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Telephone Contact"Why can't I make telephone contact with you?"Good question. After all, I am running a business and all the business books say that I should have as many ways as possible for clients to contact me. It may be that I lose some clients because I don't give a telephone contact number. I believe I give better service without the telephone. Let me count the ways.... I engage in quiet reflection to solve problems for my clients. A ringing telephone would interrupt my work. My clients want me concentrating on their work, not answering the telephone to deal with questions about someone else's project. My clients want me to help them improve their manuscripts. I do that most efficiently by writing comments and answering questions by e-mail. Some editors spend a good deal of time on the telephone. Then they have to decide whether to bill hourly for calls or to inflate their rates for all clients to cover this overhead. There are editors who work only with people they meet face-to-face. I have never seen or spoken with most of my clients. We meet online and conduct our business electronically. Most of my clients live in a different time zone from me. Finding a time when we are both awake and functioning would be difficult and frankly not worth the effort. Just as a doctor needs to see you in person to make a diagnosis, I need to see printed words in order to edit. I cannot evaluate a manuscript by telephone. Help from the Writer's HelperTwo of my editing services fill in for the lack of telephone contact.
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