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Fellow editors, beware!


david388

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I’ve had a rash of Buyers lately who ask me to proofread and edit their writing (sometimes large orders), and upon receipt of their delivery, then ask me to also write additional portions for them as well, and tell me they are “disappointed” when I don’t. This is becoming both frustrating. Is this something anyone else has run into, and do any of you guys have advice or tips to share? I even have a bolded portion of my gig stating that I do not offer content generation within my editing gig.

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I did have experiences like this, which is why I suspended my editing gig. It happened too frequently for me to think it’s even worth the $5. When my buyers did express discontent (some of them wanted me to actually re-write large portions of it, while others wanted extra research to make their articles sound more knowledgeable), I would either just do it or cancel. After maybe the 4th time, I said screw it and got rid of the gig itself.

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Like digilancer99, this issue is exactly why I suspended my editing gig. This might be excessive to do with every buyer (especially the ones who already seem to know the difference between editing and rewriting), but my suggestion would just to be very clear with each buyer about what editing and proofreading means at the very beginning of the order.



For example, if someone seems not to understand what “editing” means (or if I’d been getting a rash of people purposefully or unintentionally misunderstanding), I might send a message when the order first comes in that was something like:



"Thanks for your order! Before I get started, I just wanted to make sure we are on the same page. This gig is for editing and proofreading–reading over the existing content and making small changes to ensure it is as streamlined and error-free as possible. If you are instead looking for extensive content editing or rewriting, which are more complex tasks, let me know and we can discuss the appropriate fees."



I don’t know, that seems a little aggressive and pushy to send on every order, something less aggressive?



"Thanks for your order! I took a quick glance at the content and all seems to be in order. I will put you on my schedule and get your streamlined and error-free content back to you as soon as possible. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again!"



Anyway, just spitballin’ here.

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Reply to @emasonwrites: thanks for your ideas! I totally see why you and @digilancer99 have suspended your gigs - but at the same token, my editing gig has been a really great way to meet some wonderful people on Fiverr, and is a big part of why my monthly earnings are now consistently in the $1,000-range. I suppose I’ll have to work on my spidey-sense a bit more and maybe incorporate some kind of gentle hint into the autoresponse like you’re suggesting.

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Funny, I haven’t had this problem very much (there are always a few buyers who want more), but just tonight I had two students message me that they are “at their limit” writing their thesis or paper and wonder if I could add some content to it as well as edit and proofread it. Interesting…coincidence?



I told both that adding content is “beyond the scope of my services here on fiverr” and that if they found a writer to add the content, I’d be happy to proofread and copyedit for them at the end.



I do have what copyeditors do quite clearly spelled out in my gig description, and I think because of that I don’t get too many buyers trying for more.

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Reply to @writerlisaz: Thanks Lisa - congrats to you too! Incidentally, can we just take pause for a minute and laugh at how ridiculously unethical these people are? I used to worry when I was writing papers that I was unfairly paraphrasing an idea I had heard somewhere, but these people take it to a whole new level…

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