I actually have plenty of work that bears my byline spread all over cyberspace. But that doesn’t make the projects I can’t use as writing samples any less irritating. At times, I’d like to be able to mention certain specific projects to demonstrate my expertise in those areas or my knowledge of particular topics, but thanks to the client’s misguided revisions, the piece is no longer suitable for showcasing my skills.

I joined LinkedIn recently and have several excellent recommendations there, which certainly help to make up for the projects I’m unable to add to my writing portfolio.

Thanks for the info about Pipl.com. I’ll have to check the site out. Interesting suggestion about doing an advanced Google search to check for pending lawsuits against potential clients. That’s something I never thought of doing.

As far as not having enough work with your byline, zillions of blogs are out there in cyberspace where you can remedy that. My beef about many of those jobs is that they pay no better than literary journals. I refuse to work for a piddling $6 a post. That’s not even minimum wage.

The best way to avoid the nightmare clients is referrals. As you acquire clients and please them with your services, ask them to write a testimonial and pass your name on to others with writing needs. Obviously, the more social networking you can do, either through professional organizations, alumni associations or MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, the more likely you’ll land dream clients.

How do you find the dream customer? Do your research. Do an advanced search on Google to see if there are any lawsuits against them. Pipl.com is another great people research site, and it’s free. It’s a lot faster to weed through than the Google advanced search. The Web also has some great Web sites where writing frauds and scams are posted. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Finally, get a contract for all your work. I learned this one the hard way! Spell out exactly what work you’ll do, even how many times you’ll revise the copy. Then you won’t be writing 50 rewrites for someone and making 50 cents an hour.

Thanks for your thoughtful response to my comment. One lesson we can take away from such experiences is expressed in this very wise piece of advice: Never assume anything. Whenever we feel an assumption coming on, as professionals we really need to check ourselves–and then check with our client.

One thing I find particularly irksome (when ghostwriting or writing Web copy, which typically doesn’t carry a byline) is having a client change my content so extensively that I wonder why I went to so much trouble to produce a superior piece of writing in the first place.

Unfortunately, such changes rarely improve the piece. I’ve learned through such experiences that many business clients simply don’t have an appreciation for or understanding of what constitutes quality writing. My only consolation in such cases is that my byline isn’t on the piece! And I choose to be as philosophical about this problem as I do about the insufficient-information problem discussed in my earlier comment (though, to a large extent, this problem can also sometimes be based on insufficient knowledge of the client’s needs or preferences).

My rationale in coming to terms with this situation: The client is the one paying for the work, and if he or she is content to lower its quality and use the resulting piece to represent his or her company, who am I to argue? (I have been known, however, to attempt to “talk some sense into” certain clients at various times. It rarely works, though.) In such cases, I find that it’s better to simply forget it and move on.

Unfortunately, such situations do cause one real, ongoing problem for professional writers: We’re unable use such work as samples for acquiring new writing projects, since our previous client’s manipulations have turned a well-crafted piece into an inferior product which would not adequately represent our writing skills to prospective new clients. This is one of my least favorite facets of this problem.

Yet, as much as we may dislike these unfortunate realities, they are all part of the writing game–and particularly the Web writing game! So, unless we’d rather target the literary journals, we’d better get used to them!

That said, I will offer one qualification to the above: There are some dream clients out there who do recognize and appreciate excellent work and are willing to pay a writer well for it. As professionals, we owe it to ourselves to never stop looking for them!

Jeanne

I’ve been writing for over 20 years, and have finally gotten used to criticism. I’d rather hear it up front, though, rather than the client waiting till the very end of the project! I guess this one guy thought he’d hurt my feelings or something, but it was definitely a big miscommunication.

Lesson learned? Ask many, many questions throughout the process, so there’s far less chance for misunderstanding.

Thanks for an excellent post, Sharon!

Finally got around to reading this gem, and this is so, so true! For writers, it can be particularly annoying when clients don’t clearly state exactly what they want and then (once all our hard work is done) declare that the focus, or treatment, or [fill in the blank] is all wrong and the piece will need to be revised or rewritten.

Yet, when this happens, it always pays to be philosophical about the situation, which in turn helps us remain professional in our dealings with the client. (We’ll just have to make it a point to ask a few more very specific questions before tackling the next project. Too often, we simply don’t realize the importance of thoroughly exploring the client’s needs and expectations before we begin to write.)

Admittedly, dealing with this widespread client tendency is–and will always remain–one of the most irksome and frustrating parts of the writer’s job. Yet, we’ll find it far easier to maintain our perspective (and our composure) if we remind ourselves of this:

If the client were able to clearly and comprehensively articulate exactly what he wanted, he likely wouldn’t require our services at all but could simply write the piece himself!

Hopefully that will help!

Thanks for this great (and timeless) advice!
Jeanne