Testimonials "I returned to school after over ten years away from
a traditional academic environment. Dana worked with me on a stringent
review of grammar and writing fundamentals that are essential to being a
successful writer and communicator in all areas of life. I am fortunate
to have worked with him as working with him gave me the strong
foundation I needed to achieve my goal of finishing a graduate degree." —Tina Bates Baldera, a graduate student at Goddard College
"Dana
offers something different: care for craft, rich plots and complex
characters...and themes we can all find engaging. Plus, he manages to be
entertaining. It sounds trite, even stupid, that these qualities in his
works of fiction, plays and nonfiction/essays are ‘different,’ but we
live in perilous times, where the stupid and garish are the norm, thus
making us all stupid. Dana is yanking us away from that, and thank the
Lord!” —Christopher Chambers, Independent Writing and Editing Professional
"Dana Crum is an insightful and gifted writer as well as instructor. He is driven by his own love of the craft and relays it well to students. I highly recommend him." --Regina Cash-Clark, Ramapo College of New Jersey
We meet with clients online and in person.
Pay by the Hour
The hourly rate for writing coaching is $150. If you chose to pay by the hour, payment is due incrementally. For example, let’s say the writing coach completes several segments of work on your project. In that scenario, you must pay him separately for each segment. A segment of work can be one coaching session, the amount of time spent reading and sending emails or the amount of time spent reading and critiquing your full or partial manuscript.
Coaching Session Full payment is due before each coaching session (sessions are 1 hour long).
Email Correspondence Full payment is due each time the writing coach spends an hour reading and sending emails. The writing coach will keep track of the amount of time he spends corresponding with you and inform you each time payment is due. You will be charged pro rata in the event that the writing coach’s email correspondence includes fractions of an hour (for example, if the writing coach spends 2.25 hours reading and sending emails).
Manuscript Critique Before reading and critiquing your manuscript, the writing coach—to arrive at the cost—will estimate how long the project will take and multiply the number of hours by the hourly rate. You will be required to pay half your bill before the writing coach begins critiquing your manuscript and half once he finishes.
If, while reading and critiquing your manuscript, the writing coach realizes the project will take longer than anticipated, he will inform you in a timely fashion so you can either pay for additional hours or keep the already-purchased package with its set-in-stone time allotment (number of hours). If you keep the already-purchased package, you can then choose to have the writing coach do one of the following: 1) critique all submitted pages but do so less thoroughly; or 2) critique the manuscript with the normal level of thoroughness but stop once the hours run out even if that means not editing all submitted pages. In calculating an estimate, the writing coach will make every effort to be accurate, but bear in mind that it is not always possible to perfectly predict how long critique will take. This is particularly true of book-length manuscripts.
After the writing coach critiques your manuscript, you will have 24 hours to pay the second and final installment. This grace period gives you time to review the writing coach’s critique and ask questions before paying your balance.
If you are dissatisfied with the writing coach’s critique, you have two options:
You can request a refund. If you request a refund before the writing coach completes his critique, you will receive a 50% refund of the first installment and be free of the obligation to pay the second installment. If you request a refund after the writing coach finishes his critique, you won’t be entitled to a refund on your first installment, but you will be free of the obligation to pay the second installment.
You can request that the writing coach revisit the manuscript and do additional critique, in which case you will be required to pay half of the second and final installment before the additional critique begins and half after the critique ends.