Several years ago I agreed to do a sample edit of a memoir. The author claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of a minor celebrity. Some parts of her story just seemed off, so I did a little research. I discovered that the man whom she claimed as her birth dad was born about ten years after the author. No, I did not continue to edit the project.

Yes I am looking for work; however I do have some general guidelines for prospective clients.

If you’re writing a memoir and fibbing about your life, I’m not the editor for you. Always include proper references for any materials from other sources that you’re using in your project. In other words, don’t plagiarize. And, please don’t send me another version of your story while I’m editing the first one.

I will edit only one version of your manuscript unless otherwise agreed to in advance. You must send me your final draft. Don’t send me what is essentially a rough draft and expect me to fix it. Sorry, but I’m not a ghostwriter. And if your final draft contains too many typos, grammar mistakes, and/or inconsistencies, I will send it back to you and politely suggest that you clean it up before resending it to an editor. In the long run, your bank account will thank you.

And if you decide to revise your project after I have sent you my final edits, please have someone, anyone, edit your final, final version before you publish the work.