I’m also starting to go through this process as I’m working on book proposals. The idea of getting paid starters is weird, but you’ve listed all the reasons why they’re good things. Great work.

As far as deposit stories go, a number of years ago, I had the displeasure of working for a doctor to develop brochure copy. He pulled the plug on that project but not before asking me to write a press release. Had I not gotten a deposit upfront, I wouldn’t have been paid for either project. He turned-out to be a real SOB who wanted his deposit fully refunded. This was the only time I needed my lawyer to intervene on my behalf.

I chaulked this one up to a learning experience though. A friend of mine said, “always trust your gut.” I had a feeling this guy was bad news from the first moment I talked to him and I, unfortunately, was right.

@Sherree - wow! What a nightmare client. It’s so true though, isn’t it - you sometimes just have a gut feeling about clients, and it’s often right. I had a bad feeling about the client I mentioned in the post from the get go, but didn’t pay attention. Like you said - learning experiences.

I almost always ask for a deposit. I once had someone who refused to give me one, so I refused to do the project. I wasn’t budging - I didn’t care much for the reputation they’d built up on whatever forum they were part of. Reputation doesn’t pay my bills. Deposits do.

I was ready to drop the project, then they reconsidered.

Money is a sore point when it comes to a lot of writers, not just writers, but freelancers in general. But it’s something we can learn to handle properly, just takes some personal work on ourselves to realise that we deserve not to be treated like doo-doo.

take care…

And so happy Brad’s balls will stay where they’re meant to be…

First–bravo to you for starting this blog! We writers (yep, many of us are a bit introverted) need a place like this to learn and share.

I basically agree with you: For longer-term projects like the one you described involving lots of web pages, etc., I, too, would ask for an advance –probably one third of the total fee–especially if the client was a less well “established” organization. That said, however, I usually don’t request a deposit for most shorter projects, and I have never had a problem collecting fees after submitting the work (I’ve heard lots of horror stories, though). However, much (but not all) of my work happens to be for relatively larger organizations that have been around for a while. I trust them, I just do, and they don’t disappoint. If the project was going to be for a newer and/or smaller business, I’d definitely request an advance. By all means, cover your ass. I’m curious: Do you always, always ask for an advance, even for, say, a single magazine article? I’m really interested. Thanks for starting QRW!

Then there’s magazine articles - with this group, the rule is a request more than a rule. Magazines in my realm (and looks like yours too) are usually pretty firm on fees and delivery dates - I usually comply unless it just seems weird or unfair. So most of the time no deposits with them.

Thanks again for asking these questions, Susan. Hopefully the answers help clarify for you and for other readers. And keep on reading!

We seem to handle things similarly. It’s always good to hear what other writers do, what works and what doesn’t. Thanks for sharing. I’m looking forward to reading more on QRW!