I’ll give her credit – she’s tenacious. The editor of a magazine I worked with recently has once again contacted me to complete a story for her. That would be fine – only, I told her twice now that her publication doesn’t pay enough for me to justify the work involved, and that I had accepted more lucrative jobs elsewhere.
I can’t blame her – it’s tough finding writers who want to write for trades, much less those who will actually do so reliably. But even though things have slowed down considerably here since pre-Christmas (it’ll pick up soon – I’m sure of it), I won’t take the job. In fact, I didn’t even respond.
You may think that’s unprofessional, but you have to understand – I told her. Twice. Any further debate on the topic isn’t going to change her mind or mine. It’ll just prolong the obvious conclusion. But you’d be proud of me – I resisited my initial temptation to write back and ask if the rates had gone up. They haven’t. I know because I asked less than two months ago. Those rates are set in stone. And they equal ten cents a word for technical writing. Uh, no thanks.
It’s about knowing your limits and avoiding being roped into doing what you know won’t benefit your career (and what may even harm your chances of getting higher-paying work). Do you enforce your professional boundaries when someone turns on the charm or chastises you? While I can tell you flat out that the latter won’t work EVER, the former can have some effect on you if you’re a pushover. I’m not. Therefore, next!
How about you? What are your limits? How do you enforce them? And just for fun – would you have responded a third time? If so, what would you have said?
I had a client with whom I had a bad experience — low pay, poor editing (nothing like ADDING errors), expecting me to pimp affiliates in what are supposed to be articles, not infomercials, and then dragging feet on payment.
I completed the initial assignment and refused future assignments, explaining that I was booked with more lucrative assignments (which has been true each time I’ve been contacted) and could not take on any more of that work, especially not at that price.
Every three months, faithfully, another email appears, fawning over me and asking me to return.
For the first year and change of this, I always sent a polite response declining.
Now, I don’t. I’ve made it clear that I will not return.
Even if the pay tripled, it wouldn’t be worth the hassle — especially since I think it’s unethical to present affiliate and only affiliate products in what are supposed to be objective articles, and I made THAT position clear.
I remember this person, Devon. That one is probably the worst at understanding what “no” means!
Depending on the details of your relationship with the editor, how about negotiating for a higher pay rate, since she obviously values your work?
Or bill in advance?
I had a client that paid well, but so slowly that now I will only work for them if they pony up front. I’m considering alerting other local editors, too, because the tendency is to insist it’s a crisis and the work must be completed in a rush.
As far a someone pushing my buttons, all that does is make me dig in my heels. If I had a persistent pesterer like Devon has, I’d block emails from that client.
Georganna, the reason I told her no was because my attempts to negotiate were met with a “Sorry but the publisher won’t budge.”
They did pay fairly promptly, so that was never an issue, thank gawd.
Devon’s situation was a very strange one involving more oddities than a Ripley’s display!