Could you deliver in a week?

Ravi

The client says: "I am seeking a meticulous and experienced English language proofreader to review my completed novel. The novel is approximately 130,000 words. "

Then he says: "Error Correction: Identifying and correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax errors.
Consistency Check: Ensuring consistency in style, tone, and formatting throughout the manuscript."

So, he is really talking about copyediting.

Then, he adds: "Familiarity with various style guides (e.g., Chicago Manual of Style, AP Style) is a plus."

And finally, he sets this deadline: "WITHING SEVEN DAYS OF CONTRACT BEGINNING:"

No way could I copyedit even a relatively clean 130K novel in a week.

renoxray

I never touch any job if it has a short deadline (I am fine with a deadline since anything will need a plan) because of reasons shows below:

Delivery quality
If my client wants me to build a house for him/her in one week, which should be done in 2 months. I probably will refuse since it will be a risk that I can not deliver a house to them with good quality. They thought the money has been paid but get a shitty result and I thought I ear less money than what is supposed to be which lead to a "lose - lose" situation. And I probably will get a 1-star comment with a lot of complaint.
I am a freelancer with multiple projects
You will meet a situation that clients are silent for a week, and then they all need the result by "Today". Or some of the project need some urgent case to process which lead to a work load balance issue. Then even I can do it with a week, I need to focus all of my resource to it, which is a risk to affect my other jobs and get negative comments from other clients.

So in general, I will ignore this type of job which is way beyond my estimated time cost.

Alexandra

Definitely a client with a muddled mind (or unrealistic expectations). Why would you need to be familiar with various style guides to revise one typescript? Does he want a selection of different versions? And no, I wouldn't be able to complete the revision and correction in one week unless it's already near-perfect.

Ravi

Alexandra
Yes, definitely muddled; otherwise, they would have specified one style.

But even a near-perfect manuscript would need five days merely for preprocessing.

Alexandra

Well, seven days is doable, especially if you split it up and work with a colleague. I guess that is what this client is used to doing.