Writing-World - the site for freelance writers

Learning how to say "no" to freelance writing jobs

As a freelance writer, one of the hardest things I've had to learn is how to say "no" to more work when I have too much on my plate already.

It happened again today: a client called with a huge copywriting project they wanted me to work on for them, but I already have deadlines coming out of my ears (not literally), so I was forced to turn them down. Then I got to spend the rest of the day regretting it and thinking, "Maybe I could have squeezed it in if I'd just given up eating and sleeping for a few days.."

The problem is that when you're starting out as a freelance writer, the clients tend to be few and far between, so the temptation is to take on every single one of them. For one thing, you probably need the money, and for another, there's always that fear that if you let them go to someone else, they'll never come back.

Even as your client list (and bank account) grows, though, it's still hard to turn down offers of work. No matter how busy you are, that nagging voice in your head will remind you that, sure, you may have lots of work now, but what about next month? And the month after? What if it all dries up and you're left twiddling your thumbs and playing Facebook Tetris all day long. Won't you regret not taking on that extra project you turned down?

Well, yes and no. Money is always nice, of course, but there comes a point in your freelance life when you have to accept that you just can't do everything. When that time comes it's a matter of working out  where you want your writing career to take you, and what kind of sacrifices you might have to make to get you there. You have to work out which projects are the highest earners/the best long-term bets or the most likely to open other doors for you. Those are the jobs you should keep. The rest? Well, those may have to take a back seat, at least for a while...

There's another reason, too, for turning down clients, though. If you're really overworked, and would be genuinely struggling to find time for the latest project, the chances are you won't be able to give it the time and energy it deserves. In that case, you really should say "no", and let it go to someone who'll be able to do it justice. 

Proofreading & Editing clients: Why do they always lie about their wordcounts?

Two of the services we offer are proofreading and copyediting. To be perfectly honest, they're my least favourite tasks, so they're not services I promote very hard. Nevertheless, every now and then someone will contact me looking for a quote - and almost without exception, they will lie about the amount of text they need to have proofread/edited.

It happened again this morning. I answered the phone to find a woman on the other end who had two articles she wanted to have edited. She tried very hard to get me to give her a quote for this over the phone, making me explain over and over again that I'd really need to see the documents in question before I could give her an estimate.

The reason for this, of course, is simple. I charge by the hour, and while some copyediting jobs are straightforward, with only a minimal amount of changes required, some clients send me large swathes of text that are barely comprehensible, and which require a considerable amount of time and skill to untagle and turn into something resembling English.

"Oh, these are very short, though," my caller insisted. "Only about 200 words each. They won't take you very long at all, so surely you can give me an estimate?"

Dealing with rude people

If there’s one thing I really can’t stand in life, it’s rudeness.

A few years ago, when I was trying to pay my way through university, I worked weekends in a call centre. Almost every call was from someone with a problem, and almost every “someone” who called was rude, abusive and sometimes even threatening to me. Someone even asked me what I looked like one, so that he could “send the boys round” to “deal” with me when I finished work. It was that kind of job.

Throughout all of this, the one thing that kept me sane was the knowledge that one day I’d work for myself, and from that day forth I’d never have to deal with rude people anymore. I’d be my own boss, and if I didn’t want to deal with someone, I wouldn’t have to. I couldn’t wait.

Well, that day came, and, to my disgust, I’m still dealing with rude people on an almost daily basis. Sometimes it’s mild stuff, like the people who send me emails to tell me that my website is “not working”, without so much as a “hello” (or, indeed, proper punctuation), and don’t bother to either tell me what the problem is, or thank me when I fix it for them. Those kind of people make me roll my eyes, sure, but they don’t make me want to gouge them out with a sharp instrument rather than have to deal with them.

That reaction is reserved for the really rude people – like the lovely lady who’s been sending me emails for the past few days now, screaming at me in all caps about the difficulties she’s having regsitering for the site (difficulties which, I might add, lie not with my website but with her own paypal account). The emails are illiterate, rude, and, quite frankly embarrassing.

It’s hard to know how to deal with people like this. I could, of course, give her instructions on how to contact paypal’s technical support, although she has indicated an unwillingness to do this. I could offer her an alternative form of payment. I could do that.

The fact is, though, that I don’t want this woman’s business. To be brutal, she’s what I call a toxic client: someone who’s more trouble than they’re worth. If she does sign up for the site, I know she’ll cause trouble from the get-go. I don’t think she’ll be able to navigate the members-only area, and there will surely be more rudeness as a result. Would you allow someone to shout at you for the sake of $10?

But here’s the problem: I don’t want to be rude myself, and there’s no really polite way to say to someone “I wouldn’t deal with you if you paid me”. So what to do?

The strange thing about all of this, is that the person who’s been sending me these emails is actually an established freelance writer. You’d think she’d know better. I can only hope she manages to keep the rudeness reigned in when she’s dealing with clients and editors…

A Lesson Learned

Today I received a rather smug email from some random person who had happened upon the website of one of my clients, and wanted to point out to me the multitude of spelling errors on it. She had clearly found the website through my portfolio, had identified me as the author of the text, and, therefore, the author of the errors. These, she gleefully informed me, were numerous.

She wasn’t wrong. When I looked at the site I almost threw up. These weren’t just typos - even basic words were spent incorrectly, the grammar was all over the place, the copy was completely unrecognisable from what I had submitted. This, I found, was for a very good reason: it wasn’t the copy I had submitted.  (Cue huge sigh of relief).

This particular client is someone I dealt with quite some time ago. The site owner was very “hands on” – constantly adding new pages to his site, changing things around, playing around with the design, layout, and, it transpires, the copy. At some point along the line he had messed with the homepage text to such an extent that it was barely literate. And thanks to the link in my portfolio, it was all credited to me.

Horrified wasn’t the word. I quickly replied to my random emailer, explaining that this text was not produced by me, and begged Terry to remove the link from my portfolio. A valuable lesson has been learned, though: if you write for the web, make sure you keep an eye on the sites you’ve written for so that if the owner decided to introduce errors into your text, you’re no longer associated with it.

And pay attention to the smug randoms who delight in pointing out typos!

A Question of Copyright or 'How to Get Paid'

Today was a big day over at our sister site, Custom-Copy.com. We got paid. We didn't just get paid for any old job, though - oh no. Today, after over three months of waiting, we finally received the payment we'd all but given up on, from our worst customer ever. Here's how we did it – and how you can avoid finding yourself in the same situation.

First of all, I have to hold my hands up and admit to making a huge mistake with this client. You see, this was a small project: just one web content article, for a well known website owned by someone I "knew" online, having spoken to him many times on a business forum we both frequent. While I'd normally request payment upfront for this type of work, the client was well known to me, and had worked with one of my other clients with no apparent problems, so, as a mark of good faith, and in hopes of turning one article in repeat business, I told him I'd be happy to take payment upon completion. Big mistake. Huge.

The client, of course, agreed immediately to this no-risk offer, and the article was duly completed and accepted. A few days later, it appeared on the website it had been written for and I submitted an invoice.

Time passed. I submitted a second invoice, then a third. No response. A fourth invoice generated a "sorry, I'll pay this today", but, needless to say, no payment materialised. By now, of course, I was starting to feel just a little bit annoyed. The fee in question was a relatively small one, but I'd done the work, and it had been accepted. So why wasn't I getting paid?