Furthermore, the publishing house is a trade publisher and not a vanity outfit. P&E’s criteria does not penalize agents for owning a portion of an honest trade publisher. We see a conflict only when a vanity house is involved, though there remains a possibility of a conflict of interest in other situations.

While P&E will continue to monitor this event, I antifipate that P&E’s criteria will evolve based on how this develops and what other facts emerge. Regardless of how it settles out, P&E’s criteria will change appropriately to reflect the best advice it can offer to writers.

Dave Kuzminski, Editor
Preditors & Editors ™

So…Ravenous has huge pots of money to throw around, but not enough to hire full-time professional editors.

If I’m reading their ad correctly, they want long-term contracts with these freelance editors, which amounts to full-time…but since they’ll be contract workers, RR won’t be responsible for things like unemployment taxes and benefits. The freelance contract editors would be responsible for filing and paying their own taxes (including self-employment taxes – blech), based on a 1099 they’ll receive from RR at the end of their fiscal year.

Lots of big (and small) companies do this, and there are positive and negative aspects for doing so. Saves the company money – unemployment taxes can be huge, and I’m not sure if it’s a Federal law or not, but I know in NC, if you offer one full-time employee company-paid benefits, you have to offer the same benefits to all your full-time employees. But on the downside, you don’t have as much control or leverage (only what’s provided in the contract), and it doesn’t build a sense of company loyalty quite the same way hiring them on as an actual employee might.

Most companies use contract workers for short-term assignments (relatively speaking), or as a stepping stone toward full-time employment. In other words, in this case, RR could use contracted freelance editors for six months or a year, weed out the poor potential employees, “train” the good ones on how things are done at RR – and save money (unemployment taxes, etc.) during the process. Then, once an editor or group of editors are “up to speed,” they can hire them on as full-time employees. This is a very common business practice. Just sayin’. :-)

http://www.erecsite.com/2008/08/from-craigslist.html:

Quoted from Craiglist, found via Jan Darby at the Absolute Write forums

Ravenous Romance needs freelance copyeditors for erotic romance novels (50K words) and short stories (2500-7500 words). Quick turnaround. Interested in long-term contracts for high volume of work.

Compensation: $200 per novel, $25 per short story

#

Ravenous Romance needs interns to read and evaluate erotic romance novel and short story submissions and copyedit manuscripts. Must have some copyediting training and/or experience, an affinity for erotica or romance books, and great communication skills. We offer a fun work environment and great experience for your resume!

Compensation: no pay

So…Ravenous has huge pots of money to throw around, but not enough to hire full-time professional editors.