Constant Content

I would like to pick the brains of the CC crowd over a little quandry I am having...

I had a private request a while back and it has caused me a slight headache. Basically, the offer was for 25 articles on a subject I am very familiar with, so research could be kept to a minimum. Offer was $10-20 for