Freelance writing advice | Words on the Page

Your Freelance Writing Q&A

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Handle Me With Care by The Traveling Wilburys What a week. I can’t seem to get a single thing done, though I’m organized to my teeth. I have four projects sitting in front of me and I can’t manage to get the info I need to get any of them completed….

6 Writer Attributes Your Editor Wants

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole What a lot of deadlines, and Friday wasn’t going to be productive. Just as I sat down to write an executive summary, the lawn service next door started up their leaf blowers. I’m with Devon Ellington on this — it’s a noise that makes…

12 Ways to Boost Freelance Success in 2016

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler What’s on the iPod: Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers and Jonathan Richman You know, I expected December to be slow. Not a chance. This week I have an interview (possibly two) for two different projects, and I bigger project just arrived. Plus I’m working on a…

Setting Up Writing Success for 2016

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Running on Empty by Jackson Browne How was your Thanksgiving? I was able to head home (great weather for it) and visit my parents. My dad is dealing with emphysema and lungs filled with asbestos, so every visit is a gift right now. You don’t realize how quickly time passes until…

Guest Post Don’ts

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Have Love, Will Travel by The Sonics It’s a short, slow week. I’ll be traveling this holiday, as many of you may be. For me, I had decadent amounts of free time, so I was able to get some side project work done, sift through emails, and relax a bit. A…

4 Places to Find Missing Freelance Opportunities

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Sugar by Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds It’s been a nice, slow week. I’ve been wanting to get to some personal projects, so I took full advantage of the free time. Right now I’m revamping one of my websites. When I got to the contact page, I went blank (don’t…

Free Advice Friday: Writer Advice that Could be Hurting You

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: More Than a Feeling by Boston It’s been quite the week. I didn’t have a ton of work, but I had a lot of busy stuff. So far, I’ve had two evening events/outings, and there’s another tomorrow. It’s not even Thanksgiving and parties are starting. It’s Friday, and time for another…

How To Increase Your Monthly Freelance Earnings in 2 Easy Steps

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Built to Roam by Shakey Graves This week got away from me a bit. The workload was limited to a few small revisions. The rest of it was split between working on side projects (which are actually primary projects that will pay off later) and sending invoices. In a few conversations…

5 Ways to Increase (or Get) Writing Referrals

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Song for Someone by U2 I love slow weeks after a long, busy spurt. With a project coming in next week, I’m enjoying the break. The madness should start up again soon. Until then, I’m marketing a little, writing a lot, and getting administrative stuff ticked off my list. I’m also…

Knowing When to Drop a Client

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Lego House by Ed Sheeran It’s been a fantastic week. I finished all my projects by late Tuesday, had one small revision Wednesday morning, and I’ve spent two solid days doing what I damn well please. That included working on two longer-term projects and some poetry. But that’s not what made…

Anne Wayman

I've got the same list more or less… timing is key for me. A cut in pay would probably have been the end… or maybe just the attitude. OTOH, I know I can get stuck just because the pay is steady. It's happened.

Lori

Agreed, Anne. I hung in there way too long. I should have cut the cord the second the pay dropped and the bitching started.

Paula Hendrickson

Wow. They're paying five whole dollars in exchanged for your weekend? How generous! I work on weekends for two reasons: by choice (so I can fit in another great assignment or one on a tight deadline), or because I goofed off so much during the week that I need to catch up.

This weekend? The latter.

Remember the Late Payer? I fired that client. At first I was willing to put up with the publication's controlling ways because it was simple work, and while it didn't pay well, it paid enough to be good fill-in work.

With every assignment came the marching orders: "Here's a list of sources. You MUST contact all double-starred sources. You MUST have at least X-number of these sources, plus a minimum of TWO retailers. And you MUCH send a progress report every Friday."

You got it. All of those "sources" were advertisers. Oh, and the retailers? With your first assignment they provided an outdated list of retailers (I always Googled names before calling, often the contacts no longer worked there, and a couple times the contacts had died a few years earlier) none of whom ever wanted to be interviewed, since the focus wasn't on their stores.

