Pushing For Payment

Normally I write about ways to collect payments for writing from clients, but right now I’m pushing myself to write so I can get a payment. The payment on one of my ghostwriting projects says something like this: there will be 5 equal payments, each payment to be made when an additional 20% of the book is complete. The problem is, at my suggestion, we’ve added two new chapters. Which means instead of one more to write, I’ve got three more to write, and that has nothing much to do with 20%.

But I’d like a check next week. And I’m probably entitled to one, or close to it. I don’t like payment based on percentages much because in a book so much can change.

I’d planned to finish the draft of the whole book and ask for the next payment and use the hours for the final payment on the details of the book – final editing, tweaking format, you know… all that stuff. To meet that goal, I’ve got three chapters to write.

But come to think of it, that’s my goal, not my clients. So probably what will happen is I’ll finish drafting one of the chapters and when we talk ask for payment anyway. And I’ll probably get it.

I don’t know how I might have handled this differently, not really. We’re coming up with the original word count, it’s just being divided differently than we expected when we started.

Staying flexible is one of the keys to a freelance writing career.

Write well and often,

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