Your Worst Experience Writing?

I think that the multiple times I get the, "I have the assets to pay you your desired rate, but I don't know you so I'm paying you [X] amount less." type of comments can boil anyone's blood.

I don't think it has happened to me in more than a few months, but the memory remains

 

OMG what an idiot lmao

 

Never had that - I do get the 'your quality is excellent' , but x person can write at $0.0000000001 a word. Any chance of you reducing your price to the same?


Slight exaggeration on the price, but you get the idea

 

I definitely know that feeling & concept. I almost feel like I am the walmart of writers. Where I feel the buyers are doing price comparisons.

Any good writer won't sell themselves short.

I've had that happen to me as well. That comment always irked me. Trying to shortchange someone on that basis. I would love for someone to walk into Best Buy and state that they didn't know Samsung, so they were going to pay less of the price.


Go figure..

Jim

 

That's interesting. I've never had someone say they'll pay me less because they don't know me. Whether they know the writer or not is irrelevant if that writer provides them with samples. That's really all they need to know.

I have had people throw lower-rate writers in my face; especially with press releases. I usually tell them to go ahead and hire the cheaper writer, and when they see that it's poorly written and they get no results, they're welcome to hire me to edit it or write a new one from scratch if I can fit them in. From time to time, I'll also give them a few things to take note of when they get their cheap press release (warning signs that a writer might be completely incompetent in the field, or tips to tell them it might actually be a good release). It's extremely rare that they don't hire me outright after I take the time to show them that I know what I'm doing, or to hire me to "fix" the cheap writer's release.

Heck, I actually like that better than writing from scratch. My current rate for press release writing is $99. My current rate for a thorough edit is $79. So I actually make more on a per-hour basis doing the editing anyway (which makes me happy), and the work is easier (which also makes me happy). A few repeat clients have figured out that they can save $10 overall with me by hiring one of those $10 release writers, and paying for me to make the release usable. Everyone's happy.

If you're getting that a lot, just make sure you have a definite quality difference over the cheaper writers, and work that angle. It's effective. If adding related services, like editing the work of writers they claim you should be competing with, would increase your available income streams, give it a shot. With all of the crap writing out there, I'm actually shocked we don't see people here pushing their services as editors more than writers (and I don't mean rewriters / spinners). Given... not every writer would make a good editor, but it seems like a missed market.

 

It was the time my creative director (I was at an ad agency at the time) assigned me a project for a veterinary canine condition called "hot spots on the anus". Not only was I assigned this glamorous ad project, the client actually wanted me to use their photo which, as you might imagine, were less than lovely and exemplified the photography skills of a first grader.

 

I got the perfect Christmas gift in the form of an email from a client who said he would never work with me again because I can't write UK english. Based on our emails and chat logs, he was looking for a "fluent english speaker" and he also said that my writing style was the one he was looking for. He refused to pay me for a week's worth of work and wants a refund on the bond - 25% of the project costs. I gave him 48 hours to check all the articles and contact me within that time if there are problems. After that warranty period, all articles will be considered sold and he should pay the balance. He contacted me a week later with an excuse that he was so busy. Well duh, so am I!

If anyone can explain what the difference between UK and US english is, I would gladly appreciate it. Then maybe I can put this whole thing behind me and have a real merry Christmas.

 

I am an American living in a country where there are a lot of British tourists and I don't know that the differences are enough to make a big deal over. I've written for Australian and British clients and never had any problems. I think your client does not have a good reason at all for nonpayment.

There are some differences like in American we spell "color" and they spell "colour." All these are minor things.

 

I'm a bit of a screenwriter, and I mostly rely on spontaneity and my mood to write my screen plays, and the worse thing that happened to me was that I was in a vacation, and I wrote about 50 pages of content in my notebook as I was going sight seeing in Lake Tahoe. I put that notebook in my bag, and somehow it was left a bit open and it somehow fell out of my bag along with my other precious things. It just frustrating. I had to recall all of it word for word into Final Draft, good thing it worked out fine.

 

Someone has stolen my content posted on ezinearticles and posted it as their own on blog with some minor changes. The guy even used the same TITLE, so that his content is on 3rd, and mine on 5th place on google.

I contacted blogger.com (there is no contact info on his/her blog) and got this email:

Bah...

 

Jacki,

As about 3/4 of my clients are UK based, I can honestly say that there is very little difference. As already stated, most of the differences are in spelling; however, there are some particularly "American" phrases which are considered an abomination to the Queen's English.

Try surfing a few .co.uk sites, and you'll get a better feel for the flavour of their writing style. Like I said, it's mostly spelling (never use the letter "z" when an "s" can be used, lol); but there are some grammatical differences in the British vernacular, as well.

All in all, it isn't that difficult to make the switch

 

My worst experience would be writing at $0.04 a word and still refusing to be paid at the end. The lesson I learnt was to take at least 50 % payment upfront.
I mean $0.04/word was low enough and on top of that not paying?

Nowadays, I have stopped writing articles and I concentrate on writing sales copies.

 

After hearing these horror experiences ,I'm literally afraid of entering into this ...I'm a beginner and these stories are more than enough...
shiny

 

Don't be scared. Take these as learning experiences from others and learn from them. You should take the lessons we learned and apply them to what you can do in your everyday life.