On the Job
On the Job
As we've already stated, you should have a contract in place to spell out rates, scope, and payment terms of the document or project you will be working on. One very simple rule you should always follow is this: don't go into a job without having a signed contract in place. The contract should specifically lay out how much you will be paid for your work, exactly what work you will be expected to do, and the expected duration of the project. It should also stipulate that costs are bound to change if the client changes what he or she wants you to do. The client would not appreciate it if you changed the terms of the agreement mid-project, but you wouldn't like it either.
You can find templates for contracts virtually anywhere, but as with any Internet search, you want to be sure that you are getting quality information. Narrow your search down to a few specific websites that provide consistent information, and write your contract based upon this information. Your local library is no doubt full of books on freelance work and starting your own business; entire guides are out there that provide guidelines for legal documents. But we cannot stress this enough: outline every contingency in your contracts. This will take some trial and error, but we'll have a few suggestions later on that should help you deal with potentially problematic situations.
You will certainly want to outline copyright and acknowledgement issues at the contract stage of your relationship with a new client.
If your job is strictly editing or proofreading, copyright considerations generally aren't an issue, as the author or institution producing the material will likely retain all rights. If you end up doing any writing, or even think that you might, it's worth discussing rights before you start work. A publication will probably have a complex range of rights up for negotiation. Most other organizations will offer only a work-for-hire type contract for writing assignments (that is, you are writing for them and give up all rights to the work). In some situations, work-for-hire will be perfectly acceptable, as you are not likely going to want to (or even be able to) resell the article you wrote on P32 Model 6vA widgets. In other cases, you'll have to consider your options and your long-term goals.
If getting credit for your work as an editor is important, you'll want to add that to the negotiations too. But if you write advertising copy for a large company, either as a full-time employee or as a freelancer, you want to be able to use the work you produce as an example should you begin to shop elsewhere for a job. So even if you must sign away the rights to what you create, it is always a good idea to ensure that you can at least retain the right to use the content in your portfolio of work.
There are always going to be times when we have to work with someone we don't want to work with, either because of the client's personality or because of the work involved. Bad situations are few and far between, but each time they happen, you'll have to consider your short- and long-term goals.
Clients wouldn't be clients if they didn't ask for the occasional discount on rates or perhaps a bit more work than originally specified. When this happens, you'll have to weigh a few factors. First, how valuable is this client to you? Did you work a long time to land him or her? Do they provide steady work? Do they provide easy work? Is this behavior a one-time incident because they are stressed over the current project? If you answered yes to any of these, you should consider whether the odd compromise now and then would be worth it.
However, if the client is exceptionally demanding all the time or otherwise is consistently giving you major headaches because they simply don't want to pay what you are asking, you might want to carefully note this and attempt to negotiate better terms of engagement. Failing this, find work elsewhere.
In either case, be cautious in how you proceed. Always remain professional, and attempt to negotiate before trying anything else. If that doesn't work, do all you can to part ways amicably, even if it means eating some costs or resisting the urge to write an angry retort (or two, or three). In an era of social media and search engines, you will want to avoid burning bridges and earning bad online reviews, since this will hinder your ability to find new clients.
This one doesn't have so much to do with problem clients as problems with clients. One thing about working solo is that the entire business is your responsibility. You can't ask your trusty sidekick in the cubicle next to you to help you out with a project when such a person doesn't exist. So, you've gotten to the point where you have too much business? You have several options.
The first thing you can do is work longer hours. This is probably the easiest solution to the problem. Get up an hour earlier, and quit an hour later. Better yet, get up two hours earlier, take a longer break in the afternoon, and work two hours later. Break up your day. As long as you don't keep long hours for weeks at a time, you should be able to effectively "put the pedal to the metal" for a little while.
Failing this, your next option is to work faster. Sometimes this is a viable option. After all, we each have those unnecessary tasks that we carry out each day more for our pleasure than for work purposes. Maybe we take an extra five minutes checking our email or reading the news (or, admit it, looking at Facebook and Twitter). These kinds of activities, while not terribly distracting in moderation, can be excised in order to provide a little more work time. Close the door to your home office, put on some motivating music you can ignore, brew a pot of tea or coffee, and get to work. Keep a couple of pieces of fruit around to curb your hunger so that you can work for longer periods of time. Take five-minute breaks every hour, making sure to leave your office and go for a short walk around the block or even just around your yard or apartment building. Go back to your desk and refocus for another hour.
Remember that you don't want to burn yourself out or turn in subpar work, as both of these will poison your relationship with your client (not to mention what it does for your health and sanity). Thus, your final option is to turn down work. Obviously, this is a last resort. No one wants to lose business. If you are going to turn work down, make sure that you avoid turning down old clients. If a new client approaches you and you are completely booked up, say to them, "You know, I'm totally booked right now and can't take on any more work. But I'm excited about the prospect of working with you. Why don't I give you the name of another editor I trust completely, and maybe you can come back to me with your next project." It's actually astonishing how many people are impressed if you are too busy to take on new work. After all, this implies that your work is of such a quality that everyone demands your services. And that's a good thing.
Sometimes people ask for the impossible. It is up to you, as the professional editor, to both know your abilities and manage client expectations as much as possible.
First, it is never wise to accept a job that you know you will struggle to finish on time under the best of circumstances. Not only do you risk doing below-standard work, but you also risk running afoul of Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Computers crash, power grids fail, flu bugs have a habit of sneaking up on you. Always factor these things in when considering a deadline, and make sure there's a margin for error.
Second, it's never acceptable to accept a deadline while planning to blithely watch it blow past and assume the client will somehow be okay with this. Maybe the client doesn't really need it by midnight, but then again, maybe they really do, for reasons unknown to you. If you agree that something can be done by a certain deadline, you'd better be true to your word.
Indeed, your best bet is to avoid deadline problems from the outset. Always ensure you fully understand the scope of the project you are taking on. Make sure you have all the relevant details from the client, and don't be afraid to ask lots of questions.
You should also do spot checks on the material you're going to edit. Don't just read the first page or two and assume the rest of the document will be as good. Authors typically start out writing well and then get progressively worse. Check random sections of the work to give yourself a realistic perspective on the work involved.
If the deadline required appears truly unmanageable, you have two options: negotiate a new deadline, or refuse the work. If a client asks, for example, for 40,000 words to be edited in two days, you will have to explain that such a job would not be possible for you, and then ask for four or five days (depending on your speed and the quality of the material). The client will either give you the time you need or say no . . . and if the latter, you will need to respectfully decline.
Related to unreasonable deadlines are clients that set no deadlines at all. Never accept a project without a deadline. This opens you up to a world of hurt. If there is no set deadline, the client can call you at any time and demand a finished product. And it makes it easy for you to put it on the back burner and ignore it for more immediate projects. Don't let this happen!
The average turn-around time for invoices is about sixty days. Some clients will cut a check almost immediately, and some clients will send the invoice through all the bureaucratic channels at their place of employment (which always takes more time). And some clients just don't pay on time or ever. This is, of course, a sad fact of life.
Lucky for you, non-payment doesn't happen that often. Most often, clients just need a friendly (and we do mean friendly) reminder to pay their invoice. You can determine which time frame you believe is best, but it's best to work in increments of fifteen days. If you haven't received payment at the forty-five day mark, send a gentle reminder. At sixty days, make a phone call and send a reminder. At seventy-five days, send a firm but friendly reminder and make another phone call. At ninety days, you need to begin to think about legal action. But no matter what, you always want to do things in a friendly manner. Even if you are delivering court papers, make sure that they understand that it's not personal (even if you are taking it personally). Maintain the upper hand and keep a cool head. They are the ones in the wrong, and you are exercising your legal rights.
Sometimes, no matter how awesome and incredible everyone else thinks your work is, someone will tell you that they don't like it. They may even ask for their money back (which is why you need to plan for this contingency in the contract). The following, we've found, is the best approach.
Explain your methods. It may just be that the client doesn't understand why you took a particular project in a particular direction. Once you explain your motivation, the client might be perfectly happy with what you have produced. It is often the case that clients themselves understand their projects less than you do.
Ask the client to specifically outline the problems with your work. Show an interest in their complaint and take an active part in understanding how to avoid any potential future problems. Who knows? Maybe their criticism will help you avoid making similar mistakes with similar future projects.
Don't go on the defensive. Stay professional. Even if the client attacks you personally (we'll talk about this situation in a moment), stay professional. If you ask for constructive criticism and keep the focus on the work and not on yourself personally, there is a much better chance that you will be able to retain this client.
This one is the hardest of all, but here it is: don't take it personally. Remember, you are the professional in this relationship, and you should always take the high road.
And indeed, you may find that keeping a cool head and calm demeanor actually turns a bad situation into a good one. For example, if you work on a grad student's dissertation, you might be on the receiving end of a complete meltdown at some point. The feedback might be something like: "This editor was the worst ever, I'm ruined! I cannot believe the subpar work I got back!" Your first instinct might be to snap back about the quality of the dissertation in the first place, but if you stay calm, and talk the student down, you may find that they eventually admit they were completely stressed out and the work was fine after all. And because you stayed calm, they appreciate you and recommend your work.
You can never be too nerdy![/caption] We need to end with one final word of caution. Don't get left behind! There are numerous websites that offer 100% FREE courses on HTML, JAVA, CSS, XHTML, and so on. You still have to pay to get certified, but the material you need to learn the languages is there.
Get familiar with Adobe products. Get to know Microsoft products. Buy a Mac and learn the platform, or just go to the Mac workstation every time you go to the library to ensure you at least can navigate through the operating system. And learn a few quirky (but useful) programs really, really well so that you can throw in an ace or two when the chips are down. It seems redundant and perhaps even silly to say this, but computers are the future. The more you know now, the more of an asset you will be to the client or company that hires you. Believe it!
Last Updated: 09/29/2022