Writers Worth: Ending the Waiting Game

About seven months ago, I had a conversation with a potential client. At the time, he and I were talking not just price but also project length, time frame, and duration. It’s a long-term, ongoing arrangement, so I was about to see my workload double, possibly triple. That takes some serious rearranging of the work schedule.

However, I did nothing. I continued to market and bring in new projects and clients. Everything was, for me, status quo — work at bringing in more work and new clients. How dumb, right?

Wrong. That client has yet to come back with a contract.

It’s a trap we often place ourselves in — we see that carrot dangling and we think “Payday!” Then reality hits. We’ve just waited weeks, maybe months for work that isn’t contracted and hasn’t materialized.

My potential client does check in on occasion with an update on where things are, so it’s not completely off the table. What is off the table? My time frame. As a business owner, I can’t wait for a maybe. Luckily, my potential client is also a business owner. He knows that. It’s why he gives me updates. That shows respect for my time, and I appreciate that.

However, we writers have seen clients who aren’t so considerate. We’ve been expected to wait, to drop what we’re doing immediately, or work whenever we’re ordered to.

That’s not happening.

I was talking with a writer at the beginning of her career. She’s going through something similar. She’s been promised information to start a project that has a ridiculously short deadline and has yet to see it a week after it was promised. Her client doesn’t answer emails. She’s stressed because this project — a big one — is one of her first.

And she’s waiting.

Welcome to one of the easiest mistakes writers make. We take on faith what we’re told. We believe people when they say they’ll contact us by this date or that. We wait by the email or phone, and we’re disappointed.

Sort of like a bad date, isn’t it?

So here’s how to break the cycle and take charge of your writing career:

Give parameters on your time. No one gets to tell you, a business owner, when you’ll be waiting for this project or that. All any client can reasonably expect is an estimate of when you’re available. I like to tell clients that I have XX hours available within the next two weeks. Anything beyond that is unreasonable to expect without a contract. If they want to make it formal, a contract will get them a more suitable parameter. If they need me for two months, there has to be an agreement in place or I’m booking other projects. I have to. Maybes don’t pay the bills.

Push back on unrealistic expectations. It’s so hard when you’re starting out to say “Sorry, that’s not enough time” or “I think you’re underestimating the time needed.” But the minute you do, you establish yourself as someone with some experience and authority. Plus you draw an invisible boundary that clients (the good ones) will respect. I once had a client who’d expected 40,000 words in two months (researched from scratch with no help from them, thank you very much). When I was a month in, I realized this wasn’t happening. I was killing myself trying to meet this arbitrary deadline. So I told them it was going to take much longer. They were fine with it. “Just let us know how it’s going.” Take charge of your business and don’t accept every term verbatim.

Commit only after a contract is signed. Yes, they promise the moon sometimes, but clients don’t follow through on those promises every time. In the past two years, I’ve had clients who have said 1) I’ll get right back to you — we have a lot of work for you!; 2) I’ll call you in a few weeks to chat about projects; 3) Sign this disclosure and we’ll talk next week; 4) Let me call you when I get back in the office…. So far, none of these projects have moved forward. Without a contract, there is no commitment on either side.


Continue to run your business your way. In no profession is it ever expected that you’ll work for one client at a time for weeks or months on end. Imagine a hairdresser who has one client every six to eight weeks. Or a lawn service that devotes every Tuesday to my lawn and no one else’s. You are a business and no one can say “You’ll work exclusively for me” unless they’re your employer and paying you benefits. Even then you can moonlight, right? Continue to work for other clients as you wait, and even after you secure the job. It’s about time management — if you learn how to budget your time between projects, you can take on as much work as you want so long as the time holds out.

Writers, how have you dealt with the waiting game?
How long do you wait, if at all?