In a really strange conversation with an interview subject yesterday, the man I was talking to was dead wrong and I could prove it. But I chose not to. His pronunciation of my last name was waaaaay off the spelling of it, and when I corrected him, he said, “No, it says right here in…
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Job Listings – May 29, 2007Newbies – One Key to Financial SuccessI’m busy – maybe as busy as I was last year at this time. But last year, as some of you may remember, was the year Lori nearly took (gasp!)a “real” job. Why? Because as busy as I was, I was busy on big,…
Playing Emotional Hardball Expanding on this week’s theme – difficulties with bad clients – I think it’s time we touched on what I think is the toughest speed bump to ignore – emotional hardball. That’s when you, the professional writer, follow your invoicing procedure up to and possibly including the threat of litigation only to…
Did I Just Step in Something? I love creative people, except when they think they’re being creative when in fact they’re being skanks. Just experienced an incident with one particular creative who owes me money. In fact, the check’s been absent since somewhere around January. I sent yet another invoice, this time with a late…
Job Listings – May 22, 2007Writer Bill of RightsI’m very glad to see this week’s topic has generated so many responses! I’m somewhat sad to see that I was getting lots of agreement – that we’ve all been victims of Clients Behaving Badly. For the most part, we have great relationships with our clients (I…
Client Gaffes and No-Nos I’ve preached plenty about what we as writers should or should not do. Professional etiquette must be followed even in the face of the most wretched humans to hit your in box. For the most part, we writers listen and respond well. However, not all clients understand proper etiquette when dealing…
Job Postings – May 15, 2007Supply and Demand Yesterday’s rambling about traffic held a hidden gem of a topic – how compensation for freelancers would change if the corporate world were to suddenly embrace telecommuting. Two thoughts went through my head simultaneously as Mike Seiber commented on the idea of better compensation in a “new”…
More on Telecommuting After spending a lovely Sunday afternoon waiting for two freaking hours in line to cross the George Washington Bridge, I’ve come to realize that we’re too crowded. In fact, what should have been a two-hour commute from the Philly burbs to Manhattan took five hours. It was gorgeous outside too, which compounded…
My Favorite Blogs Kathy Kerhli has named this blog as one of her top Thinking Blogger Awards, an honor I never saw coming and one I thank her for! Why did she name this blog? Here it is in her own words: “Lori Widmer’s Words on the Page because she’s a more experienced and far…
Scam-BaitingI read an article in The Atlantic today about a new tack taken with scammers – you know, that Prince’s widow from Nigeria who needs you to transfer some money. It’s called scam-baiting. Instead of deleting these messages or worse, being taken in by them, folks are seeking them out. Why? It’s an attempt to…