Cost vs quality vs speed
Understanding what you can get when hiring a freelancer.
Reminiscing
As I sat enjoying a break from the interview day at Durham University (I went to Edinburgh in the end, far superior if you ask me), the lecturer decided to hit us with some brainteasers (nerds) and some humorous anecdotes about university life; one of which is particularly relevant to the topic at hand.
When you begin university, how you choose to spend your time will affect both your enjoyment of university and your grades. You can have good grades, you can have a good time partying, or you can have sleep. You can have two of these, but you cannot have all three.
Think about it. If you spend enough time studying to get good grades, and leave yourself enough time to sleep - you will go between the library and your flat with no time for partying.
If you study enough to get good grades, but can't say no to a night out, when are you going to sleep? You will be shuffling to the library hungover on 3 hours' sleep.
If, however, you choose to party and have a lie-in, you won't possibly have enough time to study, and so your grades will suffer.
What's my point?
This is much the same when choosing someone to complete work for you; be it a plumber, a mechanic or an editor. When you hire someone there are three things that every discerning consumer is interested in:
- Is it cheap?
- Will it be done quickly?
- Will the quality be good?
As you may have surmised from my preamble, you get to pick two.
If they do it quickly and it's cheap, you can be absolutely sure the quality is going to suffer. If you want a good price but quality is important, you can't dictate the schedule. If you want it done quickly, and quality is important, you better tell your bank manager!
Once you think a little about this, it makes perfect sense. Put yourself in their shoes. If you want to do a good job, you take your time and make sure it's right. If you want to do a good job quickly, you drop everything else (perhaps even sleep...) to get it done. Now imagine someone else is asking you to do a good job quickly, making you drop everything else. The price is going to go up to make it worth your while.
This holds true in my experience as a freelance editor. I see individuals on Reddit complaining that their highly recommended editor, that agreed to perform work on "mates rates", did a hash job. That's because they didn't give it their usual attention or time. A lot of clients want all three, but as we've seen, you can only have two!
The lesson
Price + Speed = If you want editing done cheaply and quickly, I suggest you start your search somewhere like Fiverr or Upwork. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of editors available on these platforms with varying levels of skill and experience. Many of which can make a living working for rock bottom rates. If price is a driving factor, these are the platforms for you.
Price + Quality = If price is important but you don't want to compromise on quality, I suggest you approach an established editor and attempt to negotiate. They may be able to take it on as fallback work for a discounted rate. The nature of this, however, is that it will be done when it's done. You could get lucky and catch them during a quiet spell, in which case it may be finished quicker than you thought, but if you dictate the price, you don't get to dictate the schedule. Pick two.
Another option is a platform like Reedsy. Reedsy is like Upwork, if Upwork were bespoke to authors. Reedsy spends time and effort vetting their vendors, the resulting increase in confidence this provides will of course be reflected in the price when compared to Upwork or Fiverr.
Speed + Quality = If you want it done quickly and done right, I suggest you get in touch with some established editors and start a dialogue. It may be that they have a quiet spell and could take you on immediately. For an established editor, chances are they are going to have to displace other work to meet your deadline. They may be happy to do this, but the price may increase to reflect this.
Freelancers and contractors will often set their stall out based on one of these three. What's their core message, quality, speed or price? This will form one of the two options available to you when hiring them. If their message is quality, if you want discounted rates, you're going to have to wait. You get the idea.
The caveat
Something to bear in mind is that if you don't get two of the three, you should most certainly be disgruntled. If you pay a premium to get the work done quickly, but the quality isn't good, what was the premium paying for? If it takes forever to turn around, but the quality isn't there, why did it take so long?
Conversely, when you get work done quickly and cheaply, the fact that the quality isn't very good doesn't make them a bad contractor. This is their business model, and what you were signing up for; get it done quickly and move on to the next job.
Round-up
When hiring someone to provide a service, whatever that service may be, you must first decide on your priorities.
Do you want sleep, a good time, or good grades? You get to choose, but you can't have all three!
Now what are you waiting for? Go write something!
Rick
P.S.
What about BookOneDone, where do they fall?
Well, I pride myself on the quality of my work. I take my time, and I do it right. So having read the above, you get to choose one more!