Leslie Lomax

I took on a small
article writing job for a woman who said her name was Leslie Lomax. She contacted me
through my blog, catalystblogger.com. Originally we
agreed to $35 for three 400-600 word articles ($25 for
the first one; it was a first-timers' discount). The
client paid $25 up front. Then the client asked for
longer articles, and agreed to pay a price of $55 each
for those, deliverable after the project was finished.

I wrote the first article and the client loved it. I
wrote the second two--the longer two--and I didn't
hear back from the client for a week or two. I let
her know that if I did not hear from her after a
certain amount of time, I'd send an invoice. Finally
she responded with something nonsensical, like "I love
the articles...can we just start with the Chemicals
one?" (one of the articles was about chemicals in baby
products). I wasn't sure what she meant, so I sent
her an email trying to clarify. No response, up til
now--it's been about two months.

I don't believe this client has any intention to pay
the remainder. The problem is that I was dumb enough
not to get her address and phone number. She owns
a business named Zelda Antiques, but the articles were
for a site about environmental child-rearing and
organic baby products.

We actually did have a letter of agreement, which didn't include her address, unfortunately. I also have a series of emails in which the client agreed to a change in price when she asked for a change in scope.

The problem here may have been that I wasn't formal enough; I've done dozens of one-off little jobs like these and have probably gotten a little sloppy. This is the first time I've had this experience.

That's a good point; I will remove the phrase "Zelda's antiques" from the title of my blog post. I definitely don't want to cause harm to people who are not involved.