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Topic: Excuses, excuses, excuses...
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| Mirage | Posted – 9/25/2007 12:55:21 PM | show profile In another thread, Stanley_Milgram posted, "Damn, I thought by clicking on this subject head I would find a nasty albeit amusing rant by some editor who's sick of dealing with flaky whiny writers who always let him and her down right as deadline approaches. Instead, I find the subject header is meant in earnest. How disappointing." So, I thought I'd oblige you, Stanley, and start said rant. Any editors out there have any deadline-day excuses they'd like to share? Writers, want to 'fess up about the lamest excuses you've given your editors? I'll start. In the last month (and I am not exaggerating), I have been told that the ms will not be delivered each time it was promised because of: * Two (unrelated) sudden deaths * Wife working late, leaving him to care for the kids * Terrible cold * Tickets to a [cheesy singer] concert These excuses all came from the same author...after I'd already extended his deadline by three weeks following his first story of woe. Anyone else want to share-slash-vent? |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 9/25/2007 1:15:35 PM | show profile Oh, you didn't get it? I sent it. It must be my e-mail. I've been having problems lately. Technical problems are far and away the most common excuse I get. |
| recovering_jersey_girl | Posted – 9/25/2007 1:49:01 PM | show profile You're so right...blaming the computer is the 21st-century/grown-up "My dog ate it." |
| Mirage | Posted – 9/25/2007 1:58:10 PM | show profile "Technical issues" I hear that one all the time, too. It's so frustrating. I remember being in high school/college and being told by professors that "computer problems" are NOT an excuse, and that "in the real world" no one would accept that nonsense. I wonder what these authors would say if I told them that their check was going to be a month late because there was a death in my family, and I had computer problems, and my dog was sick... |
| barrio99 | Posted – 9/25/2007 1:59:27 PM | show profile I am shocked I have been a journalist for 15 years and a freelancer for top pubs for 4. I can genuniely say i've never turned anything in late, ever. Who are these writers -- and do they ever want to work again? As a professional I truly don't understand that concept. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 9/25/2007 4:31:57 PM | show profile well, not to bust up the party here, but. 1. on the other side of the coin, I 've had three editors, after holding my story indefinitely for months, one time a year, contact me to say--in one scenario--they needed to run it right away--did I have a copy because he LOST it???? And then there's the problems with PAYMENT. Hello? I'm still waiting on payments two months after three stories have RUN! Payments aren't even put through until thestory is off to the printers--and then it takes "three to six weeks" is what I'm told. 2. Believe it or not, I had a stretch this summer where my hard drive on my computer died three times. It happens. And we don't have "people" to call on the sixth floor to some up and fix our problems. There's not "another computer" in the next (vacant, cause seriously, does ANYONE take more personal days than a women's magazine editor???) office. And yes, we do have kids who get sick and spouses who generally make much more than WE do (when we get paid) AND provide our health insurance--just like you editors do. 3. Editors don't want to hear the real reasons stories are late--sources change their minds, aren't available 24/7 for an editors stupid questions they "suddenly thought of", need to run things by lawyers. Tell all this to an editor and they act as if YOU'RE the flake, the unprofessional one. The EDITOR isnn't the one dealingwith the people actuallyinvolved in the story--it's the writer. The biggest jokeis when editors expect you to get a hold of government sources, and cops, and victim's families, in a moments notice. Or those involved in a lawsuit, criminal or otherwise. And these people don't know their lawyer's or their PIO's schedules (to get the ok to talk to the media) so they tell you, "sure I'll get back to you by Tuesday" and it's Wednesday and they haven't yet, or the lawyer or the PIO hasn't goten back to THEM yet. and it's a sensitive story, BTW, and the source is getting ANNOYED that you keep calling at all, and is starting to say they don't want to participate anymore. Call the editor and tell him/her all this--and I've done it, many times--and be prepared for the heavy sigh, the exasperated tone, the scolding, the threat of pulling thestory altogether. (Killed stories don't pay, either). Courtesy goes both ways. My lamest excuses have been the truth: On onestory, the afternoon a story was due the Gas meter man left our gate open and our dog got out. He was hit by a car two blocks away. I had to take the dog to the vet. Took the entire afternoon and into the evening. Worse then the editor not getting her story, the kids didn't get dinner that night. But the dog was o.k. (The editor didn't ask after the dog, BTW). Another time, I had called various sources for comments on editor's q's on a revise. Well, that afternoon AT&T changed the number to our phone's mailbox system without notifying us. (Um, yeah, they do this.) So I can't get my messages, there are no messages on my cell because usually a source only deigns to call one number, and calling AT&T gets me nowhere. "Call back during business hours" "we don't know what's wrong" "we can't help you you have to call the business office". You think I'm going to call my editor and tell her I can't turn in her answers because MY PHONE"S NOT WORKING????? hell no. I would have told her the dog ate the story except I was worried about word rep. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 9/25/2007 8:53:39 PM | show profile Editor excuses I have asked for an extension when I was given an assignment with a week's notice. I also asked for one in a family emergency. But I always asked in advance of deadline. I have had an editor "lose" my e-mailed invoice after telling me I no longer had to send hard copy invoices. So now I send e-mail and hard copy anyway. I like mailing invoices, they are my moments of zen. My favorite was when the editor "changed her mind" about my piece saying, "Oh, it wasn't as good as I first thought. Sorry!" and didn't send me the contract. While I wished her an ugly fever blister, there wasn't anything I could do. C'est la guerre! ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 9/25/2007 9:47:18 PM | show profile I like this excuse best of all...from the EIC of a major in-flight magazine for whom I'd been writing for a few issues after he took over from the editor he fired. His predecessor had agreed to a 50% kill fee instead of their, wait for it, 10 percent. Kidding, right? He tried to stiff me out of my higher fee after two revisions because....it was right after 9/11 and the airlines were all (true) watching many of their planes fly empty because consumers who could choose not to were not flying. So because of a terrorist attack and its effects on a major national carrier whose outsourced editorial staff was still collecting paychecks and enjoying an office complete with AC/heat and light...I was supposed to feel their pain and take a financial hit. Funniest thing I've ever heard. I took it to the CEO of the airline and got a free ticket anywhere....plus my full fee. Excuses from either side are a joke. |
| BurbGrrl | Posted – 9/25/2007 10:09:07 PM | show profile Good thread! We have a writer who mostly delivers the goods but is notorious for always being late. Well, this time I gave him 2 months for 2k words (and a cushion before I actually needed the story). He negotiated to push back the deadline a week later because of business trips; no problem. A few days before it's due, I send him a reminder/check-in e-mail . . . and he says he'll need until the next week because "I'm going on vacation." DUDE. I'm supposed to care that you can't budget your time?! Totally unprofessional. Had another case this year where I was trying a writer out. She totally blanked on the deadline -- I had to chase her down for it -- and didn't even offer an excuse. Liiterally, "sorry, I forgot it was due." I almost would have preferred an excuse in that case. GraniteGirl, sounds like you've had some rough deadline experiences. I would have given you a pass (and some sympathy!) with your dog and computer problems. We do understand, stuff happens. Re: the hidden reasons you listed, I'd actually rather know that a writer's having a hard time with sources than get some lame excuse. The worst deadline-busters I've seen were at a trade journal company. Most of the articles were written by people in the industry; the money was peanuts, so they were mainly doing it for the byline and the prestige. Some of the worst offenders wouldn't return calls/e-mails or have their assistants reply. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 9/25/2007 10:26:58 PM | show profile Okay ... I don't rant often. Well, much. But here are a couple of the things that bug me: Giving me an assignment, and after I'm halfway through it giving me a different one because the other was doubly assigned. Turning in a story, being told to redirect it one way -- doing it to that editor's satisfaction, and then having it go to the next editor and having them tell me to specifically undo what I was told to do to it, putting it approximately back to original and having it run like that. Being told on the 8th that my deadline is the 1st of the next month, and that the assignment will come to me on the 9th. THen getting a succession of emails saying the assignment is coming that day, the next evening, in the morning, and I get the assignment on the 21st. And it is still due on the 1st -- and the editor starts asking for it on the 27th just to see if I might be done early. Having an editor asking me to join him in a lawsuit against the publisher that fired him and stiffed me after I fought a 10-month battle and finally settled for half of what I was due, which i was given only after signing a hush agreement. The publisher would have given me more but the original editor turned in just half the stories and invoices. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 9/25/2007 10:54:58 PM | show profile Forgot to mention The "lost invoice" means I was paid two months late. So, it happens both ways. ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| seeattleme | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:21:51 AM | show profile Burb girl, that's you. But that ain't any editor I've dealt with and I've dealt with many. A friend of mine had an editor at the defunct Mademoiselle--when she complained about a payment that hadn't arrived six months after a story ran--get pissy and say, word for word, "well, if you're DESPERATE I could put a rush on the payment!" Oh and despite the fact that the story was nominated for a Health writing award, and she went on to write cover stories for the competition, they never used her again, cause, see, she was labeled the worst label of all..."difficult". She's not. She's just single and financially independent (isn't supported by her parents) and pays her own bills in NYC. It's been my experience that some writers (and editors) get away with the ludicrous excuses and are allowed leeway because of various factors--personal relationships, decent work quality, connections no one else has, etc)-- and others do not. Either way there's a difference between "reasons" and "excuses". Editors and writers both need to discern the difference between the two based on other particulars in the work performance, not just missing one friggin deadline (or losing copy or paychecks) one or two times. |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 9/26/2007 7:53:12 AM | show profile Disappearing at deadline time is also pretty standard practice for certain writers. I once worked with an AD, who had a photographer go AWOL on him when his photos were due. The AD tracked the photog down to the Caribbean resort where he was staying and had hotel staff pull him off the beach. He got his photos. As someone who's worked as both an editor and a writer, I can say that if you regularly meet your deadlines, editors will understand if you miss one once in a while and let them know as opposed to hiding out. And true story, my dog did actually eat (or gnaw on) someone's assignment once, making a paragraph illegible. "Could you please send an e-version?" I asked. "The dog ate the hard copy." |
| recovering_jersey_girl | Posted – 9/26/2007 9:14:04 AM | show profile | email poster Hmm, BurbGrrl, I think I might know the writer you're talking about... Alright, I probably don't. But it's sad that there are unprofessional folks out there giving those of us that are diligent a bad name. |
| eriksherman | Posted – 9/26/2007 9:21:45 AM | show profile | email poster >> You're so right...blaming the computer is the 21st-century/grown-up "My dog ate it." << Don't be so ready to assume that "didn't you get it?" is an excuse. I've had this happen to me more than once - not just with stories, but with pitches, and to editors I'd worked with before. Sometimes the editor just missed the email, and sometimes an over-excited spam filter zaps the stuff out of existence. And then there's the other side of the coin: the editor that delays on assignment, and then wants something involved turned around in a week or two, when the assignment involves trying to reach high profile individuals who generally need more time to schedule something. Or the editor who hangs on to a story for two weeks and then responds, saying, "I've changed my mind - I need a different slant and different sources, and can you get it to me in two days?" ------ Free writer resources: http://www.eriksherman.com/WriterBiz |
