Scammed?

I answered an ad in Craigslist for a freelance writer. They responded last week and asked for two sample articles. I e-mailed them last Friday. Yesterday I sent a follow-up e-mail to see if they got them.

No response yet.

So I have a couple of questions. I got the request late Monday and sent the articles early Friday. That wasn't too late, was it?

And now I'm a little worried that this might have been a case where they asked several writers for "samples," and then went ahead, used the samples, and blew the writer off without response or pay.

Granted it's only been a couple of days. But today I visited Craigslist again and saw in one city several ads advertising for a freelance writer and asking for 3 or 4 sample articles (not the same ad I answered). That raised flags and got me to thinking about it.

Last question. If they don't respond, the articles are mine to do with as I wish, right? What if they put them on their website, anyway? And how would I know?

The ad I answered wanted samples on specific subjects, and my problem is that I don't have more than one or two older clips because I'm just starting out as a freelancer.

Still haven't heard from them.

The ads I've seen on Craigslist that really raise red flags go something like: "writer wanted to write articles on a variety of subjects. If interested, send 4 samples."

I once applied and interviewed for an editing job. During the interview they had me do an editing test. Okay, that's fair. Then they wanted me to edit a manuscript that they had already published. Okay, sure. Then they wanted me to edit something else. I spent five hours there editing. Then they sent me on my way. When I didn't hear anything from them after a week, I started calling for a status check. The person I was supposed to talk to was at lunch, out of town, away from her desk, out sick, on vacation, at a conference out of town, in the hospital, or attending a funeral. Sometimes on the same day!

Uh-huh.

Well, the good news is that I used one of those samples to get my foot in with another freelance job. This one I got.

There are some good gigs on Craigslist. Sometimes it's like panning for gold in the litterbox....

I found the website the articles would be uploaded onto and bookmarked it. If my articles end up there, I'll send them the link and an invoice.

Had to do something, though. Looking for a day job sure wasn't working anymore.

Life bites.

I never did hear from the people that I wrote the articles for, so I assume that's dead. I'll follow up again, but I don't really have any hope for that job.

The other Craigslist job also bit it. I edited a dissertation for them as a test, and I just two hours ago got the news that they're not going to hire me. No real reason given, just that they're not going forward with it. This was a real consulting company. Either I'm nowhere near as good as I thought I was (and I spent four years editing scientific papers for a peer-reviewed journal), or I was scammed there as well. It does more for my self-confidence to think that I was scammed, but I don't think that was the case. Candidates had to do two unpaid edits, so why not get both edits out of me if I was any good?

I'm now back to being terrified. This was the job that would pay enough to pay my mortgage.

I don't like this starving writer bit! Not at all!

Life both bites and blows. :-(