The Phrase That Pays It worked again! For the second time in three months, I advised a colleague to use the following line at the end of a long-past-due invoice: “Please pay within 15 days to avoid litigation.” This time, my colleague and chum Kevin Prutzman applied it to a very late bill. Nearly instantly,…
Tag: freelance writing advice
I’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling Here’s to my second official bitch-and-moan day! My chum Kathy Kerhli (who taught me the fine art of bitching with style) wrote an interesting post the other day about a client who kept expecting more and more out of her long after he’d stopped paying. I thought to myself “Wow,…
Run Forrest, Run! The temptation as you’re first starting out is to take anything that pays even a penny a word. However, there comes a point in every writer’s life where the job description makes a person want to flee for the exit. Trust that feeling and read on. I had this feeling a few…
The Week that Blew Up Did you ever have one of those weeks? I just came off one of the strangest weeks in my career. It started okay, but midweek it all went ka-flooey. I had written an article for a pub I’ve written for in the past, when I get this call on my…
I’ve Been Tagged!I’m still not sure what a meme is, but Yvonne Russell just tagged me and told me I’m it. 🙂 So I’ll follow her lead and come up with my own personal contract: I will serve all clients with the same amount of attention and respect. I will work hard to grow my…
‘Nother Contest Thanks to my chum Kathy for this link to yet another novel contest: http://www.brianagincourtmassey.com/contests/bfcguidelines No entry fee for this one. Have at it!
Herding Cats I’m back at my home office. Yippee! I love being onsite at client locations, but I always feel like my home “ship” is adrift and in danger of sinking. The last three days have been spent getting back into the workflow and tying up a lot of loose ends. Man, it feels good…
A Reason to Finish That Novel Thanks to writing chum Audrey over at www.writershelper.com, I was alerted to this great writing contest: http://firstchapters.gather.com/ The beauty of this one – first prize is having your book published by Simon and Schuster! If ever there was a reason to finish your book, this is it.
Easy Job for the Write Person That was the way the ad was worded, I swear to you. And this was no employer trying to be cute – this was an ad trying to justify the low payment. In fact, I’ve compiled my Top Five Clues that it’s a low- to no-pay gig. Look for…
Later That Day… I’ve been asked to be on a panel discussing corporate responsibility in communication. Very cool. Yet when I look around my own little existence, I see so little of either corporate responsibility or corporate communication. Wait – make that effective corporate communication. See, I take onsite work. As someone who is literally…