Published on November 1, 2006
I took a writing job last week with a newer company that wasn’t paying much, $2 an article, but to me every penny counts. That’s a week’s worth of school lunches for me. I’d searched the boards and found nothing negative, so I figured they were reliable.
Anyway, I was assigned five articles on Saturday and understood they had to be turned in on Monday. Which was fine, I got them done in plenty of time.
On Tuesday there was an email stating that the articles were no good. The client wanted to go in a different direction so now they wanted six or seven articles on each of the five topics. So this would have been 30 to 35 articles, and I didn’t have time for that many. I told him so.
His response was that I was turning down this assignment after agreeing to do it. My stance is that changing the assignment from 5 articles to 30 to 35 articles is not legit. It is an entirely different assignment. I turned it down and did not expect to get paid, though I can’t say I’m happy about doing the work and then being told they were not good enough because they decided to go in a different direction. Overall, it’s not worth the $10 to deal with him any longer.
Last night, I searched Google and found that he had posted one of my articles on his website. I did post a comment about this at Freelancewriters and just stated that some should watch for that if they opt to write for him and what happened to me–that he’d posted the article without paying me and that I was awaiting his word on why he’d posted it and that I wanted it taken down.
Half an hour ago, he sent me an email saying he posts all reviews to check for plagiarism. I checked and he has taken it down, so I posted so on the forums that he had taken the review down after I emailed him. His email took a slightly threatening tone saying that I had not made a wise move by posting about his company and that I reneged on doing the assignment, so it is all on my head, not his.
My question in this case refers to line #1 of the contract to which he was referring to the assignment I’m sure. My stance is that since he changed the assignment, I had every right to refuse it. Now that he’s sent a slightly threatening email, I’d like to make sure that I am right. I figure you might have the answer.
Published on October 25, 2006
My mom came to visit for the weekend. I hadn’t seen her in a year and she was only here for about three days total so I was very sad to see her go. I don’t know when we’ll see her next so that made her parting all the more painful.
Published on October 25, 2006
It’s rare, very rare, but every once in awhile, we initiate an investigation on WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings and we become acquainted with an individual who appears to be trying to do the right thing, even though they’ve obviously gotten in over their head.
Published on October 25, 2006
Letters will return next week.
Published on October 25, 2006
Through the years, I’ve heard too often from people that I should write my own story about all the events that have happened in my life. Of course the people who know some of these aspects are family, friends and coworkers. But if I do what everyone requests, it’s going to be a story with huge chunks missing or, at the very least, people important to those chunks.
Published on October 25, 2006
I wrote a travel piece for an online website, which I had heard good things about. Although the pay was low, many postings about this site said they paid on time and that writers had no problem with the editor. I wrote an article for them about a ghost tour I took.
My article appeared on the website at the beginning of October. But it wasn’t really my article. I expected some editing – buried lead moved to front of story, etc. But they actually added paragraphs of detail that were not mine, including a location and ghost story that I neither visited nor heard. I would say about 50% of the story is actually mine.
I have had editors make changes before. One of my editors even added a paragraph to my article, due to some last minute information I received. But I provided her with the information and she sent me back the manuscript to review and approve what she added.
I am not sure what to do. I don’t care at this point if I receive the $25. I am worried that I won’t be able to resell this article with all the changes. And I haven’t been using this as a clip; I don’t want to explain why the clip is so different from my manuscript.
Published on October 18, 2006
Richard’s mom and her boyfriend left on Tuesday morning. We had a fun visit and, on leaving, his mom hugged me and said I was a “good hostess.” So, I want to thank all of you who sent in easy recipes for me to use while they were here! I’ll admit, we did eat out while they were here, too, but that sure can get expensive. I enjoy cooking at home much more. We took them to Bar Harbor for a day, to our favorite antique mall, and spent Sunday driving to our land, which was resplendent in its fall colors! It was gorgeous and we are dreaming of next spring when we’ll start building.
Published on October 18, 2006
This Week:
- Malicious Reviews On Amazon
- Just Doin’ Our Job…
Published on October 18, 2006
In order to determine whether podcasting is a good choice for your book promotion efforts, you need to learn the basics of podcasting.
Published on October 18, 2006
I heard through the grapevine that a major retail chain store here in my hometown was looking for a full time copywriter. I sent over my resume and writing samples to their inside ad agency. The creative director said that they would be sending over a little exercise “to see what their applicants could do with a pair of assignments that we might actually take on.”
With marketing in mind for two states (where they are planning on opening stores), for the “test,” they want one :30 second grand opening TV spot and one :60 second radio spot. In addition, for another campaign, they want one :60 second radio spot targeted at teens.
Sounds to me like a lot of work for free. I’m not going to do it. I don’t need the work that much but want to reply in a dignified way. What are your thoughts?