I hated the monitoring too. I'd understand doing that the first time or two someone works for you, but once you know they always deliver good work on time, take the training wheels off.

They always had excuses not to pay on time (they stated 45 days after acceptance…but to them meant "acceptance" meant the day they decide to put your invoice in for processing, which could be a month after publication). After the owner had blown through all remotely possible excuses and tried using the flu as a reason not to sign checks for three weeks, I threatened legal action. Funny how he was suddenly able to reply to email AND use a pen despite his flu-stricken state. As soon as I cashed the check I severed ties. Oh, and their top two editors got sick of working that way and quit, too!

KeriLynn Engel

Ugh, I'm sorry you had to deal with all that. It can be tempting to just hang in there if the work is easy and the money's good, but the stress is never worth it.

I have a hard time deciding to let go of clients who aren't necessarily bad clients, but just aren't a good fit for me. I've had a few of clients who were great on paper, but…

* our communications styles didn't mesh and it was stressing me out every time I had to talk with them because I had to work hard to figure out what they were really saying
* they always requested lots of tiny minor revisions and it stressed me out submitting anything because I knew there would always be something "wrong" with it, even if I couldn't see it no matter how much I pored over it looking for "errors"

These aren't terrible things, and other writers would probably love these clients. But, the common thread was, it stressed me out too much to work with them.

I've realized that even if *on paper* the client looks great, if working with them stresses me out all the time, we're not a good fit to work together!

Sounds simple, but it took me a while to realize it's okay to break up with a client for such a "minor" reason like that 😀

Lori Widmer

Paula, let me guess– they billed themselves as a magazine, but were actually using the paid advertisement format. I worked for one of these in the past. Drove me nuts. I thought I was writing an article on the best grill options, so I contacted a household-name chef. Nope. Had to be the advertisers ONLY.

Luckily, that job didn't last.

I am SO glad you fired that client! They were holding you down.

KeriLynn, that's the only reason I hung in there. I had three really good years. Then this manager came on board. What a piece of work she was! And I was over them when I realized the owner was pushing that sort of behavior.

You could use Jake Poinier's advice. For clients who always find fault, he builds a minor mistake into the content. 🙂

Krista

First of all, congratulations on your poem!! That is an amazing accomplishment. I am approaching my ninth year of freelancing (wow) and I definitely held on to several gigs for far too long. Here were a few final straws for me: demanding I do something right away and refusing to take no for an answer (in one case, literally hours before I was signing off for a vacation to Cuba), trying to make me sign a contract saying work for one company would take priority over everything else despite having no guarantee or work or a retainer, many emails about potential projects that never came through requiring me to provide information, increased work load and more requirements with no increase in pay, scheduling phone calls for inconvenient times and then not answering, excessive late payments and no responses to emails inquiring about them (sometimes for weeks or even months). Wow, they've added up over the years. However, I do need to say that most of the clients I've worked with are wonderful, and I've been with some for years. On an even more positive note, a couple of years ago I let go of my low payers, am working part time to be with my 15-month-old more while he's small, and am about to have my best-paying year ever by far. Not sure how that happened, but I'll take it.

Lori Widmer

Thank you, Krista! Sorry for the short delay in getting your comment posted — I get a ton of spam comments, so until I move this blog, I have to filter manually. 🙂

Thanks for the kudos. Still pinching myself. 🙂

Wow, hours before leaving? That's insane! I've had clients ask and I've accommodated in a few cases like that, but it was never a demand. Tempting, I bet, to pretend you didn't see the email. 😉 But one person's lack of manners doesn't mean we have to go there (though it sure is tempting).

You've brought up many situations that are talking points by themselves! Wow, they really have thrown it all at you. Smart of you to recognize the unfairness of those demands, especially the "our work takes precedence" one. If they want that, they pay for that.

Nine years in, you must feel much smarter having faced all that, though. Even if you said yes to it the first time (understandable), I bet you don't now!

Krista

It took me a long time to get out of the mindset of being thankful for having any paying work and saying yes to everything because of that. Eventually you come to this wonderful place where you realize you don't have to any more!

Lori Widmer

Amen! 🙂