Terms and conditions of service
These terms and conditions apply to any work done for you (the Client) by me, Emma Ormerod (the Service Provider). You are required to complete my online Booking Agreement Form which constitutes an agreement to the contract of services between me and you.
You are under no obligation to offer me work; neither am I under any obligation to accept work offered by you.
The person accepting these terms and conditions must do so in writing and, if acting on behalf of an organisation, be authorised to do so. If anything is unclear, please ask me to clarify.
Having had these terms and conditions drawn to your attention, completing and submitting my online Booking Agreement Form will be interpreted as your acceptance of the terms and conditions herein. From thereon, the terms of the cancellation policy apply.
1. Copywriting and copy editing services
I will provide a copywriting or editing service as mutually agreed upon and confirmed in writing by you and me. I will carry out the work unsupervised at such times and places as I determine, using my own equipment.
The terms of the project will cover the medium in which the copywriting or editing service will be carried out – in Word, on PDF etc – and how the material will be annotated, e.g. using Track Changes in Word or comments on PDFs.
Following completion of a project brief, evaluation of your material (for editing services) and assessment of the time frame required to complete the job, the fee for the project will be based on a quotation supplied by me. The terms will also include the date by which any material will be delivered by you to me and the latest date by which the completed project will be returned following my advice to you.
The quote for the work will include time for amendments. Please consider all your amendments (collated in advance from all team members if applicable) before sending these through. Repeated sets of amendments may incur additional costs due to the extra time this will take. In this instance I will inform you in writing of any additional charges and impact on delivery timelines (see section 3 below).
I do not provide proofreading or editing services for students.
I do not take on projects that include discriminatory, offensive or sensitive content under any circumstances (both fiction and non-fiction). This includes, but is not restricted to:
Graphic depictions of violence and abuse, such as rape, sexual violence and abuse, domestic violence and abuse, torture, abduction and kidnapping
Explicit sexual content
Extremism, both religious and political
Conspiracy theories
Racism
Animal cruelty
I will stop working on an editing project immediately if it, or any part of it, appears to contain sensitive, offensive or defamatory content, breaches copyright, promotes illegal activities, or promotes practices or ideas that may cause physical or mental harm to those who read the content.
2. Fees and payment terms
I will provide you with a quotation for the work following evaluation and discussion (as detailed above).
Once you and I 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 for the work will be negotiated.
You will pay me a fee per hour OR a fee per 1,000 words OR an agreed project fee for the job, according to our prior agreement.
A non-refundable booking fee is required to secure my copywriting and editing services. This will be either 25% of the total agreed fee for the project or the full agreed fee if it is £100 or less.
An invoice for the booking fee will be issued upon receipt of your completed online Booking Agreement Form. The booking fee must be paid upon receipt of the invoice. My receipt of your payment secures the provision of my copywriting or editing services. Your booking will be cancelled without notice if your deposit is not received within three working days of the invoice due date.
All booking fees paid will be deducted from the total fee shown on the final invoice issued upon completion of the work.
I am not VAT-registered, so VAT will not be charged.
You will reimburse me for agreed reasonable expenses (e.g. postage) over and above the usual expenses incurred in carrying out any copywriting or editorial work.
Unless otherwise agreed, I will issue an invoice immediately on completion of the work.
For longer term or large scale projects, I may invoice periodically at one or more mutually agreed stages of the project.
In the event that your procedures require that an invoice be submitted against a Purchase Order for payment, you shall be responsible for issuing the Purchase Order before commencement of the services. You agree that this clause shall still apply in the event of any failure to obtain a Purchase Order and any late payment shall incur interest and charges as set out in the clause below.
Payment is by bank transfer on receipt of the invoice. My bank details will be stated on the invoice and my payment terms are 28 days from the date of the invoice. Any outstanding sums after this date become an unpaid debt. 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 - see Pay On Time for up to date details. I retain the copyright in all work I have completed until payment has been made in full.
Once a project has started, the fee we have agreed between us for the full project is deemed to be incurred unless we have agreed payment milestones in advance.
3. Changes to the scope of work
Scope of services: The services to be provided by me, as the Service Provider, are strictly limited to those outlined in the scope of work agreed upon at the time of booking.
