You’re an independent editor. That means you’re a professional running a business.

But you may not be a professional at running a business. You keep hearing that you should have a written contract with every client, but you don’t have a good idea of what that contract should have in it, so you let it slide and hope you don’t get burned. And when you look in books about running a small business, none of them seem to address your specific needs.

"The Paper It’s Written On" focuses on your specific needs, particularly when you are working with individual authors.

Karin Cather is a former litigator. She has been a freelance editor, the owner of Karin Cather Editorial Services LLC, since October 2014. Karin edits academic works, law, memoirs, police procedurals, science fiction, thrillers, true crime, urban fantasy, and literary fiction.

Dick Margulis is an experienced editor and book designer who has specialized since 2004 in helping authors be their own publishers.