What’s on the iPod: Ants Marching by The Dave Matthews BandWhat I’m reading upstairs: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather Another uber-special moment yesterday brought to me by the IRS. I have to give them credit – they’re exceptionally nice on the phone, and their letters have lost the judgmental attitude I once…
Tag: client issues
Grammar and Your Client
What’s on the iPod: Into the Mystic by Van Morrison After having more than two client interactions get heated over grammar and sentence structure, I was itching to hire some mensa-level kid-geek to plant a virus in every Word Grammar Check function in the country. I loathe that program and all it’s done to ruin…
Concessions
What’s on the iPod: Run by Amy MacDonaldWhat I’m reading: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen Had an interesting twist on a client project recently. I’d sent over an invoice for a quick-and-dirty project, but heard nothing on either the project or the invoice for a week. I sent a “Did you…
The Passive-aggressive Client
What I’m reading: Transparent Things by Vladimir NabokovWhat’s on the iPod: The Twist by Frightened Rabbit Like that? I thought it might be fun to share what we’re reading and listening to. Spent a great Friday off with a writer friend I’ve known for a while, but never met. She and I hit it off…
Convincing Them You Don’t Suck
Ever have one of those clients who is with you all the way…until they show your editing or writing work to a friend, neighbor, pastor, or checkout clerk and suddenly you’re that fool they’re wasting money on? Having had my fair share of those in the past, I’ve amended my contracts to avoid it. If…
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….
Planning for the Obvious
This month, two clients dropped projects that netted me over $1K monthly. I saw it coming, too. No, they never said they were thinking about it, but the vibe was there. You know that vibe – it starts with communication waning or disappearing altogether. Emails go unanswered. Same with phone calls. Invoices get paid, but…
Terror in the ‘Burbs
I sat there yesterday morning avoiding email. I’ll be honest – I was a bit terrified to see who was bitching about what given the last few weeks I’d had. I thought I’d exorcised the agony twice, but when the agony returned three times, the temptation was to throw up the hands, wave the white…
Raindrops on Roses?
When Julie Andrews sang that song in Sound of Music about her favorite things, it’s obvious her character wasn’t a freelancer. Either she’s an eternal optimist or she’s never waited months for payment. And while there’s a place in the world for optimism (a very large place), there’s also room for a little skepticism and,…
Stepping Back
I had an interesting interaction with an interview source recently. The project the source was helping with belonged to my client, whom the source knows quite well. Maybe that’s where communication went wonky. There was an issue after the interview that I referred directly to the client. The solution was worked out, or so we…