Notes from a Hired Pen: What Not to Do Right Now

Ladies & Gents:

I'm not sure why I even chose that gif except that I like Donald Duck, which comes up in the What I'm Watching portion of this newsletter.

Two housekeeping notes: 
1. My ebook, How I Made $135,000 in One Year of Freelancing is still just $5 with code STAYHOME. I'm going to leave that code active until N.J.'s non-essential travel ban is lifted. When will that be? Who knows!
2. Tomorrow at 7:30pm (east coast time), I'm doing a running seminar about running with Dr. Jordan Metzl. I'll have to do my hair for the occasion! 

Now, on with the show! It's two things I DO NOT want freelancers to do right now in trying to work through this pandemic:

1. Do not lower your rates. When pricing a job, give the rate you normally would. Or, bonus, ask for more! Just because a pandemic is on doesn't mean your labor is suddenly worth less. I've gotten three raises from clients this month. Money is there. Ask for it. Also, don't just email clients saying "hey I'll work for less" unprompted, and for heaven's sake don't offer to work for free. This is true during non-pandemic times too. Writing is work. You should be paid for it.

Of course this is tricker if a current client asks you to lower your rate, or says they're going to pay you less. 

So let's start with a clear cut response to a specific situation: you already agreed to a rate/scope on an assignment/project, and the client says they're going to pay you less. Nope! They can't just break a contract (and even if you don't have a contract, an email with the agreed rates stands in for that). A trick I use to figure out if what I'm doing is right: if a plumber wouldn't find the action acceptable, you shouldn't either. Would your plumber be OK with you suddenly saying "you know, things are weird right now so I'm just going to knock $500 off the price I'm paying you" while he or she was still working replacing your cracked sewer pipe? Absolutely not. You're a plumber of words. Act like one.

A fuzzier situation: a client says they're cutting rates across the board for future work. I would either move on, or write for them less often, but I also can afford to make that move, and I know that's not the case for everyone. If you decide to stay for now, do everything you can to find another client to replace that work, even if you like the editor, like the writing, etc. etc. Because suddenly paying writers less is a huge red flag that the client is in trouble. If they go bankrupt, you'll be waiting in line for your money along with all of their other creditors, if there's anything left to give creditors at all.

2. Do not let clients slide on payment. See the situation above. Dragging out payment timelines is also a red flag. You know who knew Rodale was in trouble before they put themselves up for sale? The writers. They slid from paying within 30 days to 75 days and expected us to be OK with it. I got a lawyer involved and never wrote for them again. Yes this meant firing Runner's World – that sucked! But I was spending so much time chasing money. I was putting more hours into the overall timeline from pitch to payment for each story, which meant the per hour rate had dropped pitifully low. And then they dropped their rates again and that just confirmed things for me (Rodale was bought by Hearst).

So as soon as a payment is late, follow up. It may just be an oops. It happens! A regular client of mine was late on two invoices but then paid one I'd just submitted. I asked about the late ones. It turned out it was a paperwork snafu and they paid the late invoices immediately. But late payments could be a sign of something worse. Also pay attention to the news about which companies are laying off or furloughing employees. You need to protect yourself in case a client goes under. You should be marketing all the time anyway, but if you sniff trouble, ramp it up.

It's a scary time out there, on so many levels. But you don't need to roll over on general business practices just because there's this grand idea that all freelancers are in trouble right now. A lot of publishers will use this to the advantage and try to treat you like dirt. It doesn't need to be this way. Chin up, kids. Be the plumber. Stick up for yourself. You got this.

Recent Bylines
"Neighbors Not Practicing Social Distancing? Here's What to Do" for The New York Times 
"An Olympic Runner's New Training Partner" for The New York Times

What I'm Reading

Until Next Time,
Jen A. Miller
jenamiller.com
runningalovestory.com
twitter.com/byjenamiller
instagram.com/jenamillerrunner