| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: Excuses, excuses, excuses... |
Topic: Excuses, excuses, excuses...
| Author | Message |
| BluePooka | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:06:00 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 12:06:06 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 12:06:14 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 12:06:20 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 12:06:26 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 12:06:33 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 12:06:40 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 12:06:50 PM | show profile | email poster 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 12:07:01 PM | show profile | email poster 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. |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:12:37 PM | show profile OK, so if Blue Pooka said he was late because of technical difficulties, I'd probably believe it. |
| maphop | Posted – 9/26/2007 12:13:30 PM | show profile From A Writer's Side... ...I've worked with editors who not once-in-a-while but ROUTINELY lose copy - sometimes three, four times - or who assign last-minute "gotta have it ten days from now" features and then hold the story for 6 months. When it dawns on them (which it sometimes doesn't) that the piece now has outdated material in it, they want the changes immediately based on their new deadlines, not yours. Or, better yet, decide that they're going to run it six months after delivery but that the new issue they want it for doesn't have room anymore for 2000 words but for only 800 words and could they have shortened by the end of today? Over the years I've seen the professionalism of editors go down the tubes even as I've seen the same happen with freelancers and I can only attribute it to the fact that the media world doesn't have the same glamour, cachet and (comparable) pay rates that they used to and the people who are entering (or hunkering down and staying) just don't care anymore. And, really, what do you expect from editors who are sometimes earning less than $40K a year? |
| WritingEd | Posted – 9/26/2007 3:11:42 PM | show profile Excuses I've heard: "Brain freeze" "I had a business trip for my full time job" (funny, as a FT editor who has frequent biz trips and freelances on the side, I've never had to use this excuse, ever.) "Just need to give the piece another quick look and then I'll send it" (a week later it's still not in) I got absolutely no excuse from a writer who was more than 3 weeks late with copy in December, when I planned to take off Dec 20 through the new year and had to get work done early in order to do that. Calls and emails did not get a response. Eventually got the story, which (unfortunately) was good. |
| granitegirl | Posted – 9/26/2007 4:19:36 PM | show profile Mirage--what do you do when you've BACKED up but not the stuff you were working on THAT FRIGGIN MORNING???? DUH!!!!! (It happens on deadline). Or that your whole computer WON"T TURN ON AND YOU ONLY HAVE ONE COMPUTER BECAUSE YOU"RE NOT FRIGGIN DONALD TRUMP? honestly! and what if you have kids to raise and feed and diaper and a hourhold to maintain and OTHER THINGS GOING ON IN YOUR LIFE--so you don't have time to spend the whole friggin day running around town looking for a Kinkos (and a KInos Rep) who can get your backup, load it in, translate, it, have it usable AND REPLEACE WHAT YOU WERE WAORKING ON THE DAY BEFORE? do you people in ofices really BACK UP EVERY SINGLE DAY? or does your "company"? Because that goes right back into my original point. And by the way, Mirage, thank you for proving my EXACT point--editors who work in offices where they back up files EVERY NIGHT AUTOMATICALLY just don't GET IT and DON'T want to hear it. i couldn't have ASKED for a better way to drive my point home. Merci beaucoup. We freelancers are desirable because of our flexible schedules--we can answer your stupid questions at the ddrop of a hat and go anywhere or interview anyone anytime. But with that "flexibility" comes some drawbacks. We work out of our homes, off our computers. We are not necessarily tech savvy. And when our computers FAIL us and we don't even KNOW WHAT HAPPENED we don't necessarily know or can find someone who knows how to deal with it on a moment's notice. I didn't KNOW my hard drive froxze until some Tolkein-reading freak TOLD ME SO! SHit happens! Deal! or not. my work is good enough that I don't care. But don't bitch about my "lame excuses" that I could back up with paperwork and testimonials when you can't even GET ME PAID. |
| Mirage | Posted – 9/26/2007 5:35:02 PM | show profile granitegirl... As I'm sure you know, most editors don't make a lot of money. Therefore, many of us freelance. We work from home, on our own personal computers, and have deadlines for OUR editors. And you know what? I've never missed one. Why is that? Because (a) I back up my work (on Google, actually, which you can access from any computer, anywhere, for free)...so if I lose that day's work, it's not a huge catastrophe because the bulk of it is already saved online. And because (b) no matter what else is going on in my life, I put my responsibilities first. I am sure that if and when something happens to cause me to miss a deadline, my editors won't throw a fit because I am consistently reliable, and editors understand when something out of the ordinary occurs for a dependable freelancer. And by the way, dear, I don't ask for last-minute changes or expect my authors to adhere to insane deadlines. I am not in magazines, which appears to be all that you, in your vast experience, can comprehend. What I do ask is that my authors turn in their work on time, per their contract dates. It's what I do as a freelancer, and what I expect as an editor. Sorry, but I can't respond to the rest of your post; I'm getting a headache trying to decipher it. |
| catlondon | Posted – 9/26/2007 5:54:31 PM | show profile Mirage: You're using Google documents, right? I have come to love Google documents. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 9/26/2007 6:01:22 PM | show profile For me, as an editor, the problem I've had isn't so much some freelancers completely missing deadlines. The hardest thing for me is when I receive a project from someone (and I don't deal with writers; I deal mostly with designers and web people), then the person vanishes. Kaput -- no response to emails or phone calls. And it's not even that I need a wholesale redo of the project -- maybe there's just one small question I have or one minor missing file, but it's holding up the entire thing. Then, two weeks later, I get a response: "oh hi, just got back from my camping trip!" or whatever. I know granitegirl mentioned that freelancers are available at the drop of a hat, and that may be the way she runs her business -- but there are other freelancers for whom that's not the case. The reason they want to freelance might be because they like flexible hours -- to work midnight - 8am if they want, head out of town without getting persmission from boss, etc. But that can cause problems from people they're doing business with who ARE working during normal business hours. This has been mentioned before, but for me, I find the best freelancers are those who treat what they're doing as a business: they work and are available during standard business hours (not at every second, of course, but generally) -- just like most other business people. if they're not going to be available, they notify clients ahead of time and leave the proper "out of office until..." messages on their email and voicemail accounts. And they have every right to refuse unreasonable requests, and let the client know what they CAN do instead. And they can -- and should! -- request that the scope and timeline of the project be clearly spelled out ahead of time in a contract. And they have every right not to do business with out-of-line clients. And of course, life interferes for all of us -- we all have family emergencies, etc. that often force us to shuffle things and run around like crazy for a period of time. That's not something unique to those who've chosen to operate their own freelance business. |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 9/26/2007 8:20:22 PM | show profile Mirage and catlondon; how often do you backup on google docs? Can you give me the cliff notes version of how it works? I had never heard of that before and just took a peek. Looks interesting. Thanks for the tip! |
| BurbGrrl | Posted – 9/26/2007 9:36:00 PM | show profile Erik has a good point < The publication I work for covers some sensitive material that often gets caught in the spam filter. (And for some reason, our filter doesn't let us know until literally weeks later) When an article on this topic fails to appear by deadline, I just assume it's dissipated into the ether and have the writer resend it to my home e-mail. So, "the computer ate my homework" actually does happen. |
| catlondon | Posted – 9/27/2007 12:27:42 AM | show profile His Girl Friday: I just hit save regularly, just as if I were working in Word. One of the features is a revisions history (it's a tab) so that you can go back and track the changes you've made step by step. The files can then be exported in a variety of formats, like Word or PDF. I've found it very useful because I can access my documents just by logging into my Google account from whatever computer I happen to be near. Those boys are so smart...I can almost forgive them their blatent ageism. |
| Mirage | Posted – 9/27/2007 1:59:11 PM | show profile Agreed, Catlondon...it's fantastic! |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 9/27/2007 2:06:57 PM | show profile I don't see how a magazine could put you on spec without telling you unless you were working without a contract. --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.-- |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 9/27/2007 9:16:19 PM | show profile I actually did this one. My editor called me to check in about the assignment that was due the next day. It was a big money piece (over $7,000) but it had slipped my mind. (I knew the piece was assignment, but forgot the deadline). I managed to do the thing in three days. There was, my editor told me, some questions about why they were payijg me $7000 for a piece I could do in three days, but my editor covered by telling his colleagues I had actually done a lot of the preliminary work. --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.-- |
| womaninbooks | Posted – 9/28/2007 7:37:33 PM | show profile I actually sent a story by deadline and got no confirmation. When I emailed to get confirmation from the editor, I got no response. Two weeks later, when I emailed again, I finally got this answer: "No, we never got it, but don't worry - a better story came along that we put in its place so it's okay you missed deadline. We can bump it back." I didn't miss the deadline, but that's semantics, right? I sent the piece again and again got no confirmation. I now call immediately after emailing because I don't want a bad reputation because their spam program blocks some of my emails. On the other hand, I have never, in my three years of freelancing, been paid on time. One check (for pennies, really) came over a year after it was due and only after threatening legal action. |
| frantic | Posted – 9/30/2007 8:51:47 AM | show profile Wow. So much hostility on both sides! I've been on both sides of the fence, personally-- many years as a staff editor and now freelance-- and I think it's pretty simple. No matter who you are, act like a professional. Make your deadlines whenever you can, and don't just do that, but send in GOOD, well researched work. Then, when you miss a deadline on occasion because something big comes up, no one really gets upset, because they know you're reliable. Editors need to be respectful, and not only that but ready to go to bat for their writers. I used to be horrified when something came down from corporate like a new, book-length contract that took away every right the writer ever had, in perpetuity, or when the accounts payable dept would get sloppy and behind on paying. I'd make a fuss, because happy writers made my job easier. Plus, I know what it's like to be them. And only in the most extreme situations would i ever ask for a super fast turnaround on revisions. That, I think, is the biggest offense of editors (after ego-driven rewriting and basic lack of communication skills)-- laziness, which translates to passing the buck when deadlines are looming. The biggest reason I'm ever late, as a freelancer? Some other editor dropped a last minute "emergency" on me and f'ed up my schedule. Of course, I never give that as a reason, since no one wants to think you're putting someone else's work first. But as someone else here said, what can you expect when standards have dropped so low? A lot of these editors are making 40k a year if they're LUCKY. |
