A client emails me a manuscript to be edited. Unfortunately, it was in PDF, as the client maintained that any other format would ruin the formatting. They insisted that I figure out a way to keep it in PDF and make comments.
I inserted my comments/notes and emailed the PDF back to the client. Within minutes, the phone rang.
Client: I recieved the file, but I don’t see the edits - just little boxes everywhere.
Me: Those are the comments that include the edits. You can copy and paste them into the original manuscript format.
Client: That won’t do. I need the comments written directly on the page.
Me: This would require me to print out all 200 pages and mark them up by hand.
Client: I don’t see the issue.
Me: Afterwards, I will have to scan each page, compile the scans into a single file, and then email the file back to you. And then you will have to enter these edits in the original manuscript in the exact same way you would have had to anyway.
Client: So? Why are you making this so difficult?
Fortunately, I was paid by the hour.
