As I have found recently, Style Guides are much more than a standard set of rules to direct the uniformity of documents used by a company. They can also be vindictive pieces of literature that seem to want nothing more than to make your life a living hell.
To save yourself eternal damnation at the hands of an editor with a copy of the latest Style Guide in their hands, make sure that you always, without fail, read the damn thing BEFORE you sign a contract to start work for somebody. Most companies use established styles like Chicago, MLS, MLA or AP. But not everyone. If a company has it's own style guide, it is imperative that you read it and read it well BEFORE you sign a contract or start working. Is it short? Is it cursory? Does it have gaps? If the answer to any of those three questions is "yes", ask the company why.
If the style guide is short, it probably means the company is new and wants to do things their own way. Beware of companies that do this. Short style guides are bound to get longer and if you don't keep up with the changes, it can cost you a lot of time, effort and gnashing of teeth.
If the style guide is very simplistic, it is open to interpretation. If your interpretation of the guide is different from the editor's, guess what: you've got more work ahead of you that you probably aren't going to get paid for.
If the guide has gaps in it, it probably means the company doesn't really know what it wants, but rather has a general idea of what it doesn't want. If this is the case, you are essentially left fumbling in the dark until you either do something they don't want or happen to get lucky and do something they find they do want. Either way, it means more work for no pay.
Bottom line: If the company you are thinking of working for has a sub-par style guide (or none at all) consider one of the following: 1) Find employment elsewhere. I know we all get desperate and we could all use the extra income but believe me when I say it may not be worth the effort. 2) Request an addendum to the contract limiting your liability for edits and rewrites. The Writer's Guild stipulates that if a screenwriter under contract is asked to rewrite or edit their script, they must be paid for doing so. There's no reason you shouldn't. You are putting in billable hours, just like any other employee when you edit or rewrite a document. If the company you are considering working for is not willing to accommodate extra pay after a fair number of edits or rewrites, go somewhere else.
Example: I recently did some work for a burgeoning website which had (when I started) a very brief style guide. My first piece for them went fine, but then they started updating the guide on a near-weekly basis. My second and third pieces went through no less than five edits each. Each time I sent it back, the editor thought of something else they wanted or had some new style guide that needed to be met. I wound up spending more time on the edits than I did in writing the pieces to begin with. Because the contract has already been signed, I can no longer get paid anything more for writing the pieces, even though I spent nearly double the allotted time on each of them due to constant demands for edits and additions.
Admittedly, some of those rewrites/edits were due to errors on my part. I admit that and I think it's fair that a writer should have to fix their mistakes. However, I do not believe that writers should have to cater to the whim of their employer at every turn without suitable compensation. If I'm going to spend 40 hours working on a 20 hour piece for 20 hours worth of pay, the situation must be rectified.
Freelance writers have it rough, and never let anyone tell you otherwise. We have to constantly look for work, constantly interview for new jobs, beg to get paid, fight to get our work read and deal with often harsh criticism of some of our most cherished work on a near-constant basis. We shouldn't have to do twice the work for half the pay. If your employer is not willing to offer additional payment for more than two or three rewrites/edits that are not due to writer error, find work elsewhere.
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