Writers Worth: Undoing the Client Posse

What’s on the iPod: Down With the Shine by The Avett Brothers

What a nice, long weekend! Mine actually started a little early — Friday was the first day in months that I didn’t have a ton of work in front of me. I’ve managed to get through three more projects, and the three remaining projects have longer deadlines, except for the one that’s about to kick off today. That deadline is rather short.

So Friday my plan was to kick back and enjoy some space. I started at Starbucks, where I had a leisurely hour of reading and writing. Then I decided to get curtains for the spare room, and from that point, I was doing errands. Too many errands, but looking back, I’m glad I did them. It kept the weekend free for fun.

In a client interaction a few months ago, I had written a draft and was awaiting feedback. It came on time, but suddenly there were a few more “editors” on the draft.

Oh. No.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had no end of trouble with what I’ve come to call the “posse” — friends, relatives, coworkers, unnamed overseers who show up out of nowhere. In a few cases in the past, I’ve had projects derail completely, clients get angry and fire me, and my skills called into question because of these unseen people who are suddenly the new trusted source.

It’s why I no longer put up with it.

From individual clients, it’s always a shock when it happens. It’s inevitable that a company, however, will pull in higher-ups at the late stages of the project. Whether an individual or a company, there are ways to avoid project death or dismissal. Here are a few ways to handle it:

Contract language. The easiest way to avoid the headache is a carefully worded clause in your contract. Here’s what I include:

      Third Parties. This
agreement is made between the Client and the Contractor and all decisions and
discussions of the project described herein will be exclusive of any third
party not expressly named herein. Any review or input of a third party directly
or indirectly in the writing process by the Client without the written consent
of both the Client and the Contractor prior to the start of the project will
void this agreement and all fees contained in this agreement will be due the
Contractor in full and immediately. The Contractor and Client can then opt to
enter into a new agreement at an additional, agreed-upon fee, to include said
third party(ies).
(Note: I am NOT a lawyer, so any clause you use should be run past your own attorney.)

Harsh? Not really — it’s direct. What it says to the client is “Have your review team in place before you start.” It saves time on both sides, and it helps me price according to how many people have to be interviewed. And I recommend including every named person in the project conversation. You’ll spin your wheels much less if you get the input of everyone, including the person at the top whose sign-off power you wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Plus, it’s a good time for the client to decide if they really want/need that person’s input that badly.

Void the current contract and send a new one. Yes, I’ve done this, and I could because it was in the contract. When one client pulled in four friends and their edits showed up all through the document, I invoked the contract gods. I got full payment. She got to follow her friends’ advice. We were both satisfied.

Ask up front. Sometimes you’ll be using the client’s contract. Alas, no third-party clause. So what I do in that case is ask before I give a price — who’s the point person? Who makes the final decision? How many people will review this? If you know before you send your price, you’ll be able to work in additional revision time, making it less painful to deal with multiple opinions.

Limit revisions. My limit is three because even in the best situations, three minor revisions are pretty typical. Anything more than three should trigger a new agreement — in my contract, I include my hourly rate for additional revisions. You could include a flat rate or a contract addendum.

Give two prices. I’ll admit I’ve not done this yet, but it’s one method I’ve kept in my back pocket for situations that could get ridiculous (like when two clients on the call are adding multiple people without filtering). Give a price for the project with X people involved and a price for YY people involved, and explain that additional input usually requires a good deal more revisions for you. This helps the client understand your time is money.

Add the third-party clause to the client contract. I’ve asked for it when I felt the situation warranted it. I’ve not gotten it yet, but it’s helped me weed out the problem clients –those who are talking about the project as being about A, but mentioning that this person will want to include B, that person will want to include C, and this other person will want to include R, S, and T. That’s a change in project scope, and if you can’t get the client to understand up front that such a change requires a new contract, that might be someone who’s more hassle to work with than it’s worth.

Writers, how do you deal with the posse?
What’s the worst situation a posse has ever created for you?