It's a pretty sweet setup when a friend of yours rises through the ranks at a choice publication and ends up in the position to listen to your pitches and possibly give you assignments. Or is it?

For most writers and editors, working with friends has been a positive experience, as long as the work and the friendship is kept separate.

"It hasn't been a problem for me," says freelancer Diana Burrell. "One editor I was friends with before I started writing for her, and all our communications as editor/writer were very professional. The only thing that was kind of awkward was when she was planning to leave her job, and she was telling me a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff. At one point, we agreed to not get so specific, because I didn't want to know some of the stories since I wasn't planning on
leaving. She ended up moving to another industry and we're still friendly. I have a few editor friends I became friendly with after writing for them for awhile. It has never been difficult for me to switch between writer and friend, and I suspect they haven't had a problem either."

"I edit a magazine and some of my friends write for it," says one editor I spoke with. "I know they'll turn in good copy on time, which is why I hire them. All of them are people I knew as colleagues before they became friends before they became writers I assigned articles to. Maybe that permutation makes a difference -- I respected their work as writers before we became friends.

"I try to keep communication about the magazine separate from the 'what's happenin'?' conversations, although there is some overlap. (In other words, when I email a friend saying, "I'm assigning you a 1200 word article on nutrition" I try not to sign it, "Love ya!" but rather, "Thanks! Name, editor, Publication.")And I make sure I give clear letters of assignment and always, always email them contracts as soon as we agree on an assignment.

Of course, if a friend warns you not to make the relationship professional, respect their wishes. "An editor friend I've never approached for an assignment," says another freelancer I spoke with. "She had mentioned to me before I became a freelancer that assignments rarely worked out when she gave them to friends, so I took it to heart. (She also worked for a crazy women's mag at the time, so double trouble.) But I've gotten good advice from her, so it has worked out for me."

"These friends are people who have helped me in my career. Some of them have gone waaaay beyond the call of duty. So I try to return the favor when I can.

"I did have a relationship go awry though. A friend -- who is an expert, not a writer -- didn't seem to get the fact that the magazine was not a platform for her to spout her views and that the EIC (and I) had every right to edit to suit the magazine's purpose and demographic. We had a very very long and grueling period of extremely emotional conversations that lasted for two weeks or so when I kept saying that she could pull her pieces if she felt the editing was inappropriate -- and we'd even pay her full fee -- but that we couldn't run them the way she wanted them run. I understood her perspective, but she should also have understood mine. She put me in a tough spot with my EIC, and I didn't appreciate that at all. Finally we worked it out so one of her pieces ran with some changes, another didn't run, she was paid full fee for both and we agreed that she shouldn't write for the magazine again. We are still good friends, but this experience reminded me that if I want to work with friends, they need to be established, experienced writers who understand about the magazine industry. I would be willing to work with a newbie who is not a friend because then I could show him/her the ropes and if he/she turned out to be neurotic, it wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings or anyone's relationship to just cut them loose."

"Be honest, and be careful who you work with," says a former editor I spoke with who edited her friends' work. "If someone turns in work
that is problematic for any reason, be honest with them and explain
how it didn't fit what you needed -- give them a chance to learn from
it and work with you again. Be upfront that this is business, and you
need to think about your work and your reputation in this, too.

"And I think you need to carefully choose who you work with, too. If
someone is going to assume that they can phone it in because you're their friend, or if someone is going to be hurt personally by work decisions you make, you may not want to work with them because it'll jeopardize your work or your relationship.

"But I think that these things are not the norm. The friends I edited
were a real asset to me -- I knew they would be on time, write well,
and get the job done. It was nice to have that in my pocket, and I
appreciated getting them some nice clips and some compensation. Plus, it's good to be able to pass work to people you know and care about."