– He doesn't know exactly what he wants, but thinks he'll know it when he sees it.
– His cousin/friend/drinking buddy is going to take a stab at it.
– He found a cheaper writer.
– He wanted to do it himself.
– He didn't communicate well enough for you to get what he wanted.
– He doesn't understand that no writer gets it right on the first draft.
– He really didn't like it for whatever reason (and you'll never know why).

That's one of those shake-it-off moments. Can't please them all, and it's better to cut bait than try to please someone who isn't interested.

A couple months ago I had a new client not give me a chance to work with him at all. I sent the draft, he paid me, but said he didn't like it, no edits were necessary, he would just go with another writer. Even though I always make it clear that I'm happy to edit until they're happy. Oh well! I guess we just weren't a good fit. Plenty of other fish in the sea 🙂

Cathy, same thing. The client who didn't communicate disappointment until he said goodbye will never know if I could "get" what he does because I was never given the chance. Silence is a freelance writer's worst enemy, I think.

Excellent policy, Eileen. I know when it's a new client, hammering it out on the phone makes it easier to feel that connection that's so necessary.

Paula, that could be. I know it's something I've done since starting resume writing. Great idea on giving bullet points on what the marketing wonks will change –that lessens the blow and shows you know how to work with them!

Luanna, consider yourself very lucky! I've had former clients express huge dissatisfaction right about the time the final invoice with the threat of legal action hits their in boxes. If only their dissatisfaction weren't an obvious attempt to not pay…

At least, they let ME change it. They didn't do it themselves.

But yes, first drafts always give me the shivers. I add a lot of comments and premises, often drafts get approval as-is, or with minor edits before they get published, but the scare feeling is there, always as intense as the first time.

I know, not fun. ^^'

~ Luana

Whenever I send something to a new client, I always say, "Please let me know if you have any questions or need any changes made. Remember, my goal is to come as close to what you were expecting as possible."

With exiting clients I just say, "Let me know if you have any questions."

When I do copy editing for a certain corporate client (technically, my client's client), I include a bullet point list explaining any changes I feel their marketing people (often know-it-all wanna-be writers who wrote the initial copy) will insist on re-correcting – incorrectly, of course. When possible.

Although I always explain it's a draft when I send it. And I tell them to let me know when they are ready to discuss their edits/feedback, this new client did none of that. When they finally surfaced, they said they were disappointed and did the rewrites themselves.

When I received the final version, from my point of view, it had few edits and was not that far off from my original.

I just sent a first draft to another new client (who is very BAD about communicating) so I am sitting here with the Jeopardy tune rolling through my brain. 😉

Great minds Lori. 😉 I just scheduled a post for later this month that touches on this very issue — confidence & self-doubt and how they can occasionally go hand-in-hand in freelancing.

I had a new client this week, and I found myself a bit more nervous than usual about the project. It was just a press release. I've written hundreds of them. I've landed major media coverage for clients with them. I have plenty of PR experience, especially with creative types — this was for a pair of co-authors for their book launch. But I still get nervous, especially when my clients are other writers. I never know what they expect, how they'll react, whether or not they're stuck on certain style rules where they might object to traditional release formatting, etc. Thankfully they were very happy with it. 🙂 But no matter how long you're in this business, nerves can still be an issue. As long as they don't cripple us (and we don't ignore them to the point of taking confidence to cockiness), it can be very healthy, not to mention all the more rewarding when we make a new client happy. 🙂