Words on the Page

Tuesday Take: When to Pull the Plug on a Freelance Project

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Incomplete and Insecure by The Avett Brothers A good start to the week. I got a project finished, got some marketing in, took care of some unfinished business, and had a call with a colleague. That last item was eye-opening. The colleague and I have had dealings with the same client. In…

Free Advice Friday: This Job, Not That Job

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Dazz by Brick You who know me know how much I don’t enjoy passive marketing (such as spending most of one’s time on job boards). And I loathe cheapskates who don’t value what we freelance writers do. That must mean it’s time for another installment of our series, This Job, Not…

Freelance Writer’s Ethical Guide

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Jungle Love by Morris Day and The Time I had a conversation yesterday with a writer friend who shares similar opinions. In fact, if I want to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t share my opinion, I’d rather it be in person. Too many people out there with keyboard muscles. In…

Keeping Politics Out of Your Freelance Writing Business

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Hardliners by Holcombe Waller I get to play today! Jenn Mattern and I have a date to do some collaborative projects, and I get to sit in her comfy chair and love up her dog and cats. I love freelance writing. 🙂 Yet because we work with a variety of people and…

The Kick-Ass Freelance Writing Business List

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: California by The Airborne Toxic Event Tired of reading one more post about launching a freelance writing business? You should be. There are scores of them, and it’s as though every one of them is the result of one more person copying off another person’s paper. There’s nothing new being said….

How to Failure-proof Your Writing Business

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Shape of You by Ed Sheeran Here we are in the second full week of 2017. How are those resolutions going? That badly? Maybe it’s because resolutions don’t come with anything measurable. It’s easy to say “I’m going to lose weight this year!” It’s tougher to actually plan it. It’s not…

How a Shift in Attitude Changed My Freelance Writing Business

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m listening to: Heathen by twenty one pilots We’re four days into 2017 and already the possibilities are encouraging. Some easy marketing has netted some scheduled follow-up calls, and the calendar is filling quickly. There’s potential on the horizon. There’s also a shift in my own attitude, one that was small, but one that…

Solitaire

I had a client who got angry and lashed out at me over an email that she took the wrong way. Now, my default reaction is, if someone in the room is angry, it must be my fault — so I looked very closely for whatever I may have contributed to the conflict. I concluded that if I had the email to do over again, I would have changed “I plan to do XY&Z” to “with your approval, I propose doing XY&Z.” It was an issue that we had discussed in passing, and I expected she would need to be persuaded about XY&Z.

But while I’ll own that little piece of it, her email reply started with that sentence and went on to attack me on two other matters, flinging wild accusations, and saying essentially that we could do things her way or we could “reconsider” my contract. It was one of the angriest, most threatening emails I’ve ever received from someone I had met face to face.

Here’s the reply I wish I had sent: “You have misunderstood my intent, and your reaction is grossly disproportionate to the imagined offense. I will do as you instruct, of course.”

Instead, I fell all over myself apologizing. The gig paid pretty well, and there was some possibility of it turning into a full-time job, so I spent the rest of the project trying to get back into her good graces. I should have realized the well was poisoned. We eventually parted on nominally cordial terms, but even though the gig was important to me professionally, I hesitate to cite it with potential clients or employers.

I wish the story had a happy ending. Here’s my best shot: I’ve learned (again) not to let myself be bullied. Yay me.

1. lwidmer
  
  Solitaire, that would have been a good response. Alas, like me, you fell into the emotional trap. And you’ve pointed out the most important lesson to anyone going through this — “the well was poisoned” once the falling out occurred. Even if she had forgiven you, I doubt she would be able to forget her own unprofessional behavior. And you’d be the reminder of her own indiscretion.
Paula Hendrickson

That sounds just like my nightmare client of a year ago. In my case, everything about the assignment was in writing and I followed the client’s guidelines to the letter. I even ran all potential sources past her before scheduling interviews. She liked and okayed most of them, and offered alternate sources for others.

In early October I turned in my copy, asking the client to let me know if she needed changes. She replied that they almost always have “tweaks” so not to be worried if they ask for a revision, something they almost always do.

No further word from her until December 22 or 23, when I was out of town for the holidays. She sent me the edited copy which retained quite a bit of my writing, plus notes saying certain sources weren’t of the caliber they required—no matter that she’d approved or suggested every single one of those sources. She told me to include something we’d already agreed to removed (because experts I’d spoken with said it wasn’t a real issue), so I told her a second time that her idea didn’t pan out, so she told me to add another point off the long list she’d originally provided, meaning yet another interview. She gave me 2-1/2 weeks to complete my revision, apparently forgetting it was the holidays an no one was in their offices, including me. Better yet, on the first or second business day of the new year she said she needed the revision by Friday—nearly a week earlier than she first said. I told her I’d do my best, to which she replied, “You led me to believe you were a professional.”

Really? What’s unprofessional about not over-promising you’ll somehow snag impossible interviews with virtually no notice?

Somehow I managed to round up new sources, do the interviews, rewrite the piece and turn it in on the new deadline. She replied “got it,” and nothing more.

Months passed. I kept checking for the piece to come out, but nothing. In late April someone from their office sent me papers to fill out so I figured it had finally been approved and I’d be paid. (They pay on acceptance.) One question was whether you expected to work with the company in the future; I marked “no” since I never want to deal with that dreadful woman again. I asked when my copy would run and they said, “Oh, didn’t she tell you? It was axed last month.” The controlling coward who needed my copy in such a rush that she cut almost a week off an already tight deadline sat on the copy for over four months before deciding not to use it, then never bothered to tell me. And she suggested I was less than professional. A few days later she emailed me saying, “Sorry. I thought someone told you. You’ll get a kill fee.” Someone?

The only way nightmare clients like these keep their jobs must be because so many freelancers take the blame. Like you, Lori, when two of the sources asked about it I gave them the short, honest answer: After getting all of the changes she requested, the client sat on the project several months before deciding not to use it.

It’s time to stop enabling bad clients.

1. lwidmer
  
  That right there, Paula — she had already approved the copy. That’s where your obligation (and frankly, mine with the project I’m describing above) ended.
  
  I suspect someone above her had said the sources she gave you weren’t up to snuff, but if she’s already signed off on the project, it’s no longer something you’re required to fix, particularly over a holiday week. That’s insane.
  
  In my case, I opted to fix what wasn’t broken instead of pointing out that no, they’d already approved and signed off on the project. And that the stated “offense” I was being accused of was neither unethical nor uncommon practice. But I tried to please. Like Solitaire says though, the well was already poisoned. The way this client talked to me, chastising me and acting as though I’d lit her house on fire, was proof that relationship was dead at that point.
  
  Like Solitaire, I found it to be a lesson in how to stand up for myself professionally. Funny how years later, we are still doing that.
Mary Schneider

Is it bad that I clicked on this one because of the song you were listening to?? I love Heathen, though I haven’t seen (and likely won’t see) the movie.

Mary