The Word Wrangler

If you take nothing else away from this blog, please keep in mind what I’m about to tell you, and put it into practice. It’ll save you a lot of stress and headaches when the time comes, which it will.

A few months ago I was contacted by a web design/marketing firm to write content for a new web site. I was given plenty of notes and even had a phone interview with the client to ensure we were on the same page.

I wrote the copy, handed it in and was told that things weren’t right. It needed revisions. Okay, that happens sometimes. So I took the client’s notes regarding what she wanted to see in the copy and re-wrote. I even went so far as to include some of the client’s actual wording in the revised draft.

Still no good.

At this point everyone was understandably getting testy. I could’ve spent more time with the project, but I honestly felt I nailed it the first time around, and I told both parties so. Having arrived at this junction, I decided the best thing I could do was to let them find another writer. I even agreed to shoot the project off to a colleague whom I respected to take a crack at it. I did, and the word came back that she didn’t think there was anything different that could really be done. In her opinion, the draft I wrote was consistent with the message supplied to me by the client.

I told both of the parties this, thanked them for the opportunity and suggested that they turn the project over to someone else. My policy has always been not to charge people for work they’re not comfortable using. I walked away unpaid and they walked away to find someone else.

Fast forward a few months. I’m bored and I decide to Google the name of the company that contracted the marketing firm and me for the work. It was a nice looking web site and nearly 99% of the copy was mine. Sure there were a few added sentences, but the bulk of it was my work VERBATIM from the original draft.

Now I don’t feel bad for not having charged for my work. That’s still my policy when someone isn’t happy with what I’ve done. What I am upset about is that I didn’t state in my original agreement that, if something like this happened, the client had no right to use whatever material they’d gotten from me up to that point.

I don’t care what kind of policy you have when dealing with difficult clients. Maybe you charge them regardless of whether they like your work or not. That’s fine. But whatever you do, you should never give your work away for free like I just did. Make it known to your customers that if they like the work - and pay for it - they’re free to do what they want with it.

However, if they’re not happy, make every effort to make things right. And if that doesn’t work, and you have to part company, let them know in no uncertain terms that they have no legal right to the work you did for them, and if caught using it, they open themselves up to potential legal action.

In fact, if you don’t have a standard agreement with this type of clause in it that the client has to sign off on before work begins, make one.

I’m not saying this client was trying to abuse my policy and not pay for the work, but there are people out there who WILL take advantage of any opportunity to get something for nothing.

This is your livelihood. It’s how you put food on the table and pay your bills. Protect yourself up front so you don’t get burned in the rear.