What questions should you ask a grant consultant? An Interview with Marnie Wiss, Part II

My youngest wants every penny of her money to count. The only extra money she feels she can count on is when she loses a tooth (she calls her mouth her “bank”).

Most scholars feel the same way about their startup money. If you’re lucky enough to have a startup, you want to spend it wisely. Future money isn’t guaranteed. You have no more early career years (your “teeth”) to lose.

So it feels risky to hire a grants consultant or editor. You want to make sure you find the right person. What questions should you ask?

For insight, I turned to editor Marnie Wiss. Marnie has 30 years of experience in publishing and editing. She works with scholars on their grants. This is part II of our interview (see part I here).

~Advice from Marnie Wiss~

What should grant writers ask a potential editor before they work with them? Marnie says you should ask:

• What is your approach? Do you have a standardized plan, or do we develop a plan together?
• What experience do you have with this specific kind of grant?
• Be clear with the editor about what your specific needs for support or challenges are in the writing of this particular proposal. Let them know what kind of feedback you're looking for, for instance high-level input on the overall story behind the proposal, help with making the flow of ideas as clear as possible, or copy editing and formatting.
• Let the editor know what experience you have had working with editors in the past and what did or didn't work for you in those relationships.
• If you haven't worked with an editor before or don't really know what kind of support you want, that's ok. Let them know that as well.
• Can you meet my expectations regarding the type of support I want and my schedule?
• What is your fee? Can you give me an estimate of what this project will cost? How can we maximize the impact of this partnership while staying within my budget? For instance, an editor could do one "deep" pass early on if you're struggling with the story, or a final pass for language and flow if the science is already solid. And they may have options for billing, like billing hourly or by project.

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I’m grateful to Marnie for sharing her insights. Here’s a printable of Marnie’s questions. You can learn more about Marnie on LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for more insights from experts, see these interviews: searching for postdocs from Dr. Elliott Weinstein and building a career in the humanities from Dr. Laure Astourian.

If you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, would you mind forwarding it to them? Thanks for reading and believing that scholars deserve support for incredible ideas.

Betty

Stay in touch: The Newsletter, The Grant Writing Guide book, and How to Be a Public Scholar.

P.S. It’s bread making season again - the days are colder and shorter. Flour Water Salt Yeast is my favorite bread book.