Job Listings – June 4, 2007
When the Customer is Wrong
I had a conversation with a writer friend this past week regarding one of her current clients. Her “editor” had made some friendly criticisms of her work – and from this chair, incorrect criticisms. That was disconcerting enough, but when he took her well-crafted sentences and “edited” them to the point where one sentence became three or four fragments, that caused my friend to ask what she should do.
Frankly, what should she do? She’s already voiced her concerns. In this situation, this is not a client who has no writing background. This is someone who claims to be an editor – one notch up the food chain. This is someone to whom criticism isn’t usually aimed. In this case, I would voice my concerns and let it go. I’d also make the choice of whether I want to work with this person again.
We all come across people who for one reason or another are not people we can work with effectively. In this case, the client is very nice and understands his own limitations, but still insists on things my friend isn’t comfortable doing. She’s weighing her options – should she stay with a paying client who is otherwise okay to work with, or should she opt for work that won’t appear as amateurish clips later in life? I think I know which way she’ll go, for she’s as concerned about quality and doing a good job as most of us.
This week’s job listings:
Freelancer – Metropolitan Transit Authority
Onsite Freelancer – HBO
Freelance Writer – Tax Services
Freelance Content Author
Freelance AVID Editors
Freelance Legal Reporter
Web Development Blogger
Freelance Book/Web Writer
Freelance Ethics Writer
Book Editor