Additional work: Any work requested by you that falls outside the initially agreed services shall constitute a change request and will not be undertaken without the prior written agreement of both parties, including an agreement on any additional fees and/or timeframes required.
Change requests: All change requests must be submitted in writing and will be considered in good faith. I will respond in writing to confirm whether the change can be accommodated, and if so, to outline the applicable additional charges and the impact on delivery timelines.
No implied changes: I will not be obliged to perform any services outside of the previously agreed scope of work unless and until a formal change has been agreed upon in writing.
Please note that if it becomes apparent that significantly more work is required than I anticipated from the initial project brief I may renegotiate the fee and/or the deadline, or decline to carry out the work.
4. Cancellation policy
4.1 Terms
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.
If either you or I are the victim of extraordinary events beyond our control (for example, crime, flood, strike), liability and obligation may be cancelled.
You are free to cancel a service for any reason by providing me with written notice via email; I must acknowledge this cancellation in writing via email for this to be valid.
I may cancel a service at any time for any reason by providing written notice via email to you. In the event that I cancel a service, I will provide a prorated refund of any overages of fees paid (including the booking fee).
If you are affected by extraordinary or difficult circumstances that cause cancellation or delay (e.g family crisis, illness, bereavement), you will 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 extraordinary or difficult circumstances that cause cancellation or delay (e.g family crisis, illness, bereavement), I will contact you in writing at the earliest possible opportunity and do my best to renegotiate the time frame of the project. The booking fee will be refunded.
4.2 Fees
Cancellation during the project: If you cancel the work during the project, I reserve the right to invoice for 100% of the agreed fee (less the booking fee payment) and you will be liable to pay any outstanding agreed fees in full.
Cancellation prior to the project commencement with less than 14 days’ notice: If you cancel the work prior to the project commencing, but after making a booking and agreeing to the terms and conditions of service with less than 14 days’ notice, your booking fee will not be refunded and I reserve the right to invoice for 100% of the agreed fee (less the booking fee payment).
Cancellation prior to the project commencement with more than 14 days’ notice: If you wish to cancel with more than 14 days’ notice, the booking fee will not be refunded but no other charge will apply.
4.3 Postponement
If you need to reschedule a booked service, please notify me as soon as possible. Rescheduling requests will be accommodated whenever possible but are subject to availability.
You are entitled to reschedule your booked service a maximum of one time only without incurring any additional charges. Any additional rescheduling requests will incur a rescheduling fee of 50% of the total agreed-upon fee.
If you do not reschedule within seven days of the original booked date, it will be considered a cancellation, and the cancellation policy will apply.
In the event that I, as the service provider, need to postpone the work, I will notify you by email as soon as is reasonably practical.
If we are unable to renegotiate the project's time frame, I will invoice you for all work completed at the point when work ceases and return to you all completed work. Any overpayments made at this point will be refunded to you.
If work has not yet commenced and we cannot agree upon a new date, you will receive a full refund of any monies that have been paid to date.
Refunds will be returned to you via your original payment method within 14 days of the confirmed cancellation.
5. Quality assurance, acceptance and complaints
5.1 Quality assurance and satisfaction
I bring the training, experience and knowledge necessary to provide you with high-quality editorial services. However, you agree to accept that copywriting, editing and proofreading are inherently subjective, and there may be differences of opinion regarding certain editorial choices.
5.2 Acceptance and confirmation of work
You will promptly confirm the receipt of the work (or the instalments) sent back to you, and you must, within seven days of the receipt of a completed work, confirm that you are happy with it; a non-response will be interpreted as satisfaction.
5.3 Complaints and refunds
I am committed to providing you with a high-quality, efficient and effective service. You are more than welcome to ask for revisions and I am happy to amend work as detailed above (usually up to three sets of light amendments).
Refunds are typically not provided once we have started the revisions process. You are paying for my time, quantum meruit, which also includes the time I put aside to make revisions in expectation of feedback.
Should there be any cause for complaint in relation to any aspect of my service, please contact me by email within seven days of the receipt of your completed project. I agree to carefully and promptly investigate your complaint and take reasonable steps to resolve it. Refunds will be provided in accordance with your statutory rights.
