What Do I Do When My Client Will Not Pay Up?

Speaking from experience, I have written for a number of sites over 22 years as a freelance contractor and can happily say 95 percent of those bosses paid me on time.

That being said, there is always that one individual or company that goes about hanging you out to dry, saying in essence the check is in the mail. Boy, haven’t we all heard that line a time or two in our lives?

I, along with a number of other freelancers, would be left holding dozens of invoices that we had submitted for payment.

A freelance agreement between writer and publisher should be entered into on more than just a handshake.

In order to protect yourself and the integrity of your writing, you will want to have some form of written document that clearly states what kind of work you will be doing, who you will be doing it for, and what the terms of payment are.

Nevertheless, all of us have probably been guilty of rushing into a situation, just being so happy that someone wanted to publish a piece of our work, that we didn’t get a formal agreement in place.

One such event for me was difficult. The owner of a sports magazine had taken me on as a freelance writer and we had an agreement for me to provide ‘X’ amount of articles regularly for him at a set rate per article.

As fate would have it, the magazine did not do quite as well as he planned, and he ended up folding up shop. I, along with a number of other freelancers, would be left holding dozens of invoices that we had submitted for payment. There was always the option of small claims court, but in the end I was able to get some of the written material published elsewhere, hence most of my work did not go to waste.

So, what can you do if your publisher suddenly finds it convenient not to pay you? Continue Reading