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Originally Posted by Hitch
But what's the value of your time, Diap? Nothing?
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No, it's not nothing. It just happens to be irrelevant in this case. I love everything about books: hearing about them, researching them, finding them, buying them, reading them (and reading
about them), talking about them, tweaking them, etc... I enjoy the entire process. I've always done a ton of vetting before deciding to commit to reading a particular book, and I don't consider that process at all onerous. In fact, I enjoy it. So a "competence check" isn't something extra I have to do all-of-a-sudden. It's just something that my normal vetting process would likely weed out anyway. I've never felt that books I love should just fall into my lap from the heavens. And since competence is no consolation to me for books I dislike, I fail to see why incompetent works (that won't likely find their way through my vetting process anyway) being published should stress me. Cream rises.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Is it so wrong to want someone who expects to be paid for their work, to try to perform that work competently?
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I don't really know, to tell the truth. "No," I guess?
I just know that incompetence isn't something I typically have to worry about when paying for anything. I've always been a careful person. I'm a very
caveat emptor to kind of guy. If incompetent hacks want to hang out shingles and see if they can get any bites, it's no sweat off my back. *shrug*
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Let's say that you, the author, hire us to do the layout and formatting on your book. You get it back, and it doesn't look good. In fact, in places, it's pretty crappy. And I smile, and I say to you:
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"Oh, that's Jane. She just started with us. She's new to formatting, and she's just learning. You don't mind, right?"
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Not really my bailiwick. I'm one of those rare readers who have absolutely zero aspirations to write (and I don't
quite follow how it relates to the question at hand), but I'll bite ...
I'd be unhappy. I wouldn't pay for such work. Just like I wouldn't pay (as a reader) for an incompetently prepared ebook. But (and here's how I'll bring this back to the topic at hand) I wouldn't ask you to
fire Jane. Nor would I expect you to black-ball Jane so that she could never try to get paid for doing that type of work ever again.