5 Common Ways Freelance Writers Get Scammed

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Ever since I started writing at Plagiarism Today and especially since I started this column, I’ve been hearing a lot from freelance writers who have been scammed or otherwise victimized by unscrupulous clients. Though the good news is that such bad clients are very rare in the big scheme of things, they are common enough that almost every freelancer, if they remain active long enough, will run into one or two over the course of their career.

So how do you avoid being taken advantage of as a freelance writer. As we discussed previously, clients have the playing field tilted to their advantage on most legal issues. As such, litigation isn’t often practical in these matters.

This means that the best way to protect yourself from these scams is to learn what they are and not step into them in the first place. [Read more…]

How to Stay Productive During the Holidays

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With all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it can be hard to stay motivated enough to have productive holidays instead of just fun ones. One of the best things about being a freelancer is that you aren’t wedded to a set schedule.

You set your own hours and can make special allowances for holiday events. It’s important to make a plan before the holidays get too hectic, though. Without one, staying productive during the holidays will be much harder. So, how do you do it?

How do you stay productive during the holidays? Click To Tweet

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2023 Writing Contests You Should Consider Entering

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For a change of pace from client work, why don’t you consider entering writing contests in 2023? It will give you a chance to flex your creative writing muscle in a way you don’t normally get to when you are doing work for other people.

Along with the chance to win some money, you get to have your work seen and evaluated by judges who often bring some impressive credentials to the table.a

If you ever get the opportunity to see their scorecards or get some feedback, do take it. You may find something valuable in what they have to say about your writing.

Enter these writing contests in 2023 to flex your writing muscles and make some money while you're at it. Click To Tweet

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My Freelance Writing Jobs Success Story

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Editor’s note: This post was written by Thomas A. Parmalee, a long-time member of our community. We’d like to extend our gratitude to him for taking the time to write this piece to share his experience with all of you. His story is one reason we continue doing what we do. We hope you get as inspired as we do.

It was 14 years ago that I visited FreelanceWritingGigs.com and stumbled upon a job posting from a book publisher.

They were seeking someone to write book summaries on the backs of books. As someone who loves to read, I thought it would be a great way to earn some extra income. [Read more…]

We Are Living in The Era of The Self-Taught Internet Entrepreneur – Take Advantage of it

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One of the things that I hear from many of my friends is that they are unable to find a job in today’s economy. Most of the people that are complaining about not being able to find a job have college degrees, but they lack the experience that many employers require. Because of our relatively high unemployment rate, it should come as no surprise that any employer can pick and choose when it comes to whom they want to hire. Because of the vast number of applications for most jobs, many of my friends are passed over for other applicants that have more experience. [Read more…]

I’m a Ghostwriter

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The GhostwriterOne of the biggest struggles I have in terms of my writing career is helping people to understand exactly what I do for a living. When I was a kid, I had dreams of becoming a “writer” – dreams I put on the shelf the moment I realized I didn’t have a fictionally creative bone in my body.

I didn’t realize I could really write until a few years ago. A friend had casually introduced me to one of the web’s many user generated content sites and I started submitting articles for a few dollars here and there. After that, I experimented with an Elance account. Imagine my surprise when one of my first clients sent me a message offering me regular, ongoing work. What started out as a few hours of work per week quickly grew into a full-time career.

Bye bye, desk job. [Read more…]

How to Get Your Contracts Signed

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We’ve talked at great length about why you should always have a contract for your various jobs and some of the terms you need to know when looking at a contract, but there remains an odd challenge when dealing with contracts, getting them signed.

The reason is that the process of signing a contract was not really designed for the digital age. Traditionally, signing a contract would involve two or more people sitting around a single sheet of paper, agreeing to the terms on it and signing their names. While that works great when the people involved are relatively close together and can get in the same room, it doesn’t work as neatly when the parties are half a world away.

However, as a freelance writer, that’s the exact situation you will often face, having to sign a contract with someone in another state or country.

Fortunately, the laws have been updated to help with this problem and new tools are coming online that make the process of signing contracts digitally much easier.

Electronic Signatures

Passed in 2000, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN ACT) was designed to help electronic commerce function by ensuring that signatures could not be considered invalid simply because they were electronic.

The law created a definition for an electronic signature that is the one used the most in the U.S. It reads as follows:

The term ‘electronic signature’ means an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.

As you can see, the definition is extremely broad and an electronic signature could be just about anything so long as it is somewhat unique to the signer and shows an intent to sign the document.

(Note: The ESIGN Act only deals with interstate commerce. If you are dealing with someone in the same state, your local state laws apply and may be different.)

