Writers Need a Tough Hide

While it’s been years since I heard him speak, one of the keynote speakers at a Christian editor’s conference made an indelible impression. He not only changed how I do business, he helped me warn other freelancer writers to develop a stiffer spine when it comes to getting paid.

Now, this speaker had once worked for a major publishing house. While then at a ministry, he still managed side jobs. When someone offered one, he would tell them, “Send me the money and I’ll do the work.”

Several of us at the workshop agreed that we didn’t have the kind of profile that would allow us to require payment in advance. Still, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to insist on a 50% deposit, something I had rarely done.

Around the same time, with the help of another group member, I developed a one-page letter of agreement. It outlines the terms, project length, and deadline, and ensures the author remains in control of the material.

Setting Parameters

The letter of agreement helped me establish parameters for a project, while the 50% deposit quickly weeded out the pretenders. Folks who aren’t willing to invest money in their book or other creation typically aren’t that serious about it.

In fact, my BS meter has been refined to the point that whenever someone opens an email conversation with, “I don’t have much money,” I know their project is likely not something I want to tackle.

I came to this awareness the hard way: by swallowing too many hard luck stories or fanciful, “I’ll trust the Lord to provide” statements from writers. (In one case, I’m still waiting for the provision.)

Recently, a member of the group posted a plaintive appeal, asking how she should approach an author who kept missing the final payment deadline while offering up various excuses. You might call them the 21st-century version of “the dog ate my homework.”

I sent that editor a private note, lamenting her situation and assuring her that it happens to all of us.

I told her about offering a free sample edit to one author earlier this year. The author told me what a great editor I was and said she would send several more chapters. I’m still waiting.

“In your case, it sounds like you have encountered one of the many flaky writers out there who don’t understand the meaning of deadlines or paying their bills,” I told this editor. “I’m not sure there’s much you can do about it—other than sit on the edits until he pays the rest of your invoice.”

Several folks who responded in the public comment section agreed: don’t send the final edits until the author pays.

Soft But Tough

I told this woman that I’m not a Type A personality and thus don’t like playing “hardball.” Yet 35 years ago, I wouldn’t have been left holding the bag had I insisted on more money up front with the “evangelist,” who paid a farthing of his tab. He even self-published the book with my name on the cover, without telling me he was going to do that.

“I have learned over the years that if you don’t insist on money up front and prompt payments, folks will take advantage of you,” I said. “That’s tough when it’s people professing to follow Christ who stiff you, but believe me, it’s happened to me more than once. Protect yourself.”

Or, as President Ronald Reagan liked to say: “Trust but verify.”