Comments on: Partnering for Perfection

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:23:18 +0000

Wendy, I've had similar situtations myself. In one or two cases, I had the expertise the client didn't have. My job - to present myself as a professional without dumbing down the client. Yikes!

Well Paula, if she'd just keep paying you $1 a word, you could just hand over whatever you wanted. Apparently, she rewrites it anyway. :) How frustrating.

Eileen, you're like me. Who cares about turf when the project's breaking your spirits? You were smart. I'd have done the same thing. Remove self from center - amen to that!

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:27:42 +0000

I am in the midst of a pickle right now, but it looks like the problem can be solved. In the industry for which I write (dietary supplements), all copy must pass through "compliance" review, because the FDA is so strict about what can and can't be said. I'm part of a freelance team which includes the marketing strategist and the compliance advisor. I have to please both of them with the copy, and one piece has turned into a tug of war. The strategist wants something a lot more aggressive; the compliance advisor keeps kicking back the copy, saying it will get us into legal hot water. After two rounds of this, I suggested the advisor write the copy and communicate directly with the strategist. She's a good writer, and I won't be wasting my client's money by getting nowhere. Everybody is a professional and this seems like a workable solution everyone's willing to try. I'm secure enough in my work that I don't worry about turf wars or anything. The important thing is to get the job done for our client.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:38:01 +0000

A year or two ago, I got my first (and so far, only) assignment from a promising $1/word market. The editor loved my pitch on handmade holiday gifts. I outlined the things my family made and exchanged the year before, and how successful it was. That was "exactly" the type of piece she wanted: A first person piece on homemade gifts.

I asked for back issues of the publication, but she never remembered to send them. So I wrote a first person piece on homemade gifts, turned it in a week early, explaining that I wanted her to have time with it before it was due, since I wasn't familiar with their style.

A few weeks later she replied that while she liked the piece, it wasn't at all what she had in mind. She wanted a third-person piece with three specific examples of gifts that could be made in 30-minutes or less, with website links with instructions. Huh? That's not remotely what we'd discussed, and all of the gifts we made took way more time and were original ideas.

So I got her to agree to one-hour projects, and found three that worked. One was lame (cookies), the others were pretty cool. She replied that she liked it - that's exactly what she wanted. She never sent me an issue, so imagine my shock when I found my bylined article online and it wasn't remotely even like the final copy she said was exactly what she wanted, which was light-years away from my original idea which she also said was exactly what she wanted.

I don't know if her editorial needs changed after she originally assigned the article, or if she was just bad at communicating what she needed. Or maybe she's just a control freak who has to rewrite everything that comes across her desk. I'll probably never know.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:59:36 +0000

I have made the mistake of not researching a topic where the target market was concerned. Specifically the geographical area that an item was to be used.

I wrote up the requested article on an item and the client was pleased with it except for one section I had added that baffled him.

It turned out that in the area where he lives, they don't need to perform the act I so carefully wrote about in the article. In my area, it's important to do that step, but not in his.

That situation turned out fine since we were both open to asking questions to figure out what was wrong. It took a bit of disagreeing with each other on whether or not it was important, but we finally got on the same page.

If he hadn't have been so open; I probably would've been seen as an idiot with no experience in the topic even though I said I was.