What We Don’t Do — Redux

Good day yesterday. I negotiated a fair contract with a new client and I turned down a client project that I simply don’t have time or energy for. I got a few appointments lined up for the upcoming trade show, and I started on the new client project. It was a glorious, sunny day, so I opted to head out in the car — roof down — to the doctor appointments. If I’m going there anyway, I might as well enjoy it.

I’ll be busy this morning on the client project and then this afternoon on the Trade Magazine Webinar with Anne. Join us! The webinar is a 3 pm PDT / 6 pm EDT. Happy to have you.

Because I’m busy, I thought I’d recycle one of my previous posts. Sometimes they remain relevant or they become relevant because of what’s happening currently in your career. Since I’ve been hit with a few of these questions lately, I thought it wise to bring them up again. I’ve also added one to the mix because it seems to come up endlessly.

What We Don’t Do

An open letter to clients –

Dear Clients:

We writers love you. We appreciate the trust you place in us every time you hand us your projects and agree to pay for a higher level of service. We do that, too. We match your project needs with your voice, your intended message, and your audience. With your help, we’re able to give you what you need.

However, there are limits to what we can do for you. Let’s talk about those for a minute.

We don’t design. I know it’s sometimes tough to separate the fact that writing and design are separate – they appear together on the same document. But my expertise is crafting your written message. I can’t design your brochure, website, newsletter, or billboard. I just can’t. And believe me, you don’t want me to. My design skills haven’t progressed beyond stick figures. What I can do is recommend a few good designers. Just know that my invoice for my work has nothing to do with the designer’s invoice for their work. Two separate businesses, two separate invoices, no mixing of the two. Unless the writer advertises as both a writer and designer, it’s not happening.

We don’t help publish. Again, the expertise here lies in the writing and editing. If we’re editing your book, that’s enough work to keep us more than busy making you look good. If you ask us how to publish it, we’re going to point you to the Internet. While we can educate you on the different types of publishing approaches, we can’t make that decision for you, nor can we do the actual submitting of your book to any publisher. Again, writer/editor, not agent or publishing house.

We don’t market unless it’s in our titles. Tempting to think that your blog writer or your article writer is going to have connections all over the place and you’ll just sit back and watch your projects be promoted without lifting a finger. However, if we propose blog writing, article writing, or book writing quotes and services, that does not automatically translate to social media marketing, article placement, or publicist searches. We write. Unless we’ve specifically mentioned that we’re including marketing in our bids, don’t expect it.

We don’t renegotiate. We writers believe strongly in the contracted assignment. If we’ve signed an agreement with you (and we will insist on it), we’ll deliver what we promised when we promised it. Your job is to make sure your vision was properly conveyed and let us know right away if there are changes. Your other job is to make sure you pay us what you promised in writing. We don’t accept arguments such as “Well, it’s not exactly what I expected, so I’m only paying you half.” The law and the contract language is on our side.

We don’t work for free. I know our titles say “freelance” in it, but that doesn’t translate to mean free work for you. It means we’re free to work for many clients. Please don’t attempt to avoid payment by telling us we should be happy to get the practice or the “exposure.” We’re likely to tell you some things you won’t like, too.

We don’t wait around for work to appear. We know you say it should be “easy” for us to crank out your copy same day, but you’re forgetting something – you’re not our only client. Our time is already scheduled by someone else when you call expecting your project done in one day or less. We can do it in some cases, but we charge extra for that, mainly because we have to work late in order to catch up on projects we promised to others. It’s not fair to them that you can’t plan ahead.

We don’t have control over editorial decisions at publications. Here’s the thing – if you agreed to the interview and suddenly you decide you’d rather not be in print, there’s very little we can do. The articles we write are the product of the publication. That means those people are calling the shots. Telling us you need to review the article prior to print is also out. Editors are pretty picky about interview sources telling them how to do their jobs. It’s called a conflict of interest – no self-respecting editor would ever allow a source to dictate the direction or content of a story. It’s unethical.

We don’t answer to everyone you know. We know the temptation is to show all your friends your book manuscript and ask for feedback, but consider this – you wouldn’t pay a hair stylist hundreds of dollars and then let all your friends cut your hair for you, would you? Then why would you pay for professional writing/editing and then let friends do your editing? Most of us writers have clauses in our contracts that void the contract the moment anyone not listed in the contract becomes involved. Imagine owing us full payment on a project that’s not yet finished because you couldn’t help but let your best friend make revisions you expected us to complete. We work for one person, not several. It’s called herding cats and we’re contractually averse to it.

We’re here for you, clients. Our goal is to provide you with superior service at a fair rate. Just understand that we’re writers and editors, not miracle workers.

Sincerely,

Your writers

What don’t you do that clients are expecting?

Does it happen often enough that you’re considering adding these skills to your repertoire?