I terminated two contracts this week.
The first was a contract with an entirely unresponsive client. The first few weeks, this client called me, we met in person, he answered my email messages. Then he dropped off the face of the planet. I couldn’t leave a voicemail message because the “box” was full. He didn’t answer my email messages. Finally, I mailed his materials back to him with a letter stating that I could not continue on his project without his feedback on the drafted content.
The second was a contract with a client who insisted on telling me how to do my job. Really? When one hires a contractor, one generally doesn’t tell the contractor how to do his or her job. You can hire the band to play a certain list of songs, but you don’t tell them how to play the music. Same goes for ghostwriting. The really aggravating thing about this was that the client read one of my stories and decided he wanted me to write his book: in other words, I did not respond to an RFP. He came to me.
You want content written? Great. Tell me what you want written and I’ll write it. If you need specific points of information or events to occur in the content, tell me and I’ll make sure they’re in there. If you need certain conventions followed with regard to keywords, citations, or something else, I’ll comply. If I need more information, then I’ll ask for it. If I’m confused, I’ll ask for direction. But the process of creating content is mine: you don’t get to tell me how to do it.
The ghostwriting process is as individual as the writer. If I notice a discrepancy, inconsistency, or other inaccuracy, then I expect the client to heed my observation and give my suggested correction serious consideration. Dismiss my expertise out of hand once and I’ll probably just fume about it. Do that a second time and you’ll lose your ghostwriter. I can find someone who appreciates my work. If I can’t, then I’ll write for my own purposes.
The kicker is that I wanted to do these projects. The first promised to be a roller coaster of events leading to a wonderful invention that can help a lot of people. The second promised to be an interesting and challenging story that incorporated a coming of age theme.
So, it’s been an aggravating week already.
But let’s end on a good note: Authors Talk About It entered Daughter of the Deepwood into their book cover contest and it won! According to Rob Alex, “Daughter of the Deepwood was our cover winner for May 2018, the book will be in the sidebar of our blogs for the rest of May and until a winner is chosen for June 2018.”
How cool is that?
#HenHousePublishing | #HollyBargoBooks | #SpringfieldOHBookFair