Carol Tice
http://www.caroltice.com
http://Twitter.com/TiceWrites

I don’t know that I wouldn’t subcontract anymore – but I will be more cautious in how the arrangement is set up: with clear conditions and expectations for both parties.

Good luck to us both right? ;-D

One thing I’ve learned from this – subcontracting work just isn’t something I want to stay in. There is one person I do subcontract work for and she’s been great for the three years I’ve known her. I’ll stick working for her, but I won’t bother taking on any additional subcontract work. I’ll stick to writing for websites that are under development.

Long story short, I helped out another writer last summer, quoted a low price so I could just get the monthly bills paid and am still collecting the money from her.

When I decided to get tough and enlist the help of Angela Hoy, she got mad. She has done all sorts of nasty things including telling me that my writing was bad, she had to rewrite it and a slew of other things. The thing is the whole time I wrote for her – whenever I completed a batch, she asked if I wanted more. The work I did for her was worth at least $700 but I am only trying to collect $171… In eight months she never told me her “true” opinion of my work until I started asking questions about the change in payment arrangements.

I wouldn’t have done the rewrites. Unlike you, I have all the original work I did – and most was easily found online – in my words. I also saved our correspondence too. I’m not letting this drop. Angela Hoy has posted it to Whispers and Warnings and I have it on my blog as well. People who have a change of heart or mind months after the fact… that’s on them. You are not responsible for it.

Yes, it was unreasonable for them to ask for this two months after the fact, but it does happen. I had a magazine do something similar to me a few years ago. Gave me a hurry up assingment week of July 4, when few people are around to interview. I nevertheless completed it, though only with industry consultants and no bankers (called several contacts I had built up over 10 years, none were available that week).

They sat on article for three weeks. If I hadn’t gone to an Internet cafe while on vacation to clean up e-mail, that would have been that. But there was an urgent message that more bank sources were needed. This was sent late on a Wednesday (so day was over for all intents and purposes), and revised copy was due Friday. So a family visit to the headwaters of the Mississippi involved going there, dashing across it and heading back. They liked the revised copy, paid me for it, but never gave me another assignment.

Gone through similar Herculean efforts to please editors at last minute, with no give back on their part regarding future work.

I probably would have done what you did, but would stipulate in the future some type of parameters for revisions. In the future, it may also be worthwhile to ask if they have a kill fee, which would be less than the orginal amount, but would let you retain something for work done and make it a little more palatable to drop it and enjoy the vacation without putting other clients on hold.

Life has been keeping me busy however I do stop by daily to view job postings and to read the comments. I do appreciate everything you do here, and the leads that Jodee finds for us. I would not be part time freelancing if it weren’t for this site. Most of my paying work has been from FWJ.

Thank you for this site and the community.

@Mary – I do have a rewrite policy but never thought I’d need to put a time limit on it. So obviously I need to add that now. After 3 years freelance writing for money, I’ve never had someone come back more than a week later looking for edits.

Here’s how things turned out. I wish now I hadn’t rewritten them. Turns out she was using them not to meet her goals as a contractor but because she’s re-selling them as PLR content. She’s had them up for sale since the end of March, so if they really needed rewriting, she never would have put them up for sale. I’ve drafted my letter to Paypal now and plan to charge her for the rewrites knowing this information.

I have to say, I’ll never do business with this site again. If anyone would like her name and her business name I’d be happy to share privately so that you can avoid the same hassle. My email is dhf7230@yahoo.com

Again, thanks to all the advice. I’m off to enjoy another beer and then go out with my brother for a nice dinner out!

My 2 cents–if they were approved and you were paid and now 2 months have passed, you should be getting an additional fee to rewrite them. And you shouldn’t let her threats of making you return the money scare you, she’s just bullying you into getting rewritten articles for free! Institute a clear policy for acceptance & rewrites. Having said that, I know how you feel about getting it off your mind so you can enjoy yourself, too, but I’d definately give preference to deserving clients who you want to come back!

@Deb–should we be writing you friendly letters so you have something nice to post?

I have a suspicion that there are enough people who do like this place that you will be blogging for a long time to come.

I ended up talking to my other “bosses” and asking for delays. The person who subcontracted me this job demanded I do the rewrites or give her the money she paid me for these 10 and 40 other articles that she submitted, I’m assuming without proofreading since she says she now has her “experts” looking them over. I still don’t get how she thinks she can demand the money back when she should have edited them, and they are nothing like the vague “write whatever you want” assignment to start.

