| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: is it a real assignment when a) a contract never arrives and b). |
Topic: is it a real assignment when a) a contract never arrives and b).
  Page 1 of 1   |
|
| Author | Message |
| kiki | Posted – 9/7/2005 6:53:51 PM | show profile ...the assigning editor is, in fact, as high on the masthead as one coud get? (answerable to no one else?) this highest up said she would like the piece i pitched and assigned a word count via email. when i asked for the due date, both via email and via phone, nothing. no response. to me, this feels like a non assignment, and i feel that i can go ahead and pitch the idesa to the next taker. yet this high up may believe she assigned me a piece since she gave me a word count. without being obnoxious (i have called and emailed), how would you suggest i proceed? if you need further details, just ask. thanks a lot, kiki |
| Daisy Chestnut | Posted – 9/7/2005 6:57:54 PM | show profile Send another e-mail ... and simply say you've yet to receive a contract, so you're unsure if she still wants the piece. Tell her if it indeed is not happening then you'd like to pitch the idea elsewhere. If she doesn't respond to this in say, one week, send it to another editor. Hope this helps. |
| Misanthrope | Posted – 9/7/2005 7:33:53 PM | show profile good question I'd be more worried by the fact that you haven't received responses to your questions than by the lack of a contract. I work with a lot of publications where I never get written contracts, and I've never not gotten paid. However, some editors -- even those at the top of the food chain -- are just callous and bad. I once had an editor assign me a specific piece and then completely abandon me, never sending me the background material I needed to write the story and never responding to the simplest (and shortest) e-mail or phone questions. |
| limericks4all | Posted – 9/7/2005 7:50:15 PM | show profile You may certainly pitch it elsewhere. If someone else buys it, and the first editor contacts you, you can tell her, ''Sorry I never heard from you and sold it to someone else'' or write a different article on the same topic for her. But certainly before I proceed on an article, I need to know the due date, the terms, and the payment. I need something in writing, either in an email or a contract. |
| rv224 | Posted – 9/8/2005 1:48:24 AM | show profile Email or call the editor and say ''I haven't received the contract for the article.'' See what happens from there. |
| kiki | Posted – 9/8/2005 3:14:28 AM | show profile thanks to all of you i appreciate both the time you've taken to reply, and your wise suggestions. kiki |
| chrisssa | Posted – 9/8/2005 10:04:09 PM | show profile And just one more thought for the hell of it. I don't care who you are or how big of britches you fill- you need to answer emails!!! How do people get by in life without regards for common -sense- manners? Or maybe I am just a naive 39 year old from the Midwest who thinks everyone should have the same values I do?? Kiki- follow the money- but follow your values too! |
| hoffman | Posted – 9/8/2005 11:42:21 PM | show profile I'm going to disagree here. If you have emails confirming the assignment, go for it. Some editors are better with paperwork than others (I know, a contract seems vital to you, but to me, as an editor, it's annoying paperwork. That's the truth, like it or not). Kiki, did you discuss any other details -- deadline, payment, etc.? Have you worked for the publication before, and were there any problems? I'd say go ahead and start working on the story. Then follow up with another email and tell the editor how things are progressing, just to show you're working on it. I know people on this board will flame me, but the real world isn't always as neat as we'd like it to be. |
| Marie | Posted – 9/9/2005 12:56:40 AM | show profile To you it might be paperwork; to writers, it spells out the terms, which we might not agree with, especially regarding rights, which can determine our future income for years to come. |
| limericks4all | Posted – 9/9/2005 1:16:44 AM | show profile You fall into the class of editors who don't appreciate that freelance writers (at least at lot of us) are doing this as a business, not for fun and games. Starting on an assignment without a contract puts me at risk. You could get fired, for instance, and and I am the one left in the lurch. That's the reality too. So don't do any work until you have something in writing spelling out terms. If the editor is too ''annoyed'' and busy to do so, fine. I'll do other work and wait until it's important enough for him to act like a professional before I go to work. << Some editors are better with paperwork than others (I know, a contract seems vital to you, but to me, as an editor, it's annoying paperwork. That's the truth, like it or not). Kiki, did you discuss any other details -- deadline, payment, etc.? Have you worked for the publication before, and were there any problems? I'd say go ahead and start working on the story. Then follow up with another email and tell the editor how things are progressing, just to show you're working on it.<< |
| limericks4all | Posted – 9/9/2005 2:04:10 AM | show profile I wonder how Hoffman would feel if his paycheck didn't come this week because the payroll person didn't feel like doing the ''annoying'' paperwork? <<I'm going to disagree here. If you have emails confirming the assignment, go for it. Some editors are better with paperwork than others (I know, a contract seems vital to you, but to me, as an editor, it's annoying paperwork. That's the truth, like it or not). << |
| more food | Posted – 9/9/2005 2:29:35 AM | show profile i am curious... how many people on this board has written a story without ever getting a contract? just wondering... and what happened after? |
| worm | Posted – 9/9/2005 8:12:47 AM | show profile Over the years, I have made many tens of thousands of dollars writing articles based on phone conversations and email--without a contract. An email stating terms works as an informal contract. I try to work only for established, reputable, trustworthy editors. |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 9/9/2005 11:23:16 AM | show profile Contract or no (and an email is legally binding as a written agreement)...this gal needs a deadline. How can she start working without a deadline? If she does and it wasn't ''really'' an assignment after all, she's wasted her time. I'd leave a voice message for the editor point blank asking for a confirmation of the assignment, terms, and a due date, noting that you're eager to get started but won't be until that has been taken care of. All in a cheerful, friendly tone of course. If you don't hear in a day or two move on. ------ Lotus665 |
