lwidmer | Words on the Page

New Scam Targeting Freelance Writers

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What I’m listening to: 6th Avenue Heartache by The Wallflowers I want to bottle yesterday and drink from that thermos every day. I had allotted myself a week to finish four articles — I finished the third one yesterday. So now I have three days in which to finish the last one. That right there is…

5 Negotiation Tactics for Freelancers

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What I’m listening to Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Sometimes I wish there were more days in the weekend so I could get everything off my to-do list. We managed to plan part of our upcoming vacation, and I moved some files off my old computer to my new one. That’s the…

5 Scary Freelance Writing Business Mistakes

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What I’m listening to: The Fall of Rome by The Airborne Toxic Event Jeezuz, what a week. I did the old trick to get more work coming in — I thought about taking next week off for vacation. Not that I need more work, but I wanted a lot of these stalled projects to finish….

The One-step Way to Boost Your Referral Success

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What I’m reading: The Tin Drum by Günter Grass What I’m listening to: Mr. Hurricane by Beast The week started out good so far. Yesterday I started — and finished — one article assignment and got to work on revisions for another article. The latter is a piece with an editor I’ve not worked with before,…

Writing Advice That’s Killing Your Career

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What I’m reading: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson What I’m listening to: Collide by James Bay Oh, the joys of a short week. Naturally, I have big projects due next week, so I’m working full out. I have to stop briefly today for an article interview, a client call, and lunch with my aunt…

New Face, Same Place

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Welcome to the new Words on the Page blog home! I’ve finally made the move to WordPress, leaving behind Blogger, which was this blog’s home for the last decade. While it was a nice place to be, it wasn’t allowing me the function that WordPress does. Not that I’m a designer, or even adept enough…

This Job, Not That Job

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What I’m reading: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon What I’m listening to: Incomplete by James Bay Isn’t it fun to spend your birthday doing something you’ve been meaning to do? Isn’t it great to try ticking off the list that one item, say moving a blog, on a day that you’ve…

4 Things to Change Now to Improve Your Writing Career

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What I’m listening to: Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day Wait — isn’t summer supposed to be the slow period? I can’t breathe for the amount of work coming in. Yesterday, I was handed two more projects. That makes five projects on my schedule, and it means once more, I’m about to run when…

When Safe Freelance Writing Isn’t Good Enough

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What I’m reading: The Trouble with Goat and Sheep by Joanna Cannon What I’m listening to: Blood and Guts by Middle Brother There’s nothing like a week that begins like a starting pistol at a marathon. That’s how it feels so far, and it’s only Tuesday. Yesterday I jumped among three projects, trying to make…

Free Advice Friday: 4 Freelance Business Mistakes That Kill Your Career

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What I’m listening to: Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie Wow. Friday already? It went by a bit quickly. I have projects in the works, but until I get some interviews completed, I have some free time. I spent it working on two personal projects and trying to learn a new bit of Windows…

Paula Hendrickson

You covered most of the biggies, Lori. The thing is people who take short cuts to LAND the clients don't seem to realize that they'll also have to PLEASE any clients they land.

And if potential clients can't tell generic form-letter queries from pitches tailored specifically for their eyes, you have to ask yourself if those are clients worth having. They probably also think 10-cents a word is a decent fee, want to buy all rights, pay within 3 months of publication, and won't be a clip worth saving.

My advice is always to get a first clip from a respectable publication— which might not pay much since you got the assignment without having any clips to prove you can write—and use that clip to break into a larger market. Rinse and repeat. Don't write more than one or two pieces for a low payer. If you do, they're using you. You need to use THEM as a stepping stone to a better market.

Mistakes Writers Make

I agree with Paula on not being exploited by low (or, worse, non-) payers, but I'd add that even if you do work for some low paying clients you should be sure to chase up those debts if they fail to pay punctually. In the early days, I was almost too grateful for an assignment, even if only for a two-figure sum, that I'd sometimes not be as forceful as I should have been to chase late payments.

Writers need to realise that they're entering into a contract for a piece of work, and payment for that work signifies the 'completion' of that arrangement – you owe it to yourself, and to other writers, to make sure you are paid what you were told or arranged you would be paid. Even small sums are worth pursuing – they remind clients that writers have value and should be recompensed – period.

Best wishes, Alex

PS. I expect to be breaching your copyright on 'suck it up, buttercup' multiple times in future …. 🙂

Lori Widmer

Paula, I think the flip side of the form letter is if you're using it, how are you showing your potential client that you can generate compelling, original content? And you're so right about using these markets for clips, not as places to hang out for years.

Alex, LOL Isn't it great? Full disclosure, it's not my original thought. I saw it on a workout t-shirt and I loved it.

Agree completely on chasing payment. Have a payment process in place that includes how often you'll invoice, how many times you'll invoice, what your late fees will be, and what steps you'll take should a client decide to ignore all those invoices. Then follow it.

Eileen

My Big Early Mistake was in chasing after local, low-paying clients because I didn't have the confidence to go bigger. The problem was, they required too much hand-holding, too many time-sucking meetings, and too much educating about the benefits. They would want me to visit their place of business, take a tour of their entire operation, meet the owner and whoever was doing the marketing, meet Mabel at the front desk with a degree in English who had been doing their writing and who resented the hell out of me, and give them a strategy for free. And then they only wanted to pay $100 for web copy. I foolishly did that too many times before I got smart.

I would advise new writers to pick a specialty or two, and target businesses in that market with the ability to pay. I found the sweet spot to be $20 million+ in annual revenues. If someone is looking at a generalist vs a specialist, they're going to choose the specialist.

Devon Ellington

Yeah, I'm sick of the attitude, "Oh, I decided to start freelance writing. Easy money." Uh, no. It's work. It's often worth it, sometimes not, but there's definitely work involved.

Lori Widmer

Oh gawd, Eileen! I've had those very same clients! LOL We should compare notes — I wonder if they're the same people. One client walked me through his offices, bragging about how much money he was raking in. When he heard my fee, he had the audacity to say "Ooo, you're going to have to lower that."

My response was "You're going to have to raise yours to afford me." Needless to say, I didn't bother with him after that, nor did I volunteer to work for three days beside him to, as he put it "rub shoulders with people who can hire you!" I was too busy working for people who actually DID hire me. 🙂

I wondered how your targeted marketing was going. Glad to hear that you've found a sweet spot!

Devon, I think of you every time I have to write one of these posts. You get some of the crazies who expect you to do their damn legwork.