That went well, redux

[redbird]

I just had a nice phone conversation with Dan, the Editor/CTO of the company I've been talking to (yes, that's what his business card says). He seemed quite pleased by the idea that I've got strong editorial skills as well as writing skills. The rates seem good; they'll pay 75% of their normal rate for the first ten hours, which is what he calls a "draft project" to make sure I'm what they're looking for, and 50% as a "research rate," which isn't the serious research I've been doing but means things like "read this book to get up to speed on XYZ." They'd also want up to two hours/week nonbillable to discuss how projects are going, if I'm not the project manager, but he said they don't use those set-aside hours most weeks. Project managers get less than writers/editors, but still a respectable rate: I think I made it clear that I'm willing to do that, but that writing and editing are my strong suits.

After I briefly described my background, he tossed me an absolute softball question: "What do you like to do?" I told him "I like finding things out and explaining them to people." And this looks like a job that will pay me to do that.

What's still up in the air, unfortunately, is how soon they'll have work, and how much. He seemed pretty optimistic about projects coming in soon, though. He's going to have his comptroller send me a contract, which he descrbed as "standard." Since he mentioned non-compete/non-solicitation clauses, I will be looking it over carefully.