Terms

1. Definitions and general points

‘Job’ means each piece of work commissioned by you.

‘Service’ is the treatment you require for your text, as defined on the services page of the Languawitchery Wordcraft website. If the treatment you require for your text does not fall tidily into one of my services, you will need to provide me with a full brief for the job.

I, Anya Hastwell, trading as Languawitchery Wordcraft, am a citizen of, and resident in, England in the UK. I am self-employed, and therefore responsible for my own National Insurance contributions and income tax.

2. Agreement of terms

Before starting a job you and I will agree, and confirm in writing:

⏃ The service to be provided, or a brief.

⏃ If any part of the text you wish me to work on has either been generated by – or translated by – artificial intelligence (AI) powered software (e.g. ChatGPT, DeepL, and their ilk).

The client bears full responsibility to disclose this and is also responsible for any outcomes that could result from not doing so at project commencement.

If I suspect the manner in which such AI software has been applied has compromised the integrity of the text, then I will let you know as soon as I can, along with any adjustments required to the project timescale and the fee payable by the client.

IMPORTANT: If this information has not been disclosed to me prior to project commencement, then I reserve the right to withdraw from said project at any time and irregardless of whether you (the client) have paid a deposit or any previous payments.

⏃ The date for the delivery of the job to me (or dates, if it is to come in instalments).

⏃ How the job will arrive with me (i.e. on paper or digitally and, if digital, which file format).

⏃ How my suggested changes to the text will be presented to you.

⏃ An estimate of the time required to complete the work based on a typical sample of the text; note that this timetable is for one pass of a text, and includes time spent on ancillary tasks (e.g. assimilating the brief and writing up queries arising from the job).

⏃ That you, or a named person within your organisation, will be promptly available to answer queries raised by me.

⏃ The date(s) for delivery of the completed job to you.

⏃ How the job will be delivered back to you.

⏃ The fee for the job, which will usually be in the form of a quote (but an estimate can be provided if you’d prefer one).

⏃ Which expenses (if any) are to be borne by you (e.g. courier, postage, travel to meetings).

⏃ To whom, or to which department, invoices are to be sent.

NB: If your delivery of the job to me is delayed to the extent that this will have an impact on the timetable we have scheduled, I will try and reschedule timings to our mutual agreement.

3. Timetable slippage

I reserve the right to refuse or cancel the job if it is delivered (or is likely to be delivered) to me too late to fulfil without impacting on other jobs and/or compromising my professional standards.

4. Fees

Once the fee for a job has been agreed, it is non-negotiable and not subject to change, except if:

⏃ The quality or standard of writing in the overall text is significantly different from that of the sample provided, in which case I will provide you with a revised quote (and maybe timetable) if I accept any additional work involved.

⏃ You decide to extend the scope of the job, in which case I will provide you with a revised quote if I accept the additional work.

⏃ You or I decide to cancel the job.

⏃ If you cancel the job and more than one-third has been completed (on the basis of its word count) I reserve the right to invoice for the full amount of the quoted fee. If I cancel the job, I will not invoice for any work completed.

5. Deposits

If the job is relatively large and/or if it seems likely to be spread out over a considerable time, I require a deposit (normally 25% of the quoted fee) in advance of work starting.

6. Payment

Invoices will normally be sent by email on the same day as the date on the invoice. The settlement period is within 30 days of the date on the invoice, not from the date you read the email and/or approve payment.

I am not VAT registered and so do not charge VAT. Payment can be made by BACS or cheque. Payment is to be made in pounds sterling, unless other arrangements have been mutually agreed. Any bank charges for currency transfers will be borne by the client.

7. Interest on overdue invoices

I reserve the right to claim statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England Base Rate from the date the debt becomes overdue in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and to claim an additional sum for pursuing the debt as provided for in the 2002 revision of the Act. I retain the copyright in the work until payment has been made in full.

8. Acceptance and complaints

As an Advanced Professional member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) I have the training, experience and knowledge to give you a high-quality service.

I will do my best to make your job error-free, but you accept that no job done by one human, however skilled, can ever be totally error-free. You accept that, particularly with copyediting and writing services, there will always be scope for a difference of opinion rather than right or wrong.

8. Acceptance and complaints (continued)

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You will promptly confirm the receipt of the job (or instalments) sent back to you and you must, within 7 days of the receipt of a completed job, confirm that you are happy with it; a non-response will be interpreted as satisfaction.

If you have reason to complain, please do so in writing within 7 days of receiving a completed job. Your complaint will be dealt with in a confidential manner, and I will endeavour to resolve things to your satisfaction. As a member of the CIEP, I am bound by its Code of Practice.

9. Unfortunate or unforeseen circumstances

In the event of unfortunate circumstances affecting me (e.g. personal illness, family illness, bereavement), I will advise you as soon as possible. If I am incapable of communicating with you because of such circumstances, a trusted third party (see point 15) will contact you.

If either of us happens to experience extraordinary events beyond our control (e.g. crime, flood, strike, war), then liability and obligation may be cancelled.

10. Insurance and indemnity

I have professional indemnity insurance; anti-virus and digital back-up provisions; and use only reputable cloud storage providers.

However, the insurance of any original, physical materials whilst they are in my keeping and when in transit between you and me is your responsibility.

Although I may draw attention to any potential legal issues (if any) arising from a job (e.g. libel, reproduction of copyright material), you are responsible for these matters.

11. Waiver

If I do not exercise my rights on one occasion, this is not a waiver of my other rights or to enforce my Terms and Conditions in the future.

12. Jurisdiction

I operate within the law prevailing in England, UK, and you and I agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts.

13. Refusal

I reserve the right to refuse to take on any project.

14. Portfolio and acknowledgement

I reserve the right to list any projects I’ve worked on (after publication or project completion date or any other previously agreed time allowance), and who I’ve worked with, in my portfolio and website, unless you explicitly tell me not to. Please state in your initial communications if this is the case.

You will provide up to two complimentary copies of work published in hard copy if I request it. Where work is published on the internet, please advise me of its URL. Where work is published on an intranet, you will provide me with a high-quality printout if I request it.

There is no requirement for you to mention me in a published work’s acknowledgements section. However, if you are proposing to do this, you will give me the opportunity to review any such mention prior to publication and/or to decline to be mentioned.

15. Personal information

I will collect the following personal information from you:

⏃ Your name.

⏃ Your email address, and, if you become a client, maybe a phone number and your postal address.

⏃ Unless you tell me not to, I will share your name, phone number (if provided) and email address with one trusted third party. This is so that if anything untoward happens to me, you can be quickly informed of the situation.

I will not otherwise share your contact details without specific authorisation, unless required to do so by law. Please also read my privacy statement.

16. Commercial confidentiality

I will not share your confidential commercial information with any third parties, unless required to do so by law. Please read my privacy statement.

17. Revisions

From time to time I may change my terms and conditions by updating this page. A pdf copy is available upon request. You should regularly check this page to ensure that you are happy with any changes. The date of the last revision was: 3 July 2023.