Some, for example, have taken to signing contracts or other papers with a “/s/” followed by their name. Others scan in a copy of their handwritten signature and there’s also a variety of ways to electronically sign documents and email, including via PGP.

Despite this flexibility, for contracts most still prefer to have some form of a handwritten signature, largely because it completely avoids potential issues about “is it a signature or not” under the law.

That, in turn, creates a real problem. Signing a paper usually involves having a physical page in front of you and digital contracts are, well, digital. So how does one solve this problem without killing more trees? There’s actually several solutions to the problem.

The Old Way

Prior to more recent developments, and the Internet itself, the primary way to handle contracts with two geographically disperse people was to either mail it back and forth or, more commonly, send it back and forth via fax.

However, thanks to email, fax machines are much less common than they once were and even electronic fax services such as eFax don’t fix all of the problems. You could, as an alternative, email a scanned copy of the contract back and forth, but that required printing, signing and scanning the contract in order to get all of the signatures on it.

The problem with all of these systems is that you have to have a physical contract in front of you at some point. Whether it’s a fax you send back and forth or a scanned copy you email, paper is involved and paper, in the digital age is, at best a speed bump as you wait for it to print out and, at worst, can be a major obstacle if you don’t have a printer handy.

Clearly, there’s a need for an all-digital solution and, fortunately, several companies offer just that.

A Better Answer

There are several companies that offer digital contract signing. They include the following:

  1. RightSignature: Offers a free trial with up to five documents, paid accounts start at $14 per month for unlimited documents and 1 template.
  2. FillAnyPDF: Can be used for free without an account but a free account opens up more editing options and allows storage of 5 filled forms. Paid accounts start at $19 per month and allow the storage of up to 1,000 filled forms
  3. DocQ: Offers a free account for up to 5 signatures per month and a paid personal account starts at $7 per month and offers 25 signatures.

Though there are differences in how the systems work, they have the same fundamental principles. One of the parties uploads the contract or document to the site, signs it using tools provided by the service, which include the ability to handwrite your signature or use different digital signature methods, and then send it to the other person or people.

The entire process, from uploading the document to the server and sending it on to the next person is paperless and some services, such as Rightsignature, even handle the process of ensuring all parties sign.

That being said, you don’t really need these services to do it. There are dozens of PDF editors available that will let you add an image to a PDF. Simply scan a copy of your signature on a white background and then use the editor to add it in the appropriate area.

You can then forward on the signed PDF to the next party, who can sign it in a similar manner.

Best of all, the only cost for this is the cost of the PDF editor and there are free online options, such as PDFescape, available.

Bottom Line

Contracts are a necessity but they can be a bit of a pain. Trying to get a paper contract signed in the digital age is, at best, kludgy and inconvenient. Fortunately, the laws have changed to enable this kind of electronic commerce and there are tools available to make it as easy as possible.

So, next time you have to sign a contract or fill in any kind of paperwork, give going paperless a shot. You might find that it works better than the alternatives and might save a little paper too.

Best of all, getting contracts signed faster means more business and more money as you get clients signed up faster. Plus, the less time you spend with paper, the more time you spend writing, it’s a true win-win.

Your Questions

Have a question about the law and freelance writing? Either leave a comment below or contact me directly if you wish to keep the information private (However, please mention that it is a suggestion for Freelance Writing Jobs). This column will be determined largely by your suggestions and questions so let me know what you want to know about.

Disclosure

I am not an attorney and nothing in this article should be taken as legal advice.

How To Deal with the Salutation in an E-mail to a Prospective Client

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Dear Jodee,

When I’m responding to freelance writing job ads, I don’t always have a contact name for the client. How do I handle the salutation?

Will Write for Money

Dear Money Writer,

E-mail is a little different from sending a letter by regular mail. People tend to be a little less formal when communicating in this manner. While that may be acceptable when you are sending a note to a friend or a family member, you will want to be more formal when you are communicating with a potential client.

If you have the name of a specific contact person, make sure that it is spelled correctly in the e-mail. (Copy and paste it into the body of the e-mail if you are concerned about being able to do so.)

In a situation where despite your best efforts you have been unable to find a specific name, then use a general greeting, like “Dear Sir or Madam.” You could even keep it really simple by using something like, “Good morning” or “Good afternoon.”

What should you avoid using as a salutation when you are sending an e-mail to a client?

Hey
Yo
How you doin’?
‘Sup

You get the idea. While the person you are making contact with may turn out to be a friend at some point, that is not the case yet. It’s better to err on the side of being a little too formal when sending an e-mail to a prospective client.

If you have a question you would like to see answered in an upcoming column, please share it in the comments.

Article Quickie: Freelance Writing Jargon

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Article Quickie: Freelance Writing Jargon – A – C: From AP Style to Crib Sheet

Article Quickie: Freelance Writing Jargon – D – G From Deadlines to Ghostwriting

Headline

The attention grabber,  the big bold letters at the top of the articles that stop readers in their tracks. Example: “Sixty Ways to Drive Your Man Wild” or “Top Ten Blogging Tips for Beginners” or “Why Your Kids Hate You.” Careful with the sensational ones, readers hate a content tease.

HTML

Hypertext markup language. Without getting all techie, it’s the tags that create <b>bold</b> lettering, italics, indentations, hyperlinks, etc. Some gigs – blogs, websites, content providers, etc. will require  writers be familiar with how to use HTML. The good news is if you don’t know the language, you can learn it free. There are tons of sites that provide the basic, more commonly used tags along with online tutorials.

Kill Fee

It’s not a stake through the heart of a writer, but it’s close. It definitely bruises the ego! A kill fee is when a magazine says they love your idea, requests you write it for a set price, you sign the contract and then once the article is written the editor has changed their mind for whatever reason. The article won’t run in the publication, but they give a smaller payment – typically 20 to 50 percent for your trouble. The kill fee practice is controversial, with some writers refusal to sign contracts with kill fees. They argue the kill fee undercuts the value of a writer’s work and that whether the article is used or not, the writer fulfilled their contractual obligations. Editors argue that kill fees protect publications from  paying full price for poor writing. Take a look at a few of FWJ’s write ups about it here and here. The wonderful writers at Renegade Writer has a great piece on kill fees as well.

Landing page

If a client asks you to write something for their landing page, they want you to write ad copy for a lead generator page. This the page that pops up whenever a potential customer clicks the magic button in an advertisement.

Lede (Lead)

A lede (lead) is one of the key parts of an article. Sure, all parts are important, but the lede is the hook. After the headline, it’s what grabs a reader and makes them sit  down for a few minutes to soak in your masterful prose. The lede introduces your piece to readers. “Lede” is the original spelling going back to the great days of newspaper journalism though a lot of writers refer to it as “lead” either way works. Read about lede history and impress your writer friends at your next get together.

If I Lay Here…

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There is a plethora of confusing word pairs in English, and even native English speakers confuse their usage in everyday conversation.  Earlier today, for some reason, I kept hearing Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars in my head. ((Snow Patrol’s web site))  I used to listen to this song a lot, so I guess the fact that I felt like lying down for a few minutes more triggered memories.  In any case, I was thinking to myself, should it be lay or lie?  That simple question resulted in more than a few minutes of lying in bed and mulling the two words over.  So what’s the deal?

Lay and lie are easily two of the trickiest words in the English language.  The chances are that you have had at least one experience which shows just how arbitrarily people seem to use them.  I have a friend who has spoken English all his life and yet always says “I need to lay down”.  What’s wrong with that?

Let’s get the meanings of the words straight, once and for all.
Lay is a transitive verb and needs a direct object – a receiver of the action. It means to put something down.

Example: This bag of groceries is heavy.  I will lay it down on the bench while I wait for the bus.

Lie is an intransitive verb and does not need a direct object.  It means to recline. ((I will not even include the other meaning of lie, which is to tell something which is not true.))

Example: My back hurts. I think I’ll lie down for a bit.

Simple enough, isn’t it?  That’s the easy part, actually.  Both examples are in the simple present tense, and it is not that hard to remember how to use the two words.  Here comes the fun part – using lay and lie in the past tense.

The past tense of lie is lay. The past tense of lay is laid.  Let’s kick things up a notch and throw in the past participle as well.  Lie then becomes (has/have) lain, while lay becomes (has/have) laid.

You do not even have to imagine what a jumbled mess it can be with lay, laid, and lain thrown into the pot!

So how do you remember?  Here’s a table that simplifies things.

Lay-lie

Here are a few more example just to make the verbs stick.

The water buffalo lay in the mud for four hours.

She has lain on the lounge for longer than she should have!

Remember, there is no object needed for lie-lay-lain!  For lay-laid-laid, we need a receiver of the action.

The writer laid his pen down for the nth time.

The waiter has laid the tray down countless times tonight.

Personally, I find it most confusing when I use lay.  Sometimes, I even have to stop and think to make sure that I am using the word properly.  Practice makes perfect, though.  After a while of being sure of the right usage, you won’t have to think twice about it.

Photo via Mighty Red Pen

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