Freelance doesn't have to mean being paid late
by Lise Monty
You got the assignment and finished your article. Congratulations! But you are not done yet. Successful freelancers must keep complete, accurate records!
Any writer who meets a deadline deserves to be paid promptly. It's worth noting that if you don't make your editor's deadline, he or she will feel no obligation to make your deadline on the invoice.
Establish yourself as a person who submits on deadline or even before when possible. Also, establishing reasonable expectations and communications, along with building good rapport, understanding and personal relations, are vital bridge-building between the writer and the editor or publisher so that one is not considered a "non-entity" who cranks out quality work but doesn't have any particular needs or boundaries as far as payment limits.
It's been said that short of refusing future freelance work from a slow-paying publication, freelancers have little recourse. There are a number of strategies, however, that help to ensure payment.
Suggestions for getting paid in a timely fashion:
- Research the buyer before committing yourself. Do a credit check on the publisher or talk with other writers for the publisher.
- Again, keep complete, accurate records!
- Always have a signed contract and know what the terms are before signing. Make necessary changes to ensure payment that's acceptable to you.
- Develop a good relationship with the publication's editor and get the name of the person who actually issues the checks so the follow-up can be with the appropriate person.
- Ask for payment on acceptance, rather than payment on publication.
- Invoice the publication either once the article has been accepted or as soon as the article has been published. Bill professionally: use a form invoice, not a typed note. Follow up each month with reminders until payment is made.
- Develop a business plan. Have a financial cushion. Don't appear desperate to be paid.
- Get enough work going so that you have a steady income stream and can afford to wait for the others. If not possible, get a regular backup job.
- Ask for partial payment part way through the job.
- Ask for an agreed-upon run date for each piece, with the understanding that something may bump you by an issue or two. But if the article has not run within a reasonable amount of time (less time if it's a daily, more if it's a weekly or monthly), ask for the work back and offer it to others. Make it clear to the editor that you're offering it elsewhere because payment is due for the good work you've done.
- Copyright the article so it doesn't get stolen.
- Never write on speculation for an unknown client.
- The best (and highest paying) steady work is corporate work.
- Large publications usually pay better and more promptly than smaller ones.
- Always ask for a "kill fee" (usually runs about a third to half of the payment for published work).
- If someone is consistently late in paying, don't work for them.
- Withhold next assignment until current one has been paid for.
- As a last resort: beg.
About the author:
Three years ago, freelance writer Lise Monty retired after 10 years as external affairs manager for the Delaware Art Museum. While at the helm of Delaware Today from 1987 to 1994, she won several national awards for the magazine's general excellence. Lise was the first female bureau chief for Fairchild Publications in its Boston bureau and worked as Tokyo correspondent for Women's Wear Daily.
She is the author of Images of Delaware and Wilmington: on the Move, coffee-table books featuring photographs by Mike Biggs.
Lise chaired the pre- and post-conference tours committee for the NFPW/DPA "Brave New Media World" conference held in Delaware in 2003 and was named Delaware Press Association's 2003 Communicator of Achievement.
Contact Lise Monty at montyleary@aol.com.
The fine print:
