Why I Don’t Need to be a Know-It-All Writer

FREELANCING | WRITING

Ask any experienced writer and I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you a tale from their newbie days, where they succumbed to the temptation to keep income flowing by taking every writing job offered. That’s a mistake, but it’s something writers often learn the hard way. Here’s how I learned that lesson.

Early in my freelancing career, I was working for a UK copywriting industry. At the time, I wrote a lot about consumer finance, home and lifestyle, and web and social media topics. Sometimes, I’d write for a client who had a lot of websites on different topics. This was common at the time, as people were still trying to work out how to use the web effectively, and how to make money from it.

A Lesson from My Freelancing Past

One day, this client gave me a job. It looked pretty simple: five general articles on sewing as part of a much bigger home and lifestyle job. Sewing wasn’t a topic I particularly wanted to cover, but the agency was playing hardball: I had to take the whole job or lose it all. Since I couldn’t afford to do that, I caved.

In my childhood, my mother sewed, so I’d picked up some general knowledge, and figured that would be enough. It wasn’t. The client wanted more technical detail, the kind you’d usually only have if you sewed yourself, which I didn’t.

That meant a ton of research to wrap my mind round the topic. It also meant that every one of those five articles felt like hard work, probably because they were. In the end, the articles took double the research time and double the writing time of normal articles. That meant the rate I was earning went from tiny to minuscule.

In the end, I delivered a competent job (that was why they paid me the small bucks), but I learned never to take that kind of job again. It’s something that is guided my writing career ever since.

So what happens now when clients ask me to do something I don’t know enough about?

One thing’s for sure; I never pretend to have the expertise I can’t back up. Instead, I am honest with my clients both about what I can do — and what I can’t. I am honest about the results they can expect when they work with me and those that are completely out of both our hands. And I’m honest enough to say when someone else would be a better choice for a particular job than I would.

What to Say When Turning Down Clients

It may seem counter-intuitive to turn down work, but that honesty has paid off time and again.

Sure, it takes a certain steely nerve to tell a client “no”, but here are some examples of things that I’ve actually said:

• I’m not an expert in this business, but if you’re willing to brief me then I can do a competent job of writing about it. (I use this one if it’s a topic I know about but for a new business sector.)

• I’m not an expert on this topic, but I know someone who is and I can introduce you.

• I no longer provide the service, but I know an excellent service provider who will do a great job for you.

I find that clients appreciate it, and the writers I refer them to appreciate it, too.

The Payoff In Turning Down Writing Work

In the long run, avoiding work that I am not expert in works better because:

• I don’t spend hours trying to get creative blood from a stone.

• I get to help another freelancer or service provider.

• My client gets excellent service.

• I have better relationships with my clients.

And there are even more benefits. I run my business with integrity, I avoid doing things that don’t make me happy and I help my clients and other service providers at the same time. Most clients just want to get the job done right. If you can help by referring another expert, that works for them.

Finally, let’s face it; it’s good karma, too. You may not get the cash this time round, but you definitely get the brownie points. I’ve had people I referred on come back to me years later when they are ready for a service in which I AM an expert. And that makes us both happy.

© Sharon Hurley Hall

Sharon Hurley Hall is an anti-racism writer, a professional B2B writer and blogger, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast. This is a significantly revised version of an article originally published on getpaidtowriteonline.com