The lesson here, my gentle colleagues, is that as freelancers, we owe it to ourselves to get *everything* in writing. And if we don’t like the original terms of a contract…negotiate. Contracts are made to be changed. If you make what you believe are vital changes to a contract, and the client doesn’t approve – move on. There are other, bigger, fish in that sea who will be more than happy to apply your talent, and pay you accordingly.

Thanks to Deb for providing so many *honest* outlets where we can ply our talents; and Greetings and Salutations to all my fellow writers.

To our success and continued education…

Good luck with Laray Carr.

Yes it’s offical I wrote several articles for Laray Carr and have yet to see a penny for my August work and probably will not. I sent an e-mail only to have come back and to be sent to someone else handling the account. The thing is they will probably sell my articles and they will be used somewhere.
Live and Learn.

Now maybe they got permission, but in my thinking if they’d really interviewed her, they would have had a photographer on hand to take a current picture.

http://www.glowhost.com/hall-of-shame/

@Micah> I hope that’s really true. I reall do wish on everyone’s behalf that everything turns out well.

By the way, I posted on my own blog about the LCP situation, and I thought you guys might be interested. You can see it here.

Anyway, thanks to Deb for directing our attention to this thread of comments. I read the post and comments on Writer Beware shortly after it was posted, but hadn’t been back since. I find it very interesting that Hope posted and then deleted her comments. Even more interesting to me is the claim that the website is not live yet because they are not paying the designers. Will the same thing happen when it comes time to pay the writers? Who knows……..

We had a thread a while back about confidence, and you’re right that this is the best weapon against scams. I hadn’t thought of that before, but you make an excellent point. Perhaps that’s what we need to do here more than anything else!

Always ask to see their contract, what rights they are purchasing and what rates they are paying. Companies on the level respect your business sense and will get right back to you with answers to your questions.

Usually a scammer doesn’t even reply to this request because they certainly don’t want to deal with any writers who are too smart to be scammed. And, of course, their “no response” is all the answer you need to know to run the other way.

Also, never and I mean NEVER write pieces up front about their requested subject matter. This is a typical scam to get free work. If it is just a “test” to see your writing skills, then ANY topic can do that. It doesn’t have to be a piece on a topic specific to their site.

Actually, I never, ever send free work. I refer them to other work I have online and to my clips but that’s it.

In all my years writing, I have never had a reputable company ask for samples. They have looked at what I already have and made their decision to hire me on those pieces.

If the newer writers would just realize that if you are a good writer, you will get the work. It may not happen overnight, heck it definitely WON’T happen overnight, but it will happen. Be patient, stick to your guns, and don’t give you talent away for free or for pennines a word….aren’t you worth more than that?

Hey, Deb, that might be something we could talk about in the future. I thought I knew what to look for to protect myself from scams, but maybe not. Do you have any tips or discussion threads about that?

Thanks,
Eun Jung

But let’s not get into that. Let’s just hope that the writers get paid.