6. Disclaimers and limitations
All services provided are limited to a specific period, which will be agreed upon in advance with confirmed start and end dates.
All services are performed by Emma Ormerod. None of my services are outsourced.
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 aim to provide an excellent service but there are some limits to what I can guarantee:
While I strive to return to you an error-free document, mistakes may occur occasionally.
I am not responsible for how you use the files I have worked on and returned to you, or for any changes you make to them.
I am not responsible for plagiarism in a client’s document.
I am not responsible for missed deadlines caused by a client’s delay in sending me their files or other relevant information.
I am not responsible for files that are lost, damaged or corrupted by your systems or other third-party platforms that you upload the files to.
I am not responsible for delays caused by force majeure (e.g internet outages, emergencies, pandemics).
7. Intellectual property rights
You confirm that you own all content delivered to me for the purposes of proofreading and/or editing. You warrant that the materials delivered to me for copy editing are your original work and do not violate any copyright, trademark, or other protection of intellectual property.
If any part of the text provided by you for me to work on has been generated by (or translated by) artificial intelligence (AI) powered software (for example, software including, but not restricted to, ChatGPT, DeepL, Jasper, etc.), you bear full responsibility to disclose this and are also responsible for any outcomes that could result from not doing so at project commencement.
If I suspect that the manner in which such AI software has been applied has compromised the integrity of the text, I will inform you as soon as possible, along with any necessary adjustments to the project timeline and the fee payable by the client.
If you do not disclose this information prior to project commencement, I reserve the right to withdraw from the project at any time, regardless of whether you have made any payments. You will not be entitled to a refund in this circumstance.
I will not be responsible for legal actions arising from your unlicensed use of copyright material.
I confirm that, as far as possible, the content which is created for you during the copy editing and copywriting process will be unique. I confirm that all copyright in any text or image prepared in the course of carrying out any proofreading and/or editing services on your behalf will transfer to you on completion of the project and when I have received in full your payment for the project, unless otherwise agreed.
8. Communication
Communication with clients will be conducted via email only, unless otherwise agreed upon in advance. You acknowledge that electronic communications are not entirely secure and that I will not be liable for any damage or loss caused by viruses.
Please note that I work part time and flexibly at various times between 10.30am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. I do not read or respond to any communications outside of these hours.
9. Data protection
Your privacy and the protection of your personal data are important to me, and will be handled in the following way:
Apart from as outlined below, your data will only be used and processed in connection with the performance of the services listed above.
Your personal data will be kept confidential and will never be shared with unconnected third parties. It may be shared with third parties, such as accountants, to enable them to perform accounting functions.
Your data will be kept secure at all times and stored electronically on password-protected devices.
To ensure that the data held is accurate, all data will be obtained from you directly.
Your data will be stored for the minimum number of years following completion of the services to allow compliance with HMRC and any insurance obligations; and
All data collected will be limited to that which is necessary to allow the services to be performed.
10. Confidentiality and retention of information
Communications between us are confidential. The nature and content of the work will be kept confidential and I will take all reasonable steps not to disclose personal information about you and your business, save for in circumstances as required by law or by me to perform the internal operations of my business, such as disclosure to an accountant.
Documents and information in relation to your matters will not be held longer than required by my insurance provider's obligations.
You agree that I may use your name and/or your company name in my promotional material unless you request otherwise.
11. Limitation of liability
Services are provided to you with reasonable care and skill. Foreseeable risks which could arise include the breakdown of my computer equipment, software corruption or the loss of internet access. I will take all steps to avoid such an occurrence, and any liability to you is limited to the amount of any fees paid.
There will be no liability to you for any delay or failure to perform my obligations if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside my reasonable control.
12. Third-party rights
No person other than the person agreeing to these Terms and Conditions of Service as part of my booking process shall be deemed to have the benefit of the services or have any rights to enforce or rely on any of the terms.
13. Applicable law
These Terms of Service are my standard terms and conditions of service and should at all times be construed in accordance with the laws of England & Wales.
The courts of England & Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim or dispute arising out of this engagement or any matter arising from it.