Freelance Writing Jobs for Tuesday, March 25, 2008

16 Responses to “Freelance Writing Jobs for Tuesday, March 25, 2008”

1. Ann G. Says:
   

   I saw that $10 late fee posting yesterday when I was out looking at ads. I’d never seen it before, but nothing surprises me anymore.

   And…I have the solution for your body by chocolate. We gave up running propane and have been using our woodstove exclusively. I forgot between teen-hood and adulthood how much work it is keeping a woodstove running. Between chopping kindling and running up and down the basement stairs every hour to check the fire and stove temperature, I’m exhausted! I’d be happy to let someone else take over for a while!

   March 25th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
2. Jodee Says:
   

   @ Ann G: My parents use a wood stove in the winter and I can appreciate how much work it is…I really have no (good) excuse for not going to the gym; it’s about five minutes away and it’s open 24 hours a day…

   March 25th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
3. Mary Ward Says:
   

   I guess we’re giving up on carrots and going straight for the sticks, then? A 10$ bonus might encourage me to make sure I’m on time, but I’m not sure I want to work for someone who assumes I’ll be late and penalizes me; but then again, there’s probably a lot of incidences to support such a policy…

   March 25th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
4. Erricka Says:
   

   When I click on “Please keep us going” to view the rest of the job listings, it takes me to a Paypal page that has Deb’s e-mail address. It looks like a promo for Paypal. Is anyone else getting this?

   March 25th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
5. Working Hard for the Money Says:
   

   I hate to say it, but I already know who you are talking about without looking at the ad. I worked for the person that penalized you $10 for turning work in late, and yes, he DID penalize me a couple of times. Of course, he also had me tied to my desk , constantly throwing ” urgent” work in my direction without additional monies received for the needed immediate writing. There was also a 24 hour turn-around time on all assignments ( you had 24 hours from the time stamp on the email received for your assignment), and there are many days where I had over 10,000 words to complete. Naturally, the assignment would come at various times throughout the day, so if I was out running errands and he sent me my assignment, there was a huge chunk of time that I could have been writing that was then lost. I brought this concern to him, to no avail. When I asked for time off at the holidays, I guess that did him in, since I never heard from him again. I thought that maybe his power was cut off or that his family member was ill, as he alluded to those items before when he did not respond quickly to my e-mails ( yet this was expected in return- go figure). Come to find out, he just decided to ignore me and essentially let me go, as I found him bidding on jobs through another online service. To top it off, I Googled his name, and found a lovely blog entry from someone he scammed over $1,000 dollars from and has yet to repay all of the money. I suppose that I was released while the getting was good. Live and learn…it was a horrible mistake for me, but I have certainly learned my lesson to not be a big fool again!

   March 25th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
6. Working Hard for the Money Says:
   

   Erricka,
   That’s the link where we can donate funds to Deb and Jodee for their hard work. Through PayPal, you can customize your saying for the PayPal link. In this instance, it’s “please help keep us going”. Hope this helps!

   March 25th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
7. tjwriter Says:
   

   Erricka,

   The please keep us going is a link to donations. The link to continue is up on the same line as the political gossip blogger job ad.

   I’m sure someone will be around to fix it.

   March 25th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
8. Tish Davidson Says:
   

   I have signed work for hire contracts that had a 10% penalty for work turned in more than 10 days after the due date, and work turned in more than 30 days late voided the contract. These tended to be long-term contracts with multiple due dates 3-4 weeks apart. I didn’t find this unreasonable. It is just like construction contracts where there are financial penalties for work completed late.

   Having also been on the editor’s side of things, I know that far too many freelancers treat deadlines as suggestions rather than true due dates, and some who agree to an assignment and then decide it is too time consuming, too hard, less important than another assignment, etc. simply decide not to complete the work, but don’t bother to tell the editor they are giving up the assignment. When I am wearing my editor’s hat, one reason that I am reluctant to work with NEW freelancers is that they tend to underestimate how much time and work a piece will take. Too many get discouraged and simply walk away, feeling that the editor has no hold over them, that they have little to lose, and that gee, maybe this freelancing stuff isn’t easy money after all. This behavior hurts the entire freelance community, and yet it is fairly common, especially among writers who hold other full-time jobs/time commitments and who have don’t depend on their writing income to pay the bills.

   Deadlines should be negotiable, (One of the comments above suggests that the person applying the penalty is demanding, not negotiating, deadlines that are unreasonable for writers), but once freelancer and employer agree to a due date, it should be honored, just as once freelancer and employer agree to a pay rate, it should be honored, with the only occasional, unusual, uncontrollable circumstance allowing a re-negotiation of either deadline or rate.

   So maybe the freelance community should take a look at some of its habits and accept some of the blame for employers feeling the need to institute penalties for lateness.

