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davidd1008
Community Member

Looking for Advice From Other Writers

Hello all, I have a situation here and I'd like everyones thoughts.

 

A client I've worked with before approached me with a job which I accepted. Long story short, they're subbing out work to me for another client. That client did not provide detailed instructions on the job and now after I've written the article they want some pretty big changes made. 

 

What would you do? Part of me would like to say sure, it honestly won't take very long to make them. The other part of me thinks that if the client had specific instruction then that should have been communicated beforehand. Basically they said "hey, write an article on the top 10 muffins in the world" so I did. Now they've come back and said "well, we don't like these 4 muffins so we need you to replace them with different ones."

 

So part of me thinks hey, if you needed these 4 muffins to NOT be in there, or if you had 4 muffins you absolutely wanted included in the piece then you should have mentioned that up front. The other part of me thinks "oh shut up, it'll take you an hour to make the changes"

 

Generally, I don't have a problem with making minor revisions here and there but this is a pretty big one, even if the actual time it will take to make them isn't a huge concern.

 

Thoughts? Stand my ground or suck it up and make the changes?

6 REPLIES 6
wendy_writes
Community Member

David, you indicated having worked with the client before, was it always for their stuff or is their sub-contracting a general practice?  

 

If the former, I would nicely explain to them that you would be happy to do the work for an additional charge as it entails more than minor edits.  I.e. - the request is basically scope creep.

 

If your client does a fair bit of sub-contracting they are entirely at fault ...

reinierb
Community Member

@David,

 

Why are you posting this in two forums?

datasciencewonk
Community Member

Did you put into place an initial agreement with the client (when you first started working with them) regarding your limits on revisions (if a fixed rate contract)?

 

For fixed rate, I always tell clients it's a single, level 1 copy-edit per milestone. No adding to the word count, rewriting, etc. Only on hourly will I increase word count or make other editorial revisions beyond an agreed upon word count (very rarely is there a minimum word count for my hourly contracts). 

 

In terms of your particular scenario, what other factors are involved? If you tell them that revisions such as those indicated, are outside of the agreed upon scope (assuming there was one), and you would need another milestone to rewrite the material, then that increases the likelihood of less than five-star feedback (as you know). 

 

If you go ahead and do the revision to make the client happy, meaning the end client, then I'd also put in a stipulation that future revisions are going to cost X amount. 

 

This very scenario is why I either refuse to work with intermediary clients (such as agencies or a client who is subcontracting work for someone else), or I charge more and then make an agreement to work with the client's client directly. I understand, this is just how I personally handle such situations and everyone has a different experience (not to mention I tend to have more jobs "in play" so I'm strictly protective of the responsibility I have towards my other clients).  

 

I've had some bumps and bruises from NOT getting ALL of the details and then following up with targeted questions prior to starting the contract. (Newbie mistakes and brain farts on my part.)

 

 

 

 

My mostly non-relationships with secondary parties and how I handle those very few (direct accounts / not via U) are for the very reason Kat cited: "why I either refuse to work with intermediary clients (such as agencies or a client who is subcontracting work for someone else), or I charge more and then make an agreement to work with the client's client directly. "

tlsanders
Community Member

I'm going to be in the minority here, but if it's an ongoing, good client, I'd do it once and let them know that if they're going to be subcontracting in the future you'll need better information up front and/or payment for revisions.

 

 

tlbp
Community Member

I'd treat it as a learning experience. Let your primary contact know that you aren't going to make more than X revisions and ask them to communicate more clearly with the sub. If you aren't going to charge extra for revisions, then roll the cost of one round of revisions into your initial fee. (I do.)