Rather than deal with this hassle any longer, I opted to rewrite them today and then work this weekend instead on the higher paying projects. I want to have FUN in Maine and having something like this weighing on the back of my mind just wasn’t an option anymore.

I had a client who asked for changes to a few articles, despite the fact that they were written exactly as requested (the client even agreed they were). After making the changes as he requested, he asked me to scratch them and start all over again.

I politely told him that I would have to be paid an additional fee for the rewrites, as I had already provided him with what he had requested – TWICE. He actually agreed that I had done what he asked for, but still wanted rewrites for free.

I stuck to my guns. Since I had won this project through a bid board, I took a bit of a hit on my feedback, but I can afford one score that’s not a perfect 10. ( :

I also hire writers for some of my clients, so I can see things from your client’s POV. Once I approve the work from the writer, however, I feel it is my responsibility to make changes if the client is unhappy. If I am uncertain about whether or not the client will be happy, I let the writer know that I will be waiting on feedback from the client.

I also always make sure the writer gets paid, regardless of how things turn out between me and the cient. Recently, I had one client that subcontracted to me. She approved the article, but the client “changed his mind” and decided he didn’t want it, so I didn’t get paid. Unfortunately, it was a very specific article for a product, so I can’t even try to submit it to AC to try to get at least a little bit of money for my efforts. In my opinion, my arrangement was with my client and she still should have paid me. It is up to her to work things out with her client in order to receive payment. If he doesn’t pay her, she should take the hit. That is the risk she takes when she subcontracts work to other writers. That is the philosophy I use when I subcontract work – my writers always get paid even if I don’t.

Anyway, I guess I got a little off topic! ( :

You rock, Deb! Keep up the great work.

To me this sounds like an entirely separate writing gig: meaning you can choose whether or not to take the job, and meaning you should get paid for redoing the articles. Unless you are under some obligation or contract that says you have to rework articles without pay, I don’t understand why you should have to do all the work again for free when it was already accepted. This may be a situation where you have to stick to your guns and not be taken advantage of. Who is to say she won’t want yet another rewrite if you rework your articles?

You could decide to take up the job after vacation, and let her know you’ll make time for it then-if you still want to work for her, that is.

Hey…a girl can dream.

I just have to think of how to make you work for it.

I always thought that’s what a successful blogger did. Apparently Joe Blow thinks differently.

By the way, I adore a good cheeseball…especially with some of those buttery butterfly shaped crackers.

I would politely explain to the individual that you have a full workload at the moment and as you had already received final approval and payment for those articles, you’ll have to decline the rewrite at this time. If you’re like me and would feel a little guilty about it, despite the fact that there is nothing to feel guilty about, then I would see if they have time to wait as other projects have immediate deadlines.

However, I’m of the opinion that if they wanted the articles a specific way then they should have made that clear up front and not given you approval. It does seem a little unreasonable to expect revision after two months.

Incidentally, I think you would be better suited to purchase an external hard drive to store your hard copies on. I imagine that filing them away in folders through your email can be tedious when something like this arises. It really would save you time and they’re not terribly expensive.

At any rate, I for one love this board. On occasion there are things people say that I don’t agree with, but I think the diversity is what really makes this board work. I have also enjoyed the friendly, good-nature of most of the readers and the willingness to help others. All in all, this is a great blog Deb and I appreciate all that you do, and what you must put up with to do it!

Great advice out there today, guys! Hope YOU’RE (let me make sure I get this right for the nitpicker in the third row ) all having a wonderful Friday with great plans for the weekend!

Cheers!

In re: to the first email, I agree that there are some jobs you just know are the right fit. It helps to know what your strengths are.

I wrote a batch of articles back in early February. I was paid since then and was told they were fine by the person who hired me to write them. Turns out she was sending the articles to someone else who now wants them all rewritten. She wanted the articles from a “for” standpoint and I wrote them from an “against” standpoint as that is how I felt. Had she said this to start with, I wouldn’t be in this situation.

First, I no longer have the original files, once I’ve waited four weeks and have not heard anything, I copy and paste them to emails and store them in Yahoo where they don’t take up room on my computer. So I’ll have to go in and copy and paste and then reformat everything.

Additionally, I have a full workload now. I don’t have time to rewrite all ten of these now and am about to head on vacation on top of it.

I’m curious on what others think – is it reasonable to ask for edits two months later after approval has been given and payment has been submitted?