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Topic: attn: editors
| Author | Message |
| one | Posted – 3/9/2006 10:27:25 PM | show profile a freelancer submitted an article, but after numerous discussions of what i wanted and several re-writes, the copy's still flawed. so, i re-wrote the piece using some of the writer's points and quotes from the sources the writer provided (but didn't include in the submitted copy). i also restructed it and conducted some interviews on my own. how much credit should this writer receive and, how should the writer be compensated? keep in mind, this is a freelancer being paid per word. how should i go about calculating the amount to pay the person? |
| activeverb | Posted – 3/10/2006 1:06:33 AM | show profile Personally, I think you should just pay the writer the per-fee rate based on the final word count, even if you wrote some of it. It's probably not a lot of money, and you won't be opening a can of words -- like whether you even have the legal right to take a part of the writer's article and put it in an article you basically wrote without their permission. You probably could take a co-byline, but definitely the first writer's name should be on the piece first. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 3/10/2006 5:52:20 AM | show profile | email poster Activeverb's right -- then next time, don't use this writer if he can't give you what you need. |
| mumbo jumbo | Posted – 3/10/2006 10:45:05 AM | show profile I had a situation like this once. I used less than a third of the writer's original material, so I paid him the kill fee, which was one-third the fee. Then I beefed up the piece and ran it without a byline. |
| m.m.m. | Posted – 3/10/2006 11:48:33 AM | show profile The situation you describe is not even remotely unusual. You should pay the writer the full fee. The penalty for shoddy work should be that you not use the writer again. |
| mkelly | Posted – 3/10/2006 12:02:01 PM | show profile If he gave me usable material, I'd pay the writer the per-word rate based on the final version he filed-- he shouldn't be penalized for the words you cut, and he shouldn't be rewarded for the words you added. For example, I often end up cutting as much as 20 percent of my freelancers' stories, and routinely add in new points or even whole paragraphs. When pay time comes, I do a word-count on the final draft they submitted to me. That's what I pay them. |
| SunnyJim | Posted – 3/13/2006 3:27:13 AM | show profile | email poster Flawed Copy Been doing this for 30 years and what you need to do is talk to the writer before you do the exhaustive editing. Tell him/her why you feel the submitted mss needs work and why you're going to do it yourself. Give him a token fee ($100 or whatever your budget calls for) for concept and research plus the sum of the actual per word. The fault lies partically in the assignment. Next time do your homework and hire a freelancer that will deliver the goods. Easier said than done especially on deadline, but your job is a tough one why make it harder by hiring a turkey. Also you can run it without a byline and put a footnote at the end of the story saying: Abraham C. Lincoln contributed to this article. And better luck next time. |
| Marie | Posted – 3/13/2006 8:56:53 AM | show profile Pay the full fee. And if you want, make it a co-byline--by [his/her name] and [your name], although most staff editores don't care about a byline, and simply pay the writer. Of course, they don't use the writer again, unless the writer is a name or brings some unusual reporting to his/her pieces, even though said writer can't write. |
| Upward Bound | Posted – 3/13/2006 9:28:54 AM | show profile Just curious, but how many of you who said ''pay the full fee'' have ever worked as an editor directly with freelancers? I could see one someone who's never been in that position might advocate entirely for the writer, but I tend to agree with SunnyJim as far as not paying a writer full fee for an assignment so far off the mark. Think about it this way, if you bought a new (fill in the blank here), would you happily keep it if it didn't perform as expected, or would you return it for a refund? ------ Never settle! |
| mumbo jumbo | Posted – 3/13/2006 10:31:27 AM | show profile Upward Bound: I agree. In over 20 years of working with freelancers, I've paid the kill fee only a handful of times, and in all cases the writer turned in drivel that was far off the mark. They were given the opportunity to revise it to bring it up to expectations and failed. If any decent writer looked at the mess that was turned in, I doubt that they'd recommend paying the full fee. Writers like this give all freelancers a bad name. |
| kalin | Posted – 3/13/2006 5:17:11 PM | show profile Regardless of what you did with the article, you still be to pay and credit the writer. ------ A creative bundle of joy. |
| joyeuxnoelle | Posted – 3/13/2006 6:58:19 PM | show profile | email poster it's not just about money ... then the writer gets a clip for a story s/he hardly wrote and it make them look that much more attractive to the next editor who thinks s/he wrote the entire piece unaided... a double byline may mitagate some of that... |
| leftcoaster | Posted – 3/13/2006 7:04:10 PM | show profile SunnyJim, I don't understand your payment concept. It sounds like you're saying to pay the writer more than the per-word fee, with the addition of a research/concept token fee. Is that what you meant? I've never been an editor for a magazine (I have for corporate work), and I have worked as a freelance writer, but I find it odd that people think they should pay a writer anything at all for poor work. If a plumber came to your house and not only couldn't fix your problem but did something that made you have to do the work yourself, or spend additional money to find someone else to do it, you wouldn't think he should be paid just because he spent some time on it. If you do use some of his/her work, like quotes that he got, I can see paying a kill fee or some other percentage of the contracted amount, but certainly not the full fee. On the flip side, I don't think a writer should only get a kill fee if they met the requirements of the assignment and the article only got pulled due to some reason like advertiser conflict, lack of space, etc. |
| cornfrost | Posted – 3/13/2006 8:10:25 PM | show profile | email poster An equivalence to a plumber or a consumer durable is not valid. It's even kind of ridiculous. Writing/editing is a judgment call. Penty of pieces suck, despite the fact they are paid for and published in reputable publications. And plenty of great pieces don't get paid for (witness the late, great Black Table). The editor should honor the terms of the contract. If it's not a straightforward kill it or run it deal, the editor should negotiate with the writer for a payment acceptable to both parties, and then decline to work with this writer again. |
| even_newer-id | Posted – 3/13/2006 8:49:14 PM | show profile Pay the full fee. It's not worth your while to argue over it. And don't hire the writer again. Also, ask the writer about the byline. He may not want his name on the piece. Don't put your name on the piece -- shared byline or alone -- if the writer still wants the byline. I'm an editor and have dealt with this situation several times. Bottom line is it's our bad hire and our magazine so we bear the brunt. This is why editors become cautious about new writers. |
| mumbo jumbo | Posted – 3/13/2006 9:44:02 PM | show profile even-newer: Generally I agree with you. And as I said, I've only paid a kill fee a handful of times. I've paid full price for--and not run--a lot of bad copy and had to answer to my superiors for it. In some cases, it was bad judgment on my part. But in the cases where I've killed, it was because the writer had it coming. In one case in particular, it was a story I really needed for a year-ahead roundup section. The writer, who I'd worked with a few times, begged for the assignment. I gave him detailed instructions plus samples of how the topic had been handled in other years. What he turned in was soo incredibly off the mark--it was cliche-ridden and not even close to the assigned length. I asked him to revisit it, gave him additional sources to interview, even wrote a lead for him to follow. He essentially turned in the same manuscript and as much as said it wasn't worth his time. He'd gotten other work in the interim and blew me off. So I killed the article, cobbled together a piece to fill the hole, and never used him again. And he did pitch me from time to time after that. Incredible! |