| flipflap | Posted – 9/9/2005 12:25:11 PM | show profile yes, eics can be very casual about assigning stories & losing interest. if i had never worked with a magazine before, i would proceed very, very cautiously w/o a deadline AND w/o a contract. in fact, i'd probably head elsehwere. what if you turn in the story & they kill it? i just had my first-ever experience of having a story killed by the eic of a major women's mag. (fortunately i had a contract & will get a hefty kill fee). the exec & managing editors told me they liked the piece & were eager to work with on the 2nd draft, but the eic lost interest in the subject! |
| hoffman | Posted – 9/9/2005 5:47:32 PM | show profile limerick, i never said anything about not paying the writer on time. As Worm rightfully explains, contract and payment are not the same things. |
| AIC | Posted – 9/13/2005 11:44:21 AM | show profile Along those lines, for a newbie, how many of you get to ever see the edits that have been made to the article prior to it being published? I am starting out, and have only a couple of articles under my belt, so I have been unsure of how the whole process should work in general. Thanks for the advice to Kiki-- it helps to see how best to deal with a similar situation. And thanks in advance for any tips in general on the process as a whole. (A sort of chronological timeline? Query-answer-contract/agreement?-?-publication/payment...) |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 9/13/2005 1:49:59 PM | show profile Getting to see the edited version is fairly standard because if they have introduced errors in the editing process, which happens even with good editors sometimes, you get a chance to correct them, and it's also a courtesy to the writer. Some pubs do it automatically and others you have to ask. Make a point of asking. Unless they are under a blistering deadline they should be willing to do it. If they do, try not to send back a million changes or requests unless they are absolutely necessary. But do tell them if there are any mistakes. ------ Lotus665 |
| camper | Posted – 9/13/2005 2:54:03 PM | show profile I'd start on it. More often than not, I get the contract on publication- when the check should be arriving. It seems the earliest I ever get a contract these days is on the due date of the piece. As long as I have a word count, dollar amount, and due date, I write it. But not having a due date is such a pain. It seems every time I email an editor once asking about a due date, then don't proceed because I haven't heard back, the next time I hear from them it's an email saying, ''I'm just checking on that piece that's due tomorrow.'' Say what?? ------ --author of Party Like a Rock Star: Even When You're Poor as Dirt-- |
| Lotus665 | Posted – 9/13/2005 4:34:56 PM | show profile Getting a contract around the article due date sounds atypical to me. Also, the not telling you a due date in the first place seems atypical. Who ARE these editors so I can avoid them? But seriously, if an editor refused to reply on a due date then turned around and said how are you doing on the piece that's due tomorrow, I'd be straight with her and say look, you never gave me a deadline, I kept trying to get an answer, and now I will not make that day, how about [suggest a later date]. A professional editor will apologize and agree, and if they balk, there is something amiss with that editor. ------ Lotus665 |
| Marie | Posted – 9/13/2005 8:07:11 PM | show profile The problem with not having the contract is you don't know what you're agreeing to. What rights are you giving up? What percentage of repint fees will be paid to you (this is really important). You might not like the terms. Why would you want to begin work on an assignment whose terms you might not be able to live with? The BusinessWeek contract is a case in point...and there's tons of others. Are you signing something with an indemnity clause? These are issues that can affect you years after you've completed the assignment. Sorry, but undertaking an assignment is a lot more than how many words, what does it pay, and when is it due. Writing is a business, and it would be nice if these can't-be-bothered clueless, foolish editors realized this. And they won't until we force them to. |
| Marie | Posted – 9/13/2005 8:17:23 PM | show profile If you never receive a contract or some type of binding agreement in which you sign away rights, then all the rights are yours. But if that's not the way the magazine does business, you'll eventually recieve a contract, perhaps after you've completed the assignment. And if you don't sign it you won't get paid. And it's pretty hard to negotiate once you've turned it in. You have no further leverage. |
| AIC | Posted – 9/14/2005 1:23:06 PM | show profile | email poster Along those lines, then, do you have opinions as to what the contract should cover, and/or have any good sources for contracts for writers and what to look out for? Have any of you written up a contract yourself and sent it to a publication as a place to start out with, and if so, how have you done it? I have thought about putting something together, and sending it out once interest is expressed, and then being able to negotiate from there. Is this unheard of, or would it somehow completely ''turn off'' the editors? While I do not want to kill interest, I would also like to know what the conditions I am writing under are, and I do feel incredibly powerless not knowing. (As has been expressed...) Just another thought. |
| camper | Posted – 9/14/2005 2:00:51 PM | show profile Bad editors and bad contracts fit perfectly with the bad pay I get for those same stories. Everything seems to improve at the same rate- the more I get paid, the less rights I end up signing away and the sooner the contracts come. I guess I spend more time working with the bad people because they're usually more responsive to pitches. If I even hear a ''no thanks'' from a national publication I feel special. When you work hard to tailor a pitch to a publication (rather than a generic spam pitch) I think they at least owe you a reply. The ''no response means I'm turning it down'' practice is just wrotten. ''No thanks'' is only two words long. |
| Page 1 of 1 |
|
