If you've spent any time reading my blog, you'll already know I love my private clients. They're usually very respectful and understanding and most of them are willing to pay good money for timely service and quality writing.
However, occasionally I'll get enquiries from people wanting me to deliver top-notch service for pennies. They seem to believe my services aren't worth nearly as much as theirs and they work hard to try and make me reduce my prices to suit their own budget.
I don't work this way.
Today I received an enquiry from someone asking me to do quite a bit of work to a VERY badly written ebook. This would have taken me most of a day to complete. However I quoted an amount that is slightly lower than my usual fee and would NOT compensate me adequately for my time and effort
This person agreed, sent me the ebook (which is how I know it was so badly written) and then decided that it was suddenly way too expensive for him to pay. He wanted to push me for a cheaper price again.
Now... this particular person is selling the poor-quality ebook for €37 (Euros), which is $55 US. On a particular forum I'm a member of, there is evidence that this ebook is selling very well, so the person is making plenty of profit.
It's just a shame that he/she doesn't respect his/her customers enough to sell them something worth reading.
So... if you're ever in a situation where you get clients wanting to undercut your rates, STAND YOUR GROUND. They're making plenty of money from your time and effort and they're treating you like a second-class citizen when they believe you're only worth paying $1 per hour.
There are just too many good clients out there to waste time on tire-kicking time wasters who won't value your time or your writing for what they're worth.
:p
10/4/09
Ghost Writing and Your Copyright Rights
Many newer freelancers wonder what happens to the ownership of their articles once they've sold them to a client.
There's another post on this blog about various copyrights and publication rights here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/03/copyright-what-rights-are-you-selling.html
While the article noted above talks about various rights you can retain or sell as a freelance writer, it doesn't really answer the question of what happens to your rights when you ghost-write for a private client or a content mill.
Let's look at these options in some more detail.
Copyright and Private Clients
When you write articles for a private client, you are selling the full rights. This means you're a ghost writer and the client has paid for the right to do as he or she wishes with those articles.
Keep it firmly in mind that you're selling ALL rights to your client, unless specifically stated by mutual agreement with your client before hand.
Copyright and Content Mills
Content mills are like middle-men between you and the client. The client expects to pay for full rights to unique articles and content mills are simply there to match up available work with available ghost writers.
Once again, you are selling ALL rights when you submit your work to a content mill.
Retaining Your Own Byline and Rights
There are plenty of ways to write articles, keep your own byline and retain your own copyright at the same time as earning money. Unfortunately, many freelance writers bypass this option as it's often more competitive and sometimes more difficult to make a sale.
When you submit your articles to a magazine, the client is the magazine editor. If they accept your article for publication, you usually sell the one-time print rights for that magazine for an agreed time. Your byline is printed below the article title or headline. Once that agreed time-frame has expired, the rights return to you and you're free to sell that same piece again as a reprint.
(*note: you can't sell it again as an original piece. It must be noted on your next submission that it's been published somewhere else first).
You can also manage to retain a byline when you submit work to an article marketplace, like Constant Content. If you only allow clients to purchase 'Unique' rights, this means they are the only client who may purchase or print your article, but you're given the attribution with a byline under the title as the rightful author of that piece.
I hope this helps!
There's another post on this blog about various copyrights and publication rights here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/03/copyright-what-rights-are-you-selling.html
While the article noted above talks about various rights you can retain or sell as a freelance writer, it doesn't really answer the question of what happens to your rights when you ghost-write for a private client or a content mill.
Let's look at these options in some more detail.
Copyright and Private Clients
When you write articles for a private client, you are selling the full rights. This means you're a ghost writer and the client has paid for the right to do as he or she wishes with those articles.
Keep it firmly in mind that you're selling ALL rights to your client, unless specifically stated by mutual agreement with your client before hand.
Copyright and Content Mills
Content mills are like middle-men between you and the client. The client expects to pay for full rights to unique articles and content mills are simply there to match up available work with available ghost writers.
Once again, you are selling ALL rights when you submit your work to a content mill.
Retaining Your Own Byline and Rights
There are plenty of ways to write articles, keep your own byline and retain your own copyright at the same time as earning money. Unfortunately, many freelance writers bypass this option as it's often more competitive and sometimes more difficult to make a sale.
When you submit your articles to a magazine, the client is the magazine editor. If they accept your article for publication, you usually sell the one-time print rights for that magazine for an agreed time. Your byline is printed below the article title or headline. Once that agreed time-frame has expired, the rights return to you and you're free to sell that same piece again as a reprint.
(*note: you can't sell it again as an original piece. It must be noted on your next submission that it's been published somewhere else first).
You can also manage to retain a byline when you submit work to an article marketplace, like Constant Content. If you only allow clients to purchase 'Unique' rights, this means they are the only client who may purchase or print your article, but you're given the attribution with a byline under the title as the rightful author of that piece.
I hope this helps!
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