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Logical Expressions FAQ

Thank you for visiting our site and considering our services. If you're thinking about hiring us to help you with a project, you might want to know a little more about our background and how we work.

Here are answers to some of the frequently asked questions about our services. If you have other questions, please feel free to contact us. There's no obligation, so feel free to drop us a line!

• What are your qualifications as a writer?
• What is your background in writing and publishing?
• What kind of projects do you handle?
• How do you quote projects?
• What do you need from me to get started?
• How long will it take you to finish my project?
• How do you handle revisions?
• Are you a "self-publishing company"? (NO!)
• Do you guarantee your stuff will sell my stuff?
• I need to talk to you now. How do I contact you?

What are your qualifications as a writer?

Susan Daffron has been writing professionally since the late 80s. Her first published piece was in a now long-dead (but great) magazine called Technique, which was about graphic design.

Since then she has written approximately 70 articles for national magazines, mostly in the technology industry, 200 newspaper articles, and about 1500 articles online. For clients, she has written almost every type of marketing collateral there is, including:

• Web page copy
• Case studies and white papers
• Brochures, postcards, and newsletters
• Nonfiction books, user guides, and instructional materials

You can visit out our writing credits, client list, project portfolio, and testimonials pages for more detailed information on the projects.

Susan's writing has won a number of awards including the APEX Award for Publication Excellence and the Next Generation Indie Book Award for two of her books.

What is your background in writing and publishing?

You can find out quite a bit about us on this page: Fast Facts about Susan Daffron and James Byrd

Susan has been involved in publishing in one way or another since 1986 when she did a college internship at McCall's Magazine in New York City. There she saw the realities of the "slush pile" (actually the slush room) filled with work from aspiring writers. She realized that getting published might be a little more difficult than she thought.

After graduating from college, Susan worked on early Macintosh computers (a Mac SE with 128K of RAM and PageMaker version 1!) doing typesetting work for a print shop. After moving to San Diego, she used an early desktop publishing program called Ventura Publisher to lay out thousands of pages of documentation. That led to other writing and graphic design jobs, mostly involving long technical documents and books.

The last "real job" Susan had before starting Logical Expressions was at a technical publishing company. There she was an editor on the magazine, produced newsletters, and laid out books and prepared them for early print-on-demand (POD) printing (a Xerox Docutech). She laid out many thousands of pages of books way back in 1995 before anyone actually called it POD printing.

After starting LE, Susan worked on many writing and graphic design projects. She has worked with many types of businesses including large technology companies and book publishers, such as Macmillan Computer Publishing and earned the Microsoft MVP award for her work helping people figure out how to create long documents in Microsoft Word. She also co-authored a traditionally published book on Microsoft Office, and wrote a book called How to Use PowerPoint 2000, which was published by Sams.

With this extensive background in publishing, it actually was fairly easy for Susan to navigate the murky waters of self-publishing and produce books for Logical Expressions and clients.

Today, for clients Susan does mostly marketing-related writing for technology companies like IBM and PDSA, Inc.

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What kind of projects do you work on?

We work on a wide range of projects, but in general we do writing and design for marketing collateral, such as:

• White papers and case studies
• Web copy and landing pages
• Autoresponders
• Online or print newsletters
• Articles and blog content
• Magazines and custom publishing

You can find out more about the types of clients we work with on the Who We Work With page. If you want to find out more about projects we've worked on in the past and what clients thought, please check out our writing credits, client list, project portfolio, and testimonials pages.

Logical Expressions also publishes a number of books every year. You can see the list of books we are selling on the LE Books page.

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How do you quote projects?

We almost always quote by the project. We base the quote on the type of work you need, and how much time it takes

We rarely work an "hourly rate." Obviously, our fees are based on how long it takes to do the work, but we think a project-based approach is easier for everyone. You know what to expect, so there aren't any surprises. Hiring us is either worth it to you, or it's not.

We aren't the least expensive folks you'll find, but we definitely aren't the most expensive either. However, we didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

As noted, we've been doing publishing work for a lot of years and we take customer service extremely seriously. Some of our clients have been working with us for more than a decade. The How We Work page has some information about what to expect when you work with us.

If you want to talk to us about your project, please contact us via email.

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What do you need from me to get started?

1. A signed agreement and up front payment. After the quote has been approved, we write up a contract that outlines the project. If it is an extremely large or long-term project, sometimes we'll break it up into phases with half or one third up front.

Each phase of the project has payment milestones. For example, we might break up a big project into three phases. In that case, a client is billed as follows: 35% before beginning Phase I, 35% before beginning Phase II, and 30% before beginning Phase III. We submit invoices at the beginning of each Phase, and work begins on that Phase when payment is received.

With smaller projects, we require payment in full through our online shopping cart. Final prices are always subject to revision if the costs or specifications change. (Yes, stuff happens.) Excessive alterations and client-directed changes may incur extra charges. (Yes, even more stuff happens too.)

In general, we try to avoid involving LEI in the printing process. We don't want to become print brokers, so we ask clients to pay any printing and/or film costs directly to the respective vendor.

2. Creative materials. Often we need logos and background materials to begin work. On a layout project, for example, obviously we need the text to be laid out. For writing projects, we will send you a form where you give us information about the target audience, benefit and competition and ask for other source materials you have already. We can't help you create book marketing pieces without good information.

Once we get the materials and/or background information, we may still have questions. In that case, we email or make an appointment to talk on the phone at your convenience.

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How long will it take you to finish my project?

It depends on what you need and how busy we are. In general, we'll require a couple weeks for projects, depending on the complexity. Obviously, big projects take longer than small ones.

We very rarely take on rush projects. (Poor planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on our part, mostly because it's not fair to our other clients.) However, with that said, if you have a rush job, contact us just in case. We have turned around "emergency" projects in a couple days (or even hours) on occasion. As noted, it really depends on what else is going on. If we can't meet your deadline, we'll tell you and won't take the job.

If we accept the job, we will not miss your deadline. When we take on projects, we do what we say we're going to do when we say we're going to do it. It's that simple.

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How do you handle revisions?

For most projects, two sets of revisions are included in the project fee (if you need them). However, for lack of a better term, there is a "statute of limitations." You need to tell us within 30 days after receiving the final project that you need another revision. Coming back two years later with a typo isn't fair, and we'll charge you for accessing the files again.

Realistically, by the time we're done, most clients are happy and we don't hear from them again until the next project.

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Are you a "self-publishing" company?

NO. We are not a "self-publishing company" (aka subsidy press) and we think the term is extremely misleading. We offer services such as consulting, layout, and design.

We also encourage people to learn why subsidy presses can cause you to LOSE or WASTE money on your project. (Please read this article: "Are You Really Self-Publishing or Not?" for more information on the difference and why it matters.)

Do you guarantee your stuff will sell my stuff?

There is no way anyone can guarantee anything will sell. We do the best job we can with the information we receive, but in the end there are way too many variables that affect how a marketing piece is received or how a product will sell.

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I need to talk to you now. How do I contact you?

Contact us via email using the link at the bottom of every page of this site, or click this link to our contact form. We'll set up a time to talk via phone.

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