I spent Friday afternoon attaching late fees to a few invoices. Mind you, I’ll never see the late fees paid – not one late fee I’ve sent out has ever been paid. Well maybe one, but out of dozens, that’s not too successful. I haven’t pushed it legally yet as the amounts, so far, have…
Bringing Up the Uncomfy
Sometimes they just need to hear it. Sometimes clients need to know exactly why you left, what they can do going forward, and how they can succeed post-you. I’m not talking about the fly-by-nights who want to justify a $1/article job as “exposure.” I’m talking about legitimate businesses making critical mistakes that are chasing away…
Don’t Toy With Me
It seems to be a much-practiced habit – writers who stand up publicly for the rights of other writers, for better wages, for respect, dammit! But then look under the surface and oops! There you are – those projects you don’t want to admit to taking, those projects that you took that you’d be ashamed…
Monthly Assessment – September
Here we go again – another month, another assessment of the marketing and business plan. And once again, I invite you to share your own results, be they good or be they not so good. It was a bit of a transitional month for me. I had just returned from vacation two weeks prior and…
Waving Goodbye
As I pull in a rather lucrative ongoing client project, I wave goodbye to one I’m glad to see going. (I have amended some of the facts so as not to embarrass those who are guilty, though I don’t know why.) I took it with the promise from the client that related projects would pay…
Going to the Vet
Today I start work with a new client – ongoing work. Can you hear me cheering loudly? My goal has always been to work with at least two ongoing clients. Amen that I replaced the last one whose budget dried up. This work, for now, will be steady and lucrative. Travis brought up an interesting…
An Open Letter
Dear Clients Who Want Me to Work for Nothing: How do I say this? You know when you hired me you were getting the best possible writing out of me. I wouldn’t give anything less. But lately I’ve had something on my mind, something that’s uncomfortable to bring up, but I can’t ignore it. Clients,…
Upping Your Game
If you regularly work the $1-an-article jobs, ignore this post. Better yet, leave freelancing and get a “real” job that pays minimum wage – you’ll be light years ahead of the game and we won’t have to keep preaching to one more person why that kind of “work” is sucking the life out of journalism….
Plagiarism Explained
The ad read: “Seeking a writer to create 12 business start-up how-to articles. Articles target couples thinking of starting a business together, explaining everything from picking the right business to marketing and more. Articles should be approx. 3 pages in length.” I applied. The response came. It read:“These projects pay $6 per page (approx. 420…
Funky Town
I’m in a funk today. When work is completed and the desk is thin with more work, I get like this. But I’m not going to dwell on it because it’s boring. Keeping it short today. I saw my parents over the weekend and my mom was relating a story about someone from her class….