Re: Re[2]: Personal Quality Standards

Subject: Re: Re[2]: Personal Quality Standards
From: Stan Radomski <radomski -at- PUBS16 -dot- SI -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 11:15:48 -0400

<snip>

> I second that. It's too late to do anything but re-negotiate the
> contract. Barring that, she should learn from her mistake of not
> reviewing the manual beforehand, and be careful next time. It's too
> bad, but life goes on.

<snip>
> I've got a novel idea: Perhaps she should deliver what she promised to
> deliver. Live up to the agreement she made, and chalk any extra costs up to
> educational expenses.

<snip>


> Contracts are made to be lived up to, not renegotiated. Who do you think you
> are, a professional ball player?


I have to agree that you should live up to the contract and you should do just
that, nothing more and nothing less.

There's nothing wrong with matching the style and format of the existing work.
That can be as much (or more) challange to a good writer as fixing the whole
thing. Live up to your portion of the contract to add the new material or
whatever you were hired to do. I doubt that your contract said anything about
making the book match today's standards or to your way of writing books. If
that was the case I'm sure you would have taken a closer look.

You can still tell the company that contracted you that you could make the whole
book much better if you were allowed (at their expense) to make the book better.

In summary: Live up to the contract, but don't give them more than they
contracted for. Giving them more is bad business and there is nothing unethical
about sticking with the letter of the contract.



Stan
radomski -at- si -dot- com

************************************
My employer didn't say this...I did.
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