Do You Send Your Clients Drafts?
October 2, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
When I started freelance writing, I would always send rough drafts to my clients for approval a few days before the deadline. These weren’t totally rough – I read through them to make sure there weren’t any glaring errors – but they weren’t polished. I just got into the habit of sending at least a few of the articles from the batch for feedback, especially with new clients.
Ok, they may be works in progress, but at least my rough drafts don't stink. Too much. Image: sxc.hu
I got so used to it, that I forgot or maybe didn’t even realize at the time that not everyone sends in rough work for approval. One day, I sent some rough articles to a new client, and in just a few hours, I got a long email back about how the articles were full of typos and I should be more careful with work, since he’s “paying me so much” (for the record…he wasn’t paying me that much). Gulp. I quickly explained that the articles weren’t in their finished states, and that I was only sending rough drafts for content approval before polishing. Ultimately, he was happy with the work I sent, but I think the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth. He never hired me again.
It was definitely a learning experience about being on the same page as your clients. Since then, I’ve come to realize that most clients don’t actually expect to see anything but a final project. If it needs revisions from there, they’ll ask, but they generally want work that’s as close to final as possible. Today, I only send drafts to clients who request them, unless I’m unsure about the work I’m doing. I do try to send in every project a day before the deadline so there’s time for revisions if necessary, but that’s not always possible.
Do you send drafts to clients? Just curious…
Short answer, no.
Longer answer, I’m willing to make (one round) of edits for a client (additional edits come at greater cost). But what I send is not a rough draft, but a polished first draft.
I spell these obligations out in our contract, so each of us knows what to expect from the other. This process has worked out well for me and my clients.
I do send in rough drafts, particularly if I or the client is not sure of the content.
I have experienced some issues because my rough drafts weren’t rough enough! I’ve found that if your drafts appear to look like final versions, people reviewing them tend to treat them as final and either nit-pick every grammatical error or are reluctant to make changes because they perceive it as too late in the process. I’ve found that to get good reviews of content, your drafts need to almost look like they’re been written on the backs of envelopes.
I am starting as a freelance, and I did send a draft section of a business plan. The draft was just the first section of ten, and they went with it to their accountant who supposedly did not like it, while I just sent it to familiarise my client with the market that they were considering. Its a pity, but am glad that it had to happen.
I never send drafts before delivery.
Before I start a project I ask the client to sign off on an Assignment Sheet that delineates the project in detail.
My contract also includes two rounds of revisions–provided edits are returned within two weeks of my copy delivery and they don’t veer directionally from the Assignment Sheet.