Terms and conditions

General

• These terms and conditions apply to any work done on behalf of the Client (you) by me (Lynsey Cox, Copyeditor and Proofreader​).

• I will provide editorial services agreed by me and you via email.

• My editorial services may include: copyediting, copywriting, and proofreading.

• You are under no obligation to offer me work, and I'm under no obligation to accept work offered by you.

• The work will be carried out unsupervised at a time and place determined by me, using my own equipment.

• The work will be carried out by me alone. I do not subcontract to anyone else.

• I confirm that I am self-employed, am responsible for my own income tax and National Insurance contributions, and will not claim benefits granted to your employees (if you have any).

• I am not VAT-registered.

• Before any work takes place, you and I will agree, in writing (including email), the terms of the project.

 

​Project terms

• All copyediting work takes place in Microsoft Word, using Track Changes, unless another software program, platform or format has been agreed by you and me.

• You and I will agree, via email, the length of time required to complete the project, as advised by me.

• You and I will agree a fee for the project, based on a quotation supplied by me, via email, following my evaluation of the material to be edited and the time frame required to complete the job.

• You and I will agree any expenses (e.g., travel and time for on-site meetings) that you will bear in addition to the costs of the editing/proofreading.

• You and I will agree the date by which the material will be delivered by you to me.

• You and I will agree the latest date by which I will return the completed project, following my advice to you.

• Please note that if, on receipt of the project to be worked on (or at an early stage), it becomes apparent that significantly more work is required than I anticipated from the preliminary discussion/brief or from the sample supplied, I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline, or decline to carry out the work.

 

​Quotations and fees

• I will provide you with a quotation for the copyediting or proofreading work, based on the document or a sample of the material you supply, and a discussion with you about what is required.

• If the project requires significantly more work than anticipated from the brief, discussions, or sample provided, I reserve the right to renegotiate the fee and/or deadline, or decline the assignment. In this case, I will provide a revised quotation.

• Unless otherwise agreed, I will supply you with an invoice immediately upon completion of the copyediting/proofreading project.

• If the project is lengthy, I may invoice periodically for completed stages.

• Payment should be received within 30 days via direct bank transfer.

• Invoices to you will be in pounds sterling.

• Please note: for new clients, I request a non-refundable 25% deposit when you commission me to undertake work.

 

Cancellation​

• Both you and I 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 a service for any reason by providing me with written notice (including email); I must acknowledge this cancellation in writing (including email) for this to be valid.

• I may cancel a service at any time for any reason by providing written notice (including email) to you. In the unlikely event that I cancel a service, I will provide a prorated refund of any overages of fees paid (including the booking fee).

• In the unlikely event the Client should encounter extraordinary or difficult circumstances that may cause cancellation or delay (e.g. illness, family bereavement), the Client should contact me as soon as possible to discuss the terms of the cancellation.

• If I should encounter any extraordinary or difficult circumstances that may cause cancellation or delay (e.g. illness, family bereavement), I will contact the Client in writing at my earliest opportunity to try and renegotiate the timeframe of the work.

• ​If you cancel the work during the editing project, I reserve the right to invoice for 100% of the agreed fee.

• If you wish to cancel with less than one month's notice, I reserve the right to invoice for 100% of the agreed fee. ​If you wish to cancel with more than one month's notice, any payments made upfront will not be refunded, but no other charge will apply.

Confidentiality

• I will keep the nature and content of the editing work confidential and will not make it known to anyone other than you and your contractors without prior written permission.

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

• Under the terms of the General Data Protection Regulation, you and I may keep on record necessary information (e.g. contact details). Either may view the other's records to ensure that they are relevant, correct and up to date.

 

​Copyright

• All content delivered to me by you 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 copyright or trademark misappropriation or infringement claimed against you.

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

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AI and use of digital tools​

• I use reasonable tools to support my editing accuracy, consistency, quality and efficiency across all my services. Every output is reviewed, judged and/or amended by me, a trained, human editor, to ensure it is contextually accurate. 

• I currently use:

  • Grammarly: an AI grammar checker that helps detect grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. I do not use Grammarly's 'Generative AI' feature.

  • PerfectIt: an offline consistency checker that is stored locally as a Microsoft Word add-in. It does not harness AI or transmit data over the internet.​

 

Quality assurance

• As an Intermediate Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), I abide by its Professional Practice Code. If my work does not meet the standards outlined in the Professional Practice Code, I will rectify it in my own time and at my own expense.

 

Business insurance

• I hold professional indemnity insurance, which provides coverage for the copyediting and proofreading services I offer. This insurance protects both you and me by ensuring that, in the unlikely event of professional error or omission, appropriate safeguards are in place.

 

Privacy policy and the GDPR

• Please read my Privacy Notice, which explains the data I collect, how I use it and store it, and my compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

 

Acknowledgements in published works

• There is no requirement for you to mention me in the published work's acknowledgements section. However, you agree that I will have the opportunity to review any such mention before publication, or to decline to be mentioned.

 

Disclaimer

I do my best to provide excellent work, but there are some limits to what I can guarantee. This section explains those limits so we both know what to expect.

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• Owing to the subjective nature of stylistic editorial work, I can't guarantee that my editing will be a hundred per cent free of 'errors'.

• Unless specifically agreed as part of my services, my role does not include independent verification of factual claims, statistics, quotations, references, citations, legal or regulatory statements, or information generated by artificial intelligence.

• I am not responsible for plagiarism in a client’s document.

• I am not responsible for how you use the files I've edited and returned to you, or for any changes you make to them.

• I am not responsible for files that are lost, damaged or corrupted by your systems or third-party platforms that you ask me to use or that you upload the edited files to.

• I am not responsible for missed deadlines caused by a client's delay in sending me their files.

• I can't guarantee that I will be able to work with every software/platform or that the Word files I return to you will be compatible with other platforms.

• I am not responsible for any changes made to your file by you or any third parties after I've edited it.

• I am not responsible for delays caused by force majeure (e.g. internet outages, emergencies and pandemics).

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Signed by the Freelancer:

Name:
Date:

Signed on behalf of the Client:

Name:
Position:
Date: