Selling Your Words: What To Do When Editors Pay Late

(This article went out in the July 2012 issue of The Prosperous Writer. If you are sorry you didn’t see it sooner, please sign up for The Prosperous Writer e-zine.)

If there is anything that strikes fear in a freelancer’s heart, it’s a late payment.

Everything else in a writer’s career can be going great, but that one late payment can feel like a personal failure taunting a writer and undermining her confidence.

Don’t let this happen to you if and when a payment is late. You can take charge of the situation in a positive, proactive way, just like you handle everything else in your writing career.

Here are few reminders. Keep them handy in case you ever need them and you will increase the chances that you always get paid:

Keep your cool.
This is not really about you. This is about a check that has not been cut yet. If you make it about you, you are creating a distraction that the editor does not need. If you want your editor to cut you a check, focus on being helpful and positive. Never have a hissy fit.

Send consistent bills, then statements.
A bill that has not been paid should become a statement. A statement is simply a bill that clearly states that it is past due and how many days it is past due. Send out your bills cheerfully and they will get paid. When they don’t, send out your statement cheerfully as well.

Inspire the editor to pay you first.
This probably sounds backwards, right? Why should you inspire her? But when publications depend on ads for revenue there is an ebb and flow to cash flow. When publishers are flush, you want them to choose to pay you first. If you are cordial and professional, you will be at the top of the list.

Get more gigs in your pipeline.
If you have nothing better to do than sit around and obsess about a check that has not come yet, you need more gigs. Go get some from the long list of clients, who pay promptly, that you have on hand.

Watch your cash flow.
When you are in business, you will also have ebbs and flows. Hang on to a minimum amount of money in your business account for the inevitable lean times. You may have heard that it’s often feast or famine for freelancers. You can control this to a certain extent through your own actions, so before you lash out at an editor, ask yourself what you could have done differently to be better prepared.

Never, ever whine.
The problem with people who enjoy whining is that they don’t realize that they are keeping themselves in a victim stance. And once you are in a victim stance, it’s twice as hard to become proactive again. If you want to make a statement, that’s one thing. A statement is, “I feel frustrated that so-and-so has not paid me for that article I wrote in January.” That’s not going to drain anybody. But whining is much longer, goes on and on, and never concludes with which part of the responsibility is yours.

Communicate with calm regularity.

Nobody can predict when you will get paid, when a client is late. But if you are persistent and eschew drama, I can promise you that you will get paid eventually.

Just remember: the only people who don’t get paid are the people who decide that they are not going to get paid.

Folks who expect to get paid, get paid eventually.

~ Photo by 401(K) 2012

Don’t let a late payment situation turn ugly. As a person who has always gotten paid, I can assure you that persistence and civility pay off every time. When and if you can’t bring your most patient game to the table, then you might want to stay away from the table until you can.

Sure beats not getting paid.