Page 27 of Joy to Noel
I cover my face and lean my head back. “What a great question,” I groan. “Turns out that’s more difficult than opening a bank account,” I say as I sit back up and return Liam’s eye contact.
“Impossible,” he replies. “What’s so hard about it?”
Pulling my legs up to sit crisscross in my chair, I say, “I spent a couple of hours today searching through freelance editors on social media. I looked through their posts and websites, making a chart of all the varying rates people charge.”
“How do they price their services? Is it by an hourly rate?” Liam asks before scraping the final bite of rice and veggies together on his plate.
“No, most charge a certain rate per word. Line editing is rightfully a higher rate than copyediting or proofreading since that requires more work helping the author to smooth out wording and readability flow. But there’s still a wide range of how much people charge for copyediting and proofreading,” I explain. “I spent forever waffling about where in the range I want to fall.”
“What’s your first instinct?” he asks.
That I’m making a huge mistake and never should have thought I could be successful at this on my own. The genuine thought is not the one I say out loud.
“I think I’ll charge on the low end of the spectrum until I have some experience under my belt,” I respond.
Liam gives me a disapproving look. “No. You already have experience. You shouldn’t be undercharging.”
My cheeks heat. “Well, I don’t have experience doingthisspecifically. Independent editing. I’m brand-new to this scene, so I have to charge a low rate to get my foot in the door and build up some clientèle.”
A firm head shake from Liam. “You have seven years of full-time professional proofreading experience. With no complaints against you. And, I assume, some sort of related college degree?” he asks, and I nod my head. “I’m sure you’re more qualified than a lot of the freelance editors out there. If you charge a low rate, you’re going to attract the clients who are looking for the cheapest rate over the highest quality of work. Price your rate higher to attract the clients who are serious about quality.”
I break eye contact, looking down at my fingers tapping on the table. “I’m not sure that’s how this works. Any paying client is better than no clients.”
Liam taps the table close to my fingers, drawing my attention back to his eyes. “Don’t undersell your expertise with a low rate. Charge what you’re worth, MJ.”
Heat burns through my chest, up my throat, behind my eyes.I wasn’t worth enough to keep around at WritInc now, was I?I blow a slow breath through my nose and glare at Liam. “You’re so bossy, Suits.”
A self-satisfied smirk spreads across Liam’s face, further contributing to my brain malfunction. His confidence is so maddeningly attractive. “That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” he says, shrugging his shoulders.
“I found three typos on your company’s website,” I announce. He’s already conceded victory today, but I’ll play my trump card anyway. Simply to get my brain back on track.
“Huh?” Liam’s brow furrows.
“The Pure Fur All website. I found three typos,” I say.
“First of all, let’s set the record straight—I amnotemployed by Pure Fur All,” Liam replies. “I work for Holden Incorporated, a corporation that owns several companies, including the newly-acquired pet food company. I won’t let my good name be associated with Pure Fur All as an employer.”
I roll my eyes at his offended reaction.
“Secondly, I find myself completely unsurprised by any mistakes made by Pure Fur All at this point,” Liam says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Show me,” he demands.
As the person used to being the one bossing everyone around . . . I’m surprised to realize that I don’t dislike being on the receiving end. At least, not when it’s Liam.
I take our empty plates to the sink and retrieve my tablet. After opening the web browser, I type in Pure Fur All’s website. When I sit back down at the table, Liam scootches his chair around to sit next to me. I practice even breaths.
“Right here on the home page, it says, ‘Only the purest ingredients make their way in to our pet food,’” I say, pointing to the location on the screen. “‘Into’ should be one word. Because the ingredients are physically going into the food.”
Liam hums. “And?”
Clicking the menu at the top, I navigate to the page about the company founders. “When it talks about the husband and wife who started the company here, it says, ‘The Williams’ had a vision.’ Never, ever, in any universe of grammar, does an apostrophe make a plural. It should say, ‘The Williamses had a vision.’ Although, that honestly sounds clunky, and I would change it to ‘The Williamsfamily.’”
Liam nods and says, “Okay. There’s another one?”
“Here, it says, ‘Pets of every kind deserves quality food.’ Whoever wrote this probably thought that ‘deserves’ was modifying the word ‘kind’ that comes right before it, which is singular. But ‘kind’ is part of a prepositional phrase modifying ‘pets,’ which is plural, so it needs to say, ‘Pets of every kind deserve quality food.’”
I give Liam a triumphant look, which brings a whisper of a smile to his face. “Like I said. Zero percent surprised at incompetency in the Pure Fur All company at this point,” he says. “This is not under the parameters of my job description, but will you email these to me anyway? I’ll pass it along.”
Biting back a smile, I open my email. Of course, I’ve already saved screenshots of the errors. I’m about to compose a message when the newest email in my inbox catches my eye. I gasp before I can stop myself.
