In business, just as in dating and in friendship, there are some annoyances you can tolerate and others that have you running towards the express train to Splitsville. Today I’d like to discuss some of those deal-breakers.
I’ve chatted with several writers who refuse to sign work-for-hire agreements or contracts that include nasty indemnity clauses. Me? I like to avoid those pesky things when I can, but not when it means missing out a really amazing assignment. And when it comes to non-bylined or ghostwritten assignments (which some writers hate because it’s not part of their “platform”), I’m happy to tackle those as long as the check has my name on it.
Personally, I start pumping the brakes when I sense that someone is playing mind games. Recently I had an editor try to haggle on price after I’d signed the contract. “You can’t pay the amount we originally agreed upon? Then I can’t write this piece. Sayonara!” Or when the scope keeps changing to the point where it feels like I’m shooting at a moving target. “Call me when you figure out what you want.” This may sound harsh, but it’s all in the name of self-preservation. After all, editors earn a salary, but I get paid by the assignment. Extra haggling means extra time that could be spent on other projects.
What gets your blood boiling? When do you decide to walk away?
I'm sad to say that leaving my house has actually become one of my deal breakers. I have a lot of local clients, but I generally insist on having everything online and almost no actual meetings to manage the project. I'm even starting to get persnickety about phone conversations. I want every little bit in writing.
I decide to walk away if I don't feel like a good fit for the project. Usually this happens if I can't for the life of me figure out what the client wants or can't get the client to a happy place.
It's amazing how applicable so many of your posts are to my everyday life. I've had far and beyond more positive than negative experiences with my freelance career, but for the last two days I've had an editor hounding me with questions about photos to accompany a story. With each request I have to call the person I interviewed for the story (who has been extremely cooperative). Wouldn't it make sense for the editor to handle this? I've become so much more than simply the writer. It's a fun story, but the requests from the editor (who is in her mid 70s and a tough cookie, but for the most part pleasant) come across blunt in her e-mails.
Thanks, Susan.
Thanks, ladies!
@Laurie B.: I'm finding that more and more editors expect writers to deal with photos/issues. Normally I don't mind it when it's simply asking the sources to email photos, but when they don't have photos and it suddenly becomes my problem, I'm not so cool with that. I also have some online gigs where we're expected to resize photos to certain dimensions. I don't mind that so much either, but keeping track of "this website expects photos to be 400 x 400" and "this blog wants them to be 384 x 216" is a bit of a hassle!
I agree with Alisa – the only deal breaker for me is when there are multiple editors working on a piece and they don't know what they really want. (Or a single editor who doesn't know what he wants, even worse.) And of course, too low pay is a deal breaker, but I figure that goes without saying.
I actually disagree with Thursday Bram. I welcome the chance to get out of the house – once in a while – although I wouldn't want to commute for work on a daily basis.
Yes, what is with the photo thing? I love photography and don't mind doing it, but nowadays more and more editors want photographs included in the writing fee. Finding great photos or taking them is a huge time suck and should come at a price.
One thing that drives me crazy is doing all the work on a project, only to have the editor change the "direction" of the piece. Aargh. Or spending time interviewing an expert for the "perfect" opening paragraph, only to see that the editor has disregarded all the great quotes and reinserted her idea of an intro.