Business FAQ

Absolutely not. Scribendi and its employees make no claim on your copyright, and we don't require credit or acknowledgement on material you've written, or anything else, beyond the fees for the services we render. The only time we ask for credit for our work is when you commission us to write/create something for you, and that's negotiated on a case-by-case basis. If you require a specific non-disclosure agreement, we have one we can send to you for signing.

Only Scribendi employees have access to our Web site and order system, and all staff are required to sign confidentiality agreements before they work for us. All client files are deleted from the site after four weeks, unless a client requests that we keep a copy for future reference. We do not sell, trade or rent your personal information. We also have a secure site - Scribendi uses industry standard (128-bit SSL) encryption for communications between your computer and our site when you upload documents and pay for your order. If you require a specific non-disclosure agreement, contact us and we'll send one to you.

Our preferred method of payment is via credit card, and we currently accept Visa, MasterCard and JCB. We have a secure system set up here at the Web site and we can take your details through industry standard 128-bit encryption. We can also accept Discover and AMEX/American express through PayPal, as well as PayPal payments. Registered retail customers and corporate/government/organizational clients can arrange payments via ACH, eCheck, paper check or money order.

That depends on the service you order! We offer the following turnaround times for proofreading and editing:

• Same-Day / Overnight Premium Service: Within 8 hours (for documents of 3,000 words or less)
• 24 Hour Service: Within 24 hours (for documents of 7,000 words or less)
• 48 Hour Service: Within 48 hours (for documents of 20,000 words or less)
• 72 Hour Service: Within 72 hours (for documents of 30,000-40,000 words or less)
• 1 Week Service: Within 1 week (for documents of 50,000-75,000 words or less)
• Larger documents: Rule of thumb for proofreading and editing = 50,000 words per week.

We have a no-surprises, easy-to-calculate pricing system based on two things: word count and turnaround time. Unlike other editorial and language services companies, we don't offer vague quotes based on a hefty hourly rate, we don't have confusing per 1,000-word rates, and we provide instant quotes for all our standard services. Every service page you look at on this site has a handy "quote widget," where you can plug in your word count and get an exact price. For details on how to determine your word count, see our How Do I...? FAQ.

Our quote widget automatically calculates and applies a discount A) when you choose a service with a longer turnaround time and B) when you want us to work on a large document. For example, it's cheaper to order the 48 hour turnaround service than it is the 24 hour service. Or if you have a very large document, we apply discounts for higher word counts.

If you belong to a business, organization or agency and you'd like to retain our services for a large project or over the longer term, we would be happy to discuss your needs. See our corporate services page.

Definitely! Scribendi is a global company in every sense of the word. As long as you have a valid credit card or PayPal account, or can arrange payment via check or money order, you can use our services.

Before we'll even consider hiring them, all our editors and proofreaders must, at a minimum:

• Have a university or college degree
• Have at least three years' professional experience as an editor or proofreader
• Be native speakers of the language they edit or proofread in
• Provide samples of their editing and proofreading work
• Pass a language certification test

A typical Scribendi Word Warrior has two or more degrees, more than 15 years' professional experience, and is published in his/her chosen specialization, be it romantic fiction or molecular biology.

Our Web site is open for orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our editing staff are based all over the world, so they're also on duty 24/7. Our administrative staff are available between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST (GMT -5); we generally answer all emails within 24 hours, if not sooner.

Sure! You can fax short documents to us, or use the post office or a courier service to send us a floppy disk, CD or paper copy for longer documents. Just see our contact page for details on how to get in touch via post or courier.

Everything. And we're not kidding here, either. We have experts on staff in every field/genre, and since we've been in business so long, we've seen just about every different type of document there is. So no matter what subject or field you're writing about, rest assured we have someone who can handle what you send us.

No. We do have a minimum charge of $3 USD, however, to cover administrative costs. If you have several small orders to make, you might consider putting them all on one order to avoid the minimum charge.

See our How Do I...? FAQ.

See our How Do I...? FAQ.

Unfortunately, very few word processing programs have anything similar to MS Word's "Track Changes" feature, which allows our editors and proofreaders to highlight changes in red so you can see them more easily. Our staff will have summarized their changes in their notes back to you however, and you can compare what we sent back to you with your original.

It may be that you have the Highlight Changes feature turned off. In Word/Office XP, there's a menu drop-down on the upper left of your screen - change that to the option that says "Final Showing Markup." In older versions of Word/Office, go to the Tools menu, select Track Changes, and make sure Highlight Changes on Screen is checked. If you still don't see any changes, contact customer service.