Comments on: Freelance Writing Jobs for Thursday, September 11, 2008

By: Niki

Niki — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:26:17 +0000

I’m with Steve M. I’d like to know if the EBSCO job is work-at-home.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:52:34 +0000

@ Fiona and Sabrina: I “ditto” Tish’s question on EBSCO!

@ Ann G: Good luck with the intransigent client. I hope you get paid soon!

By: JuliaJolie

JuliaJolie — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:04:19 +0000

Hmm…this is likely just me sounding childish, but I wonder if the EBSCO job would consider someone in their final year of undergrad?…

By: Steve M.

Steve M. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:38:58 +0000

I was wondering if the EBSCO job is telecommute? It says the location is MA, but is that just where the office is located?

By: Tish Davidson

Tish Davidson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:36:37 +0000

@ Fiona and Sabrina

What is the pay like for EBSCO? From the ad it sounds like you might end up putting in a lot of hours reading. Is the compensation reasonable for the time you put in?

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:28:33 +0000

@Ann: Best of luck getting what you are owed. I’ve been in the same position with a client, them not returning emails or phone calls. Apparently they sent me a check last week, so I’m hoping things have turned around. Still, I’m not going to do any work for them until the checks have cleared the bank!

@Fiona: I work for EBSCO too and they are fantastic. That check is always prompt!

@Jodee: Thanks, as always!

By: Kenna

Kenna — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:40:21 +0000

Thanks for the posts!!! Have a wonderful day everyone — keep writing!

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:34:39 +0000

@Phil – that’s happened to me too. I wrote for Sidestep Travel for a year and was just given a new line of articles to do for a higher hourly rate. A month later, not only hadn’t they paid me, but they’d apparently sold the company to Kayak without notifying anyone – even their own in-house staff. I did finally get my money from that.

I think the same might be true with a magazine I’ve been writing for. They hired me on to do book reviews, and shortly after my editor was laid-off. I’m still with them, but the books they send me are now coming every month instead of every two weeks, so I figure my time is limited.

Another issue I’ve recently dealt with was an employer who announced they need more money to market their site and were, therefore, asking all of their freelance employees to agree to a 50% pay cut. It was a commission job where I got 60% of all sales and they got 40%. They wanted me to accept 30% and they would get 70%. I wouldn’t agree and on Sept. 1st, they removed access to my account. That’s a $400 loss per month for me, but I’m glad I stuck with it. In the end, I’ve found another site who will host the same product giving me 80% of all sales.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:15:27 +0000

One of the first signs there will be trouble with a client is when payments start getting later, so be careful. Not the only indicator though. I wrote for a pub for 9 years, and publisher increased my pay — without me asking, and shortly thereafter closed the doors (I was paid everything I was owed).

By: Genesis

Genesis — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:26:38 +0000

Ann, I would definitely not do any further work until they pay you. Maybe send them an email with that in it . . . just to let them know they can`t expect to ignore you and still get work done.

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:22:43 +0000

Thanks Jodee!

Proofreading “long legal disclaimers.” That even sounds tedious. I’ve been proofreading court depos and some of those are bad enough that legal disclaimers sound terrifying!

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:10:09 +0000

Jodee – thanks for the leads.
I work for EBSCO on a different project and they are wonderful to work with.

By: Jodee

Jodee — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:01:18 +0000

@ Ann G: That link should be working now.

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:56:08 +0000

@Marlene- That’s what I think. By not paying me or at least letting me know what’s going on, they’ve already opted to disregard the contract. So until I have money, I’m going to start looking for a replacement for them and hope that they get back in touch ASAP.

By: Marlene

Marlene — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:44:03 +0000

Ann,

That stinks! I just opted out of a contract for that reason. I worked with a company as a writer/editor for 10 years and the checks came later and later. The last one took 8 months before I got paid! It was regular work at times, but like you said, I couldn’t keep to a budget when I never knew when the paycheck was coming in!

I hope it works out. I think if they are ignoring your communications you have every right to hold off on completing the work.

By: Ann G.

Ann G. — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:09:42 +0000

Thanks, Jodee.

First, the ad for the Proofreader for Ogilvy isn’t linking up.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m having one of those rough start mornings. Back to school meant back to cold season, so I have been battling the first cold to circulate through the school.

Then on top of that, two of my employers have opted to not pay me on time. One is usually a few days late anyway, so I expected it. The other bothers me more. They moved me up to a manager of their marketing division a month ago. It’s been two weeks since I’ve heard a word from them. They don’t answer their phones or email and haven’t paid me for the past two weeks. So now I’m stuck in that can’t pay all the bills limbo because they haven’t paid me. My contract states I need to search and write up the ad text for a certain number of accounts per week, but now I’m hesitant to do so because I’ve not been paid.