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Topic: editor asking way too much?
| Author | Message |
| breezywriter | Posted – 3/19/2008 4:12:10 PM | show profile | email poster i have been writing for an unorganized editor for over a year. (twice my byline was left off and once someone else's byline was put on my article.) i recently wrote an article and as a courtesy forwarded several images from pr people. procuring images is NOT part of my job. then she asks me to track down photo credits. even though i was annoyed, i did it. then she asks me to track down prices--at that point, i told her if she wanted to pay for my time, i would be happy to do it or i would be happy to forward her my contacts. no surprise, she opted for the latter. (i did wind up forwarding her price info, anyway.) now she just emails me to see if i could compile all the credits and price info into one email for her because "it's too much work for her to go through the several emails i sent her." i am so over it. should i just suck it up and do it and never send her images again? should i tell her she needs to pay for my time? i write for the pub regularly so don't want to alienate her but don't want o be taken advantage of either and have already gone way above and beyond. thoughts? |
| snappiness | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:20:00 PM | show profile You've sort of created this monster yourself because you've responded to her requests. Be a professional and suck this one up, with a friendly attitude. But next time, address it up front maybe by saying, "Will you need me to get images for this story? If so, we should address that in the contract." On summarizing those emails you could say something like, "I'm so sorry, I've already deleted all that and moved on to the next story." But I would save that response for next time, not this time. And give some thought as to whether or not you honestly want to work with her again. It sounds pretty annoying. If you're going to stick with her you need to establish some boundaries, it sounds like. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:31:44 PM | show profile Yeah, I would suck it up and do the work. Then think twice about taking another job--or if you do, do all this work from the get-go and make it easier on yourself. You never know where this editor may wind up next--or who she'll recommend you to. |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:37:31 PM | show profile I agree that this editor is asking too much. It's her job (or her staff's job) to compile the information that you sent her, if what you sent her is fairly organized. I'd do it this time, but then I'd pull out my contract and see what it specifies. Do you have a contract with her that specifies that you also get photos? In contracts with my former freelancers, we always requested that the off-staff writers get photos, for which we then paid a flat fee per photo for the effort (I mean asking for photos from the interviewees, not going there to take photos). If you do have a good relationship with her, I'd strike a conversation with her and let her know that you'd like to renegotiate your terms. I would be firm, but not obnoxious or confrontational about it. I also wouldn't mention what you do for other publications, but I would say that getting photos is not the industry standard for freelancers and you would be open to negotiating a set fee. And I definitely wouldn't mention her disorganization or mistakes in the past. Tread lightly. Look at your contract and see what it specifies. I'm coming at this question as an editor, not a freelancer, so you may want to get a second opinion. This how I would appreciate a freelancer to handle it. Good luck to you. |
| observer | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:45:40 PM | show profile i have a very similar situation with my supervisor who is disorganized and always needs things completed at the last minute. it's difficult since she is my supervisor to criticize or come back and say we need to create a better system. what i have done is to own the process so when she sends me content, i ask all the questions i need before proceeding. it's helped allot and the whole situation is now much better. good luck |
| WritingEd | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:53:16 PM | show profile Writers for my publication are asked up front to request artwork for us. They are speaking with the sources anyway and it gets them thinking about the story words and art as a package, and in my opinion makes for a stronger story. I will give them suggestions on what types of images may be a good idea, and our story sources are often able to meet pretty specific art requests and send us the photos for free. Provided they make some effort to do get art, I continue any back-and-forth necessary with the sources. But I get pretty annoyed when someone makes no effort to procure art when we specifically ask for it, or when they send random art files with no indication about where they're from and what's in the picture. Very free of our writers have ever balked at this request, so there must be other pubs out there asking writers to do the same. (We're a trade.) As an editor, I also find it very annoying when writers get annoyed by reasonable requests and then perhaps to show that annoyance, start sending me several emails with responses rather than compiling everything in one. "Reasonable" is of course subjective, I know. (For instance, if I ask a writer a question on a story and he needs to check with an expert or consult his notes, and instead of emailing me a succinct response and/or suggestion for a text revision or addition, he sends me the whole transcript and I'm supposed to weed through for my answer.) |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 3/19/2008 6:07:21 PM | show profile Just because a freelancer doesn't balk at a request doesn't mean they like it or agree that it is fair or want to do it. There are any number of editorial demands we deal with but just because they are widespread doesn't mean they're terrific. I am routinely asked by some editors to suggest art for my stories and I often make it a point to ask the sources I think most likely photogenic if they are OK being photographed, and/or passing along all contact data. While it's true some writers are bone lazy and won't help at all, (or play passive aggressive games like making you fish [!] for details in their material), it's also annoying when you hire a freelancer to write a story and expect them, de facto, to also act as your unpaid photo editor or art director. No one wants to say "that's not my job" -- but with many freelance pay rates stuck in the 1980s for the most part, any additional request can feel excessive. I've had my photos bought by major pub's but not every writer has much of a visual sense, or wants to. On a recent trade story I found a few great relevant pix shot by local papers and suggested my editor contact the papers directly. While procuring photos is not breezywriter's job, it's helpful, and editors like helpful writers. Why not simply have the PR people forward whatever the editor needs directly to that editor? That way you both get what you want. |
| breezywriter | Posted – 3/19/2008 6:19:41 PM | show profile | email poster thanks for the advice... just to be clear--getting images is not part of my job for this pub. for other pubs, i get paid a small fee for photos. i think i'll suck it up this time but won't ever send photos again. no good deed goes unpunished. if i didn't need the work, i would not work with this woman anymore. although, i do like the actual writing i'm doing--just not her lack of management skills. ugh. i have been an eic, and i would never ask seasoned freelancers to do the kinds of things she is asking me to do. it's for her or her assistant to do. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 3/19/2008 6:57:20 PM | show profile In cases like this passive resistance work best. Compile the info this time. Don't forward anymore images. If the PR person offers you images, just tell them politely you don't need them. Let the editor do her job. |
| WritingEd | Posted – 3/20/2008 11:53:43 AM | show profile Just to clarify, writers are asked to request images and have them sent directly to the editor. That way any questions we might have on photo credits can easily be directly to the source and the writer is left out of it. I agree that just because writers don't outwardly complain doesn't mean they're totally fine with the requests. Unfortunately, that's the way we work (for lack of a photo editor or art director who does any image procurement -- that's just the way things have always been here and one of those things that isn't going to change). We have a stable of writers that have been with us a long time, so I like to think that we treat them with enough respect in many other ways so that they don't mind the art requests too much. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 3/20/2008 1:26:09 PM | show profile >>Just to clarify, writers are asked to request images and have them sent directly to the editor. That way any questions we might have on photo credits can easily be directly to the source and the writer is left out of it. << As a writer, this is exactly how I handle it from the get-go. It takes all of 30 seconds to ask for photos and supply my editors' e-mail addresses. Then I drop my editor a note saying to expect pix from so-and-so source. Total time expended: about 2 minutes. And I've transferred the photo duty back to my editor. I began doing it this way after a wicked experience in which the source mailed unsuitable photos directly to an editor, and the editor asked me to contact the source for more. This went for another round before I extracted myself as the go-between and suggested the editor contact the source herself to discuss what she wanted, since I wasn't laying eyes on the pix anyway. |