   March 25th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
9. Sherry Says:
   

   I just jumped through all the hoops for the registration necessary to apply for the Freelance Staff Writer in Provo/SLC position, and the recruiter’s email address isn’t functioning. Three different attempts bounced back to me. Just an FYI if anyone else is trying, too.

   Good luck!!!!

   March 25th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
10. Jodee Says:
    

    @ Tish: I have had a suspicion for some time that clients who appear to be difficult got that way because they were burned by a freelancer who didn’t complete their assignment or did something equally unprofessional.

    March 25th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
11. Kari Says:
    

    I worked for the $10 penalty guy, too. Insane amount of work for peanuts. There was no rhyme or reason to the assignments, which were on such a wide variety of topics that there was no way the work could be sufficiently researched or accurate. I lasted a month before I quit. I’ve heard a lot of grumbling from other writers that were unhappy. He made it sound like I was the only one that wasn’t satisfied.

    March 26th, 2008 at 12:39 am
12. Erricka Says:
    

    EVERYONE: NOTE THIS CL REPLY EMAIL:

    job-617565694@craigslist.org

    I sent a reply and it bounced back mailer daemon. How often does this happen to you? This happens with quite a bit of these CL ads.

    March 26th, 2008 at 1:25 am
13. Elizabeth Says:
    

    I worked for the 24 hour/$10 late fee guy, too. He never penalized me, but I agree with Working Hard - you are constantly getting bombarded with work and you never know when it is going to come. That, of course, made it hard to schedule your work. I dumped him after about a month or so. The pay wasn’t great, either, I just thought it would be nice to have work that would definitely be steady. But, I decided it wasn’t worth it and it didn’t take long to replace him anyway!

    I hire freelancers to do work on occassion, so I understand his desire to make certain the work gets turned in on time. I have run across quite a few that don’t take deadlines seriously. But, as Mary Ward said, I find it to be more effective to provide bonuses for turning work in on time instead. That has really worked with the writers that are often late but are really great writers that I want to keep on board!

    March 26th, 2008 at 3:04 am
14. Phil Says:
    

    As a former daily newspaper writer who writes for two online dailies now (one almost daily and one on an as-needed basis), I understand the concept of penalties, but if missing a deadline is a problem, a penalty won’t make a difference — someone is dedicated to making deadlines or not. My oldest daughter was born 19 days late, and hasn’t been on time since

    But seriously, the hiring authority needs someone that won’t miss deadlines and can quickly discover that without the threat of a penalty — the threat should be losing the work.

    Another comment: I’ve had editors who constantly throw more work at me even when there were other deadlines. No penalty, though no overtime was paid either, and the work was expected to be done professionally, regardless of how much there was to do…so it was a de facto penalty (more work, no extra pay). At least as a freelancer, I have more ability to chuck a client who does the same thing because no single client is my sole source of income, unlike the newspaper was when I was working for that editor — who, by the way, was eventually removed.

    March 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
15. Phil Says:
    

    I just re-read through some of the earlier replies.

    @Tish,

    Negotiable deadlines? There are dailies, weeklies and monthlies — print and online — that are to be published at certain times — that can’t happen with negotiable deadlines. Editors should have reasonable deadlines, but not negotiable ones. A deadline is just that. Personally, I aim for deadlines before those required, giivng me a little cushion.

    As I posted earlier, I think the idea of a penalty is a little ridiculous, though I understand the reasoning behind it.

    March 26th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
16. Tish Davidson Says:
    

    @Phil,

    Perhaps we are talking about different kinds of writing. I tend to write books, chapters in books, white papers, brochures–things that definitely do have negotiable deadlines and often several intermediate deadlines before the project is finished. But I also have a newsletter client who sometimes throws things at me at the last minute. Last month they asked for a very quick turn-around and I told them I couldn’t do it. Suddenly, a week instead of three days would be fine with them. I know that many/most/all editors set writer deadlines well before the drop-dead deadline. (We aren’t talking daily journalism here.) This is one reason why many writers consider the deadline a “suggestion” rather than an absolute–they know they have some wiggle room before the editor absolutely must have the piece. I believe it is better to tell the client that you can’t meet their deadline and let them decide how much wiggle room they have to extend it rather than saying you will meet the deadline and either hand in raw, unsatisfactory work or miss the deadline and have them feel frantic because they don’t know when or even if your piece will come in. I’ve found editors/employers respect me when I tell them I can’t meet their deadline, and often they suggest an extended alternative. Then no harm is done to my reputation for being on time because I meet the new negotiated deadline and the client feels confident that I understand the deadline is a deadline and that I know my schedule well enough to meet it with quality work.

    March 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

Leave a Reply