Freelancing 101 or, How to Tick off Your Editor
May 20th, 2008
GET YOUR WORK IN ON TIME.
Simple enough. So why did my new writer, when I called her 12 minutes after her assignment deadline had passed, tell me “It’s almost done”? Why, after my e-mailing her, calling her, repeating over and over again 5 PM, 5 PM, 5 PM, It has to be in by 5 PM! did her work come in at 5:28 PM?
And why, when I asked her about this, did she say: Well, it was almost in on time?
Almost = Not Good Enough.
Filed under how to get published, writing |
5 Responses to “Freelancing 101 or, How to Tick off Your Editor”
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Did you almost publish her writing?
Crack that whip! I don’t think that writers realize that their lateness has serious repercussions further down the line: for me, as a freelance editor, if a writer turns in a piece the next morning instead of EOD, that doesn’t mean that I, too, get to pass along the delay; it means that by the time the piece gets to me from the managing editor, I have, oh, say, an hour to turn around 2,000 words so that I don’t snarl up production.
Randy, LOL. Yeah, just like I almost paid her. Today, she told me she looks forward to her next assignment.
MFA, exactly. Spot on. When she’s late, I’m late. When I’m late, our business is the one late. Not good. Way to point out the bigger picture.
That’s a oretty self-limiting behavior: she won’t get hired twice too often.
oretty == pretty.
(I need an editor.)