| Mirage | Posted – 9/26/2007 10:15:20 AM | show profile It makes more sense when authors are late on article deadlines...both assignment time and writing time -- not to mention editing time -- tend to be extremely short in these cases, and a last-minute emergency can truly cause problems. (Sorry, but a hard drive dying is not an emergency. It's happened to me, too...and it's not a question of "calling IT," granitegirl. It's a simple matter of backing up your work.) What I don't get is authors who are late on book deadlines, when they generally have months in which to prioritize their projects and other things that are going on in their lives. Even if disaster strikes at deadline time, this is the last minute -- most of the work should be done by that point. By the way, the author I mentioned above? After swearing up and down that I would have the rest of his work yesterday, the e-mail I received this morning communicated his apologies -- apparently, he "fell asleep on the couch reading to his daughter" last night. His due date was August 20, by the way. You are all absolutely justified in feeling that it's unfair when editors come to you at the last minute for rewrites, changes, or deadlines. But 99% of the time, we are not "sitting on it" -- we are waiting for approval from above before the project can be assigned. |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 9/26/2007 10:25:06 AM | show profile I recently had an editor sit on a story until the afternoon of the day I was leaving for two weeks (despite having given them much advance notice, and yes, I am aware editors juggle many people's needs, staff and freelance) and was in the middle of re-reporting it to answer their questions when my cell phone rang with a second editor with a different version of the same story, and a whole new set of questions. One can only take a long deep breath, try to manage your confused/annoyed/tolerant sources, do it, laugh and go get a stiff drink. It's very rare I get that many questions, let alone that late in the game, but it happens and it causes enormous stress to a FT freelancer who must often try to maintain the delicate fiction that YOU, dear editor(s), are our only and most essential client. In 30 years in this business I am struggling to think of an occasion, staff or freelance, when I missed a deadline, even working -- literally -- until I went to the ER and into a hospital bed while juggling stories, one from an editor who kept making changes and asking new questions with every revision. Never again. While it seems that any slip-up can mark a writer indelibly, if unfairly, as a screw-up it would be so much more productive if one felt more comfortable setting clear(er) boundaries on what editors understand we can reasonably deliver. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 9/26/2007 11:12:31 AM | show profile When an editor makes a last-minute request for info, I always say, "I have no idea if I'll be able to reach the source quickly and get you the information, but I will certainly call him. What is your absolute drop-dead deadline for getting this info? By that I mean, at what point should I not bother trying to reach the source because its moot?" That tack I find is effective because it communicates: -- I'll make an effort, but make no guarantee of success. -- I force the editor to give me an actual deadline. Often, when I put it this way, the editor who was insisting he needed the info by the end of the day, will now say, "Well, I'd like it by the end of the day, but if it comes in by Monday we're okay." |
| WordyBird | Posted – 9/26/2007 11:56:04 AM | show profile I agree with GraniteGirl--for once! ;-) My computer DID die a few days after I agreed to do some freelance work for my former employer. The new computer cost more than the assignments will pay me, thanks much, but that's the price of doing business sometimes. And yes, sources change their minds. They even have deaths in THEIR families, as well. And another thing...Nothing cheeses me off more as a writer than an editor who sits on a story and then all of a sudden slams me with queries and wants the answers right now. Granted we are talking about freelancing here, but it goes for staff jobs, too. I once left a job because the editor had no concept of deadlines. The magazine would be in design and she'd say, "Oh, we have time. Why don't you do an article on such-and-such." She would assign pieces AFTER the copy deadline. By the way, I say this as someone who has also been an editor for about 20 years. I try never to do that to my writers, no matter how busy I am. Send a query, get an answer. Turn in garbage, rework it right away. Story on hold, I'll tell you. One word: organization. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:03 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:14 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:31 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:40 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:48 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:05:55 PM | show profile late excuses How about: I'll turn it in once you've paid me for the last piece? I've had editors come up with the craziest excuses for paying me late. (Oh, we're understaffed. Oh, we just got in a new person who does the bills.) Or for not getting me contracts. (Oh, he went on vacation.) So, suddenly, I'm waiting six months for a check. Recently, I was told that I might not get paid for some work that I'd already been told to do and started work on; one of my mags - quietly - put everyone on spec, and didn't tell us. Editors pull this crap, too. |
