Full
Cream
Milk

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions set out below provide a straightforward and transparent understanding of the process of working together, and they form the basis of a contract. If you have any questions or require further insight, please contact me.

General

These terms and conditions apply to any work done for the client (‘you’) by Owen Gregory of Full Cream Milk (‘I’, ‘me’).

I am a Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, and as such my skills and experience have been vetted and recognized. I adhere to the CIEP’s code of practice.

I will provide the editorial services we agree on in writing (usually email). The services I provide are described at my website: fullcreammilk.co.uk.

You are under no obligation to offer me work; neither am I under any obligation to accept work you offer.

I will carry out the work unsupervised at such times and places as I determine, using my equipment.

I will not subcontract editing projects or parts of projects to third parties.

I confirm that I am self-employed, responsible for my own income tax and National Insurance contributions, and will not claim benefits granted to your employees. I am not VAT-registered.

The contract of service requires that you acknowledge in writing that you have read, understood and agreed to these terms and conditions.

Project terms

Before the editing work begins, we will agree, in writing, the terms of the project:

If it becomes apparent (on receipt of the project material, or at an early stage) that significantly more work is required than we anticipated in preliminary discussions or from the sample supplied, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline, or decline to carry out the work.

Similarly, if you request additional tasks during the term of my work, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline.

Quotations, fees, deposits and payment

I will supply a quotation for fees after evaluating a representative sample of the material and a discussion with you as to what is required.

We will agree in writing that you will pay me a fee per hour OR per 1,000 words OR an agreed flat fee for the work.

Unless otherwise agreed, the fee quoted for my editorial services is for one full pass of a manuscript. Additional passes are new projects, the terms of which will be agreed separately.

Once we have agreed the full fee, it is non-negotiable unless you extend the word count of the job or request additional services. In this case, a revised quotation and completion date will be negotiated.

If the project is lengthy, I may invoice periodically for completed stages, as agreed in advance. Unless otherwise agreed, I will supply you with an invoice immediately on return of the completed project.

Accommodation of urgent projects can be negotiated, with an appropriate additional percentage (starting at 50%) added to the usual fee rate.

Unless agreed otherwise at the outset, payment will be made within thirty days of receipt of my invoice.

Under the terms of the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (amended 2002 and 2013), I reserve the right to charge interest and compensation should payment exceed thirty days.

Unless agreed otherwise, for work costing more than £250 I require a 25% deposit payment, due within seven days of receipt of the deposit invoice.

When a deposit is required, the agreed project schedule will not be fixed until the deposit has been received.

All deposits are non-refundable.

Cancellation

We both have the right to terminate a contract for services at any time if there is a serious breach of its terms.

You are free to cancel for any reason by providing me with written notice; I must acknowledge the cancellation in writing for this to be valid.

You remain obliged to pay a fee proportionate to the amount of work already completed (if any) if this amount is larger than the deposit paid.

I may cancel a service at any time for any reason by providing you written notice. In the unlikely event that I cancel, I will provide a prorated refund of any overages of fees paid (including the deposit, excluding banking and admin fees).

In the unlikely event that you are affected by extraordinary or difficult circumstances that cause cancellation or delay (e.g. family crisis, illness etc.), you should contact me to discuss the terms of the cancellation policy. I aim to be fair and helpful at all times.

If I am affected by similar extraordinary or difficult circumstances that cause cancellation or delay, I will contact you in writing at the earliest opportunity and do my best to renegotiate the time frame of the project or find an alternative supplier of editing services.

Confidentiality

Your files and the nature and content of your work will be kept confidential and not made known to anyone (other than your contractors, if necessary, with prior written permission).

I will not, under any circumstances, upload your files to external websites or distribute them to third parties unless specifically authorized to do so, in writing, by you.

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, we may keep on record such information (e.g. contact details) as is necessary. Either of us may view the other’s records to ensure that they are relevant, correct and up to date.

Copyright

All content you deliver to me for the editing project is owned by you.

In this respect, you agree to hold me harmless from and against all claims, liabilities and expenses arising out of any potential or actual libel, copyright or trademark misappropriation or infringement claimed against you.

Following payment of my invoice, any content created by me as part of the editing process will become your copyright unless otherwise agreed.

Quality assurance

I aim to be objective in my editorial feedback by basing my edits and suggestions on impartial external principles and resources of authority, such as established literary theory and style guide manuals. However, any creative project will always contain some degree of subjectivity. The writing–editing process is very much an act of collaboration where you have the final say in the decisions made about the work.

I aim for the highest editorial standards, but cannot guarantee the success or sales of the published work.

Editorial perfection can be neither achieved nor promised. I’m human.

Acknowledgement in published work

You are not required to mention me in the published work's acknowledgements section. However, you agree that I will have the opportunity to review any such mention prior to publication, or to decline to be mentioned.

Subject to your written authorization, I may include your name and details of the published work in promotional material.

Legal jurisdiction

These terms are subject to the laws of England and Wales, and we agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

The exclusive venue for any arbitration or court proceeding based on or arising out of this agreement shall be Birmingham, England.