestly, even looking at the 12th page. It is evident that even from the beginning she wasn’t putting her full effort into this.

What I am inquiring to you all is the question if this is normal or am I correct to say that I was taken advantage of? in my mind I feel if I’m paying good money for an editor it should be done 100% to completion but I am new to this and don’t want to jump to conclusions. I did clarify she did the kind of editing I was looking for so this wasn’t rly out of her realm. It just seemed like she wanted the money fast and didn’t care about the outcome. it was really overwhelming to see that what I expected to be done wasn’t done and my money that I could’ve really used was also at out the door.