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Topic: word count misfire; awkwardness with new editor
| Author | Message |
| waldo | Posted – 6/10/2008 3:11:51 PM | show profile | email poster Hi. I have a story that I wrote, editor liked it after we did some back and forth. This is my first time writing for her and her publication. But it's kooky... She is coming up short on my word count. I have triple checked the count and it's about 300 or so longer than she says. I want to keep working with her. I like the work but it's surreal and now she is likely miffed that I am making a deal out of it. but it's at least 300 bucks to me to get the count right. Should I apologize (insincerely) and let it all slide? Again this is surreal. and it's one of those things where the editor has the upper hand as always.. they hold the checkbook and you're just the hired help.. I may have already ticked her off by questioning the accuracy of her count.. not sure if the bridge so to speak is still standing or burnt whole. thoughts? |
| jcpatterson | Posted – 6/10/2008 5:06:25 PM | show profile Waldo, did she tell you at what point she took the count? It could be the difference between her giving you an edited count, and you using your submitted count, so you may want to ask. You can also make sure you tone down the likelihood that she thinks you are questioning her integrity by saying something like, "Sorry to make a big deal of this, but if you are using the word count feature on MS Word and I am, then I'm concerned something strange has happened to my software that I need to track down." Then, what does your agreement say about payment? If it says pay per word on published word count, then it will be the word count she says it is. However, all such contracts that I have negotiated say something like "$X per word for approximately 1800 words," and the fee is expected to be $1800X as long as the count is within 5 or 10 percent. I haven't gotten paid on the exact word count in years, and that was back when both I and an editor were brand new, and we both were comfortable with an invoice for "1787 words" or whatever. |
| sophiesMOM | Posted – 6/10/2008 6:09:26 PM | show profile been there... i agree with the above response. i had this happen recently where i had an assignment for a X word article payable at $X per word for a total of $X. the editing went back and forth and in the end the total word count was about 400 words over...a significant difference in the invoice. when i told them i was going to file an invoice reflecting the longer piece (which they wound up publishing), they said that no, $X was the rate and that was that....so they were basically paying a flat rate, and were a little disingenous even mentioning a word rate at the outset. |
| seeattleme2 | Posted – 6/10/2008 6:21:46 PM | show profile yeah, generally you are paid for number of words PUBLISHED, not written and /or submitted. Sad but true fact of the biz--check your contract. |
| snuffleupagus | Posted – 6/10/2008 7:00:52 PM | show profile I usually get paid for exact published word counts for web stuff, while magazine work nets me an approximate word count based on the agreed upon project total. Sometimes the contract stipulates that I will get paid I exceed that total, sometimes not. |
| waldo | Posted – 6/10/2008 10:59:41 PM | show profile Happy resolution; your comments quite helpful for future tho Thanks for your comments and for the discussion re word count negotiations and fees.. In my case, turns out it was a dumb error.. I copied the final PDF version into Word. The word count was about 1100 or so. My editor's count was 850. I freaked. Then, I asked around, asked a friend to do the count for me, as a reality check. She said it made perfect sense.. Copying from a PDF to Word creates extra spaces that Word counts as actual words - which hiked up my word count. So, all is A ok for this assignment. But... word count negotiations and verifying them and having a somewhat if not very solid idea of what you'll get paid as a baseline is all good to figure out upfront.. My story ran as assigned, but it was way more complex to report and she got that and offered me a tad (very little but some) additional money for my efforts. On balance it wasn't a bad experience but I think complex stories that require tons of reporting merit higher word rates or some very explicit financial reward. Just hard to know with a new editor how to demand that and get regular assignments from them. As freelancers, we have freedom of a sort but still, we are at the mercy of the editors who determine our value and our ability to get steady work. Oy. Thanks again for your lively comments re all of this. |
| KC4 | Posted – 6/11/2008 1:52:43 AM | show profile Glad to hear it worked out...and good to know about the pdf thing. I wouldn't have thought of that. |
| snappiness | Posted – 6/12/2008 10:54:24 AM | show profile That's good to know about PDFs, I had no idea. I get paid for the amt agreed to in the contract. As previous poster said, contract usually reads something like "$x per word, about 2200 words" or something like that. Sometimes the editor will say something like "try for 1800 but if you need 2000 then use it" and if it's 2000 then I bill for 2000. But no way do I get paid for published length, that would too often be short. In fact I don't think I've ever gotten paid for published length. There are just too many factors beyond my control, and I need to be paid for my work, not what ends up on the page after the editor and art dept get hold of it. |
| waldo | Posted – 6/12/2008 1:56:52 PM | show profile I agree re word count. In this case, the piece was assigned at 800 words max. It ran over and I contacted my editor while I was writing to tell her it would be somewhat longer. She said ok. But at that point, I dropped the ball. I didn't say.. ok.. so what is the agreed word count? I need 1,100 words instead is that ok etc etc. She did pay more than the agreed rate/word (not a lot more, but some). My error was not to keep pushing on the details when my editor agreed it could be longer. I was just jammed working to get the story in on time and didn't take a breath to say.. ok.. it's this word length, this is our new agreement. She is paying me $1,000 for the story which is 200 more than I had originally expected. Still cutting deals and then renegotiating them on the fly can be dicey. I need to be vigilant - stay on top of the details. lesson learned for sure.. thanks again.. |
| snappiness | Posted – 6/14/2008 11:27:46 PM | show profile Okay, it was a good lesson to learn. In future, if you find yourself needing to go over, you'll know that the real conversation you're having isn't about the word length. In my experience, editors don't usually care if you hand in a story a few hundred words over. I mean, it's not the most professional thing to do but they can cut. I have handed in stories up to 100 words over with an apologetic little note saying, "I couldn't cut it down, I am hoping you can see what needs to go." The real conversation is about money. "I'm finding that I really need 1000 words to tell the whole story, are you okay with upping the rate?" Now, having said that, I'd be amazed if the editor said yes. S/he is relying on the writer to know what length is needed to tell the story, and a writer calling up asking for longer length and more money at the last minute looks like a bait-and-switch. They've probably assigned it at 800 words b/se $800 is what they have to spend. The thing to do instead is just make the story to length -- cut out an entire section if you need to. Then hand it in. If the editor says s/he wants more, THEN you renegotiate the price "I was thinking it could use some more fleshing out there too, but I wanted to hit the word length and be mindful of your budget. So, you're okay with me billing you at 1000 instead?" Something tactful like that. Usually what they say is something like, "Oh, I don't see a problem with it still being 800 words, just cut that gorgeous little poetic section you have toward the end. That ought to do it." Heh heh. |
