GOOD REVIEWS discussion

Writers beware: E.D. Bird

Recently, I entered into an agreement with E.D. Bird http://edbirdbooks.com for him to proofread my new novel. After sending him the payment, despite several requests for feedback, my emails went unanswered. I have no idea what has happened, whether he dropped out of sight, his PC died, or I may have been scammed. I want to alert everyone who might consider using his services to be wary of E.D. Bird.

Stafan,

So sorry to hear that happened to you! That is awful. Did you pay the full amount upfront?

Unfortunately, I did. First time this happened to me ... despite doing my homework.

Oh no! Do you at least have a physical location for E.D.? Perhaps you can get some help from local courts.

I always sign a contract with my authors that divides the work into 3 payments (at least. Sometimes I have authors who set it up broken into more because they plan to pay me monthly until they can be complete, or they have me doing larger chunks of work like proof, edit, layout and design.) and I don't get paid until I have done some work.

I don't hire editors/ artists who don't follow the same philosophy. It is a pretty standard policy among professionals.

So sorry you got burned, but if you do have E.D.'s physical location, then you can proceed for small claims damages, or possibly even fraud if he has not been in touch, nor done any work.

Best of luck in getting this resolved.

Thanks for your feedback, Heidi.

E.D. is in England and I am in Australia. Pursuing this further just isn't practical. I will simply have to write this off to experience.

It sounds like you do editing and proofreading. Would you be interested proofreading my work?

Ah, let me message you so that we don't break any rules here!

That stinks! I'm sorry you are dealing with that! When I take on a client, I usually ask for 1/2 up front, and 1/2 after the work is completed. People like that give those of us who are making a go of it a bad name.

Agreed, Jacqui! Live and learn, I guess.

Just checked the website. E.D. was born in England but has lived in Zimbabwe for the last sixty years, since he/she was two.

Zimbabwe? What an awful place to live! That might help explain what is going on.

PS: I received an email from E.D. Bird! He said he was traveling and did not receive my emails even though he had his computer with him. I asked him for a pro-rata refund. So far, stony silence...