Time Keeps On Slipping

People so often don’t recognize or value the time or effort other people’s jobs take, nor do they often see the importance of other people’s work. For example, some time back, a customer asked me to edit a book. I’ve been editing books for close to a dozen years now, so I do have some experience looking over a text and judging how much time it will take and how much work is required.

The book had around 60,000 words, so it wasn’t terribly long. But I do have many other customers, so I couldn’t begin right away. However, I was told this was a rush job. How much of a rush, I asked? Well, the project was first mentioned to me on a Sunday and the next day, which happened to be my birthday, was when I was told that the editing needed to be finished by, well, Tuesday. In other words, the publisher wanted a book edited in a day.

I didn’t tell them that I wasn’t working on my birthday. Instead, I politely explained that there was no way that this was possible (even if it hadn’t been my birthday, I wouldn’t have agreed to the job) and that I hoped they would find someone else. In the end, they decided to skip the editing process, because they were so anxious to get the book out. The book has now been published, but I haven’t had the time to look at it, to see what the language is like. If they couldn’t spend the time (and money) to make sure the book was as good as possible, I can’t waste my time to check it out now.

--Curly