I took a job that was way bigger than described

[sydneyjowie]

Hello everyone, I took a job that was way bigger than I realized. What are my options?

[petra_r]

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Sydney W wrote:

I took a job to edit a book a few weeks ago.I

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The moment it all went badly wrong was when you accepted the contract without looking at the material first. 

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Sydney W wrote:

....about the project being way more work than described? 

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In fairness, it wasn't. According to yourself it was described as "...to proofread, edit, and rewrite where needed" - Those are actually 3 separate jobs... It is your job to scope the work before agreeing to a price. On what basis did you accept? 

Personally I'd suck it up and learn from it. In future, look at the material in detail and clarify scope in advance. 

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Sydney W wrote:

The milestones don't seem to be milestones.

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Again, that is something you need to nail down before you take on a contract. What are the milestones, what are the deliverables, how many rounds of revisions are included etc etc.

PS: You need to either remove your website link from your profile, or remove your contact info from your website. You're heading for getting your account suspended...

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Sydney: I am very sorry that you are going through this.

You made a common rookie mistake.

The silver lining here is that you will not make the same mistake again in the future.

I don't know the details of your situation. I don't know what was specified in your original fixed-price contract.

But it may be useful for you to list your options. Listing options doesn't mean all of the options are good. But these are things to consider. Note that some of the following, and perhaps all of the following, are bad suggestions:

You could close the contract yourself and block the client from communicating with you.

You could suck it up and continue going as you are now and endure to the end with this contract, hoping these somehow it will end.

You could just stop working on the project and ignore the client.

You could click the Submit Work and Request Payment button and send a brief note to the client that you have fulfilled the current task requirements and that the client may now release payment, after which you will continue working on the project. No matter what arguments or requests the client makes, you simply repeat this same refrain: yes, you will continue working on this, after she releases payment. After she releases payment, you then close the contract and notify her that you will continue working on the project using an hourly contract.