A Freelancing Story

One of the greatest things about being a freelance writer is getting to know folks who are brilliant, clever and funny. Knowing these folks just makes for a brighter day all around. When these kinds of folks happen to be your clients then life is a total parade. Not only do you get to revel in the sunshine these people emit, but you get paid good money by them to do so. Sweet!

Well, there is the other side of that coin, isn’t there? I’ve gone on about bad clients before so I won’t rehash all of those points but what about the clients that were wonderful at one point and for some unexplainable reason have gone south on you?

A while back I was contacted by a person whom I had worked with quite a bit. She was a freelance writer as well and we had a lot in common in terms of our humor and our place in the big old world of internet freelance writing. She had hooked up with another freelance writer who was doling out articles to her and she kind of brought me in to take care of the overflow when things got too hectic for the two of them. I had had ancillary dealings with the other freelancer and I was more than happy to be brought into that little group. Promises were made about full-time and more writing assignments.

I would receive work from them in this manner: Email – Arghh! We need 15 articles on toilet training in two days. Can you do it? Always, my answer was “Put me in, Coach.” Worked out okay for me because the unexpected money was always welcome. Seemed to work out okay for them ’cause they got out of a tight spot.

Then came the day that I received a request to re-write a series of blog articles. The assignment wasn’t completely clear so I asked for clarification. Essentially, “do what you like” was the answer. I did. Submitted the work and ultimately received an (albeit) light slap on the hand for not changing the articles up enough.

Guess what. That was about a year ago and I’ve not received a stitch more work from them. I’m more than a bit miffed at the lot of them since I did exactly as I was told. If I had botched the assignment it would be one thing but I didn’t. I think it’s pretty low-brow of them and frankly, it pisses me off a bit.

Now here’s the other part of this freelance story. We are in the same circles in terms of Twitter and Facebook. I subscribe to their blogs and they subscribe to mine. Each time I see either of them in my Twitter stream I get a bit irritated and relive the whole experience again. I’d like to Unfollow, Unfriend and Unsubscribe but I can’t seem to bring myself to do it. Even now I’m perplexed as to why not. I certainly don’t owe them anything.

What say you? Is it best to just let this sleeping dog lie or should I “Un” them out of my life?