Freelance Writing Problem #2687: Clients Who (Think They) Know Better

By Dan Smith

One of the first things any new freelance writer should know is that it’s a career which brings with it some major highs and major lows. Sometimes you think freelance writing is the best thing in the world, other times you can find yourself tearing your hair out.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m relatively relaxed and laid back, not getting too stressed out over many things when it comes to freelance writing. However, one of the points that really bugs me is when a client thinks they know better.

Now, I know ‘the customer is always right’ and whether you’re a writer or not, you should always be trying to please your customer base — and I’m never rude to a client — but one of my biggest bugbears is a client who sends a piece back, approving and liking it, but with amendments — amendments that are completely unnecessary or wrong for the type of piece.

For example, I was writing a relatively conversational piece the other day that was going to be published as part of the company’s social media strategy. The aim was to develop the piece and reach out to the audience on a very personal, easy-to-read basis.

I created the piece, sent it across and it came back approved, but with amendments that removed or replaced certain things, such as writing out the ‘£’ and ‘%’ signs and reducing the number of paragraphs the piece had by joining some together.

These are only small points, granted and in some instances, I wouldn’t have any problems with the amendments. It’s the fact the piece was supposed to be very conversational and social — using symbols makes the piece less formal and the greater number of shorter paragraphs makes the piece easier to read.

The reason I wanted to mention this was when something like this happens, it leaves writers with two options — go with the amendments or question them, essentially explaining why the client is wrong to make the changes.

In this instance, I went from both angles and replied to the client saying that although I understand the changes, I would recommend the original version without the amendments for x, y and z reasons and then left it up to them.

Other times, however, I’ve firmly stood my ground and had a lengthy discussion with the client as to why their amendments were wrong and that they will hinder the success of the piece — generally speaking, the client has been thankful of my honesty, but others times, admittedly, they’ve just ignored me. The piece hasn’t flopped, but it hasn’t been as successful as it could have been.

The point I want to get across here to new writers is that as long as you can justify your work and have genuine reasons why you’ve done something, you shouldn’t be afraid to stand up to your clients. In the early days, a client would say something to me and I’d essentially just nod and do whatever they wanted, but I soon realised that clients, most of the time, are happy when you provide information on how to get the most out of the piece.

I’m sure we’ve all been in similar situations, new and experienced freelance writers alike — how do you deal with them?

Image: San Diego Shooter (fotopedia)