- Joined
- May 20, 2008
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I'm dealing with something that's probably very familiar to many but unfortunately isn't familiar to me. I really think this guy is incredibly clueless and not dishonest, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do. Sorry for the long explanation, but I hope somebody can help.
I recently responded to an ad for an individual who was starting an informative website. He said he already had done the research but needed a writer to turn that research into a certain number of articles. He quoted a flat fee for the whole thing.
He ended up picking me for the job. We exchanged a few emails and I got the sense that he wasn't experienced with anything like this, but I was fine with that. (I say this because he seemed to just kind of want to restate his vision for the website a lot without actually giving more details about the assignment, and I kind of felt like that was a waste of my time but figured I should establish that rapport.) A week went by and I hadn't heard from him, but then he wrote again and said he'd been sick but was ready to go now.
So then he started talking again about the vision of the site and a lot of really general stuff beyond what my role was. He said there were 2 other writers who'd be writing, but he clearly hadn't given any thought to how he was going to divide up the work or even ensure that 2 writers didn't each write the same piece. He mentioned advertisers, which made me nervous because I was starting to worry that my pay was contingent on advertising and not on his initial advertised rate. He said something about me going ahead and getting started, though I had no idea what I was supposed to do and no idea about my pay.
I wrote back, still being very positive, but I asked for clarification and also brought up the issue of dividing tasks among writers. I brought up the issue of pay as well.
A few hours later, I got another email from him. I'd been at my day job and hadn't responded. Though it had only been a few hours, he thought he should call me and talk about "the direction of the site" since he hadn't heard from me.
I wrote back and said I couldn't talk since I was at work but I did answer his question about my rate. He'd sent me a few text files of his rough drafts of articles that he wanted me to clean up. I gave him my rate per piece for doing that work and said my rate would change if I had to write from scratch or do my own research. I also said if my first task was to clean up all the files he'd sent, I'd do it ASAP but wanted to know if he had a deadline in mind.
He wrote back that my rate and everything else sounded fine. But then he sent me this whole garbled list of information he wanted in the first article, which was clearly a different task than simply cleaning up his article.
Without even directly answering the question of deadlines, he said "send this piece to me tomorrow and then we can start talking about the next one."
I don't think he's realizing that he's making this whole thing much more complicated than it's worth my time to do. I think he just has this grand vision for the site and assumes that I'm willing and able to give it as much time as he does.
What I can't figure out is if I should a) grit my teeth and do the best I can, b) Somehow establish firm policies and boundaries, or c) Tell him that this isn't going to work out. I don't need this money in order to live, thankfully, and he's not an editor or someone that's likely to be professionally advantageous. But the money would be good, and if there is some way of firmly but kindly teaching/showing this guy how to work with a writer, that'd be ok. As for the quitting option, I'm leaning towards it right now but not sure exactly how I'd tell him that in a way that's nice but somewhat honest. I suppose there's a fourth option, which is to tell him nicely but in great detail to get in touch with me when he's actually ready for me.
So, what would you do in a case like this?
I recently responded to an ad for an individual who was starting an informative website. He said he already had done the research but needed a writer to turn that research into a certain number of articles. He quoted a flat fee for the whole thing.
He ended up picking me for the job. We exchanged a few emails and I got the sense that he wasn't experienced with anything like this, but I was fine with that. (I say this because he seemed to just kind of want to restate his vision for the website a lot without actually giving more details about the assignment, and I kind of felt like that was a waste of my time but figured I should establish that rapport.) A week went by and I hadn't heard from him, but then he wrote again and said he'd been sick but was ready to go now.
So then he started talking again about the vision of the site and a lot of really general stuff beyond what my role was. He said there were 2 other writers who'd be writing, but he clearly hadn't given any thought to how he was going to divide up the work or even ensure that 2 writers didn't each write the same piece. He mentioned advertisers, which made me nervous because I was starting to worry that my pay was contingent on advertising and not on his initial advertised rate. He said something about me going ahead and getting started, though I had no idea what I was supposed to do and no idea about my pay.
I wrote back, still being very positive, but I asked for clarification and also brought up the issue of dividing tasks among writers. I brought up the issue of pay as well.
A few hours later, I got another email from him. I'd been at my day job and hadn't responded. Though it had only been a few hours, he thought he should call me and talk about "the direction of the site" since he hadn't heard from me.
I wrote back and said I couldn't talk since I was at work but I did answer his question about my rate. He'd sent me a few text files of his rough drafts of articles that he wanted me to clean up. I gave him my rate per piece for doing that work and said my rate would change if I had to write from scratch or do my own research. I also said if my first task was to clean up all the files he'd sent, I'd do it ASAP but wanted to know if he had a deadline in mind.
He wrote back that my rate and everything else sounded fine. But then he sent me this whole garbled list of information he wanted in the first article, which was clearly a different task than simply cleaning up his article.
Without even directly answering the question of deadlines, he said "send this piece to me tomorrow and then we can start talking about the next one."
I don't think he's realizing that he's making this whole thing much more complicated than it's worth my time to do. I think he just has this grand vision for the site and assumes that I'm willing and able to give it as much time as he does.
What I can't figure out is if I should a) grit my teeth and do the best I can, b) Somehow establish firm policies and boundaries, or c) Tell him that this isn't going to work out. I don't need this money in order to live, thankfully, and he's not an editor or someone that's likely to be professionally advantageous. But the money would be good, and if there is some way of firmly but kindly teaching/showing this guy how to work with a writer, that'd be ok. As for the quitting option, I'm leaning towards it right now but not sure exactly how I'd tell him that in a way that's nice but somewhat honest. I suppose there's a fourth option, which is to tell him nicely but in great detail to get in touch with me when he's actually ready for me.
So, what would you do in a case like this?