Bad At Writing, Worse With Numbers

Our client has been hiring us for several years to type her books for her. (They are awful stories and never get published, so she has to pay a vanity publisher.) When we send her draft manuscripts, she usually makes handwritten alterations before sending them back. However, today’s call was the best.

Client: “Thank you for the copy of the book, but I’m in a terrible mess. I’ve made lots of alterations, but the pages are now out of order and I don’t know which pages should go where.”

Me: “Have you made the alterations to the manuscript we provided to you?”

Client: “Yes.”

Me: “Well, it has page numbers.”

Client: “Yes, but I don’t know which page numbers should go where.”

Me: “Okay, which is the first page you’re not sure of?”

Client: “Page twenty-nine.”

Me: “Okay, can you find pages twenty-eight and thirty?”

I hear a few seconds of shuffling paper.

Client: “Yes.”

Me: “Page twenty-nine goes between twenty-eight and thirty.”

Client: “Are you sure?”