I wrote a post two months back about when writers become lawyers. Sometimes writers are from Mars and clients are from Venus and we need some structure to the relationship.
John McGarvey has produced a really nice plain English contract for copywriting. I do things a bit differently but we share the same objectives:
- Reducing scope creep
- Tardy payments
- Deadline drift
My approach is to write detailed briefs, be flexible and rely on my formal terms of business and the government’s online Money Claim service if things go badly wrong. However, an up-front contract like John’s could be a very helpful alternative and I’m interested to hear how other writers deal with these issues.
I believe most writers deal with issue through prayer and the power of positive thought, which is to say not at all.
My standard scope of work/estimate/work order form includes the basics. So far, it’s been enough.
And while McGarvey’s contract should be commended for its straightforward tone, I don’ t think it would have helped in the few cases I have dealt with deadbeat clients.
That’s because collecting from a deadbeat client in the USA is probably more trouble than it’s worth on all but the bigger jobs.
This is my feeling too. You can’t legislate against arseholes. You can perhaps educate people. To the extent that this contract educates it is useful. My approach is to focus on the brief and leave the contractual stuff to terms and conditions. However, under English law this stuff is very different from the way things work in the US, so my suggestions may not work at all in a different legal context. Having said all that, there is a lot of merit in John’s approach too.
Is the Money Claim service effective? I’ve never been in a position where I’ve had to use it, but I’m sure that won’t always be the case.
I had to use it a couple of times back in my journalist days. A few magazine publishers think that they can commission and publish an article and then make the writer wait three or four months for payment. It’s very easy to use and nothing concentrates the mind of a finance director more than a winding up order. However, it’s really the thermonuclear option. There’s no going back after you press the button and so you have to be prepared to sacrifice the relationship in order to get your money. Once you’ve done it a few times, though, it gives you a lot more confidence when it comes to collecting debts from clients in the future. You know you WILL get your money so it’s really a case of how much you want to preserve the relationship and how much faffing you want to do before you start proceedings. I’m very lucky because nearly all my current clients are multinationals and they pay their bills and I know they’re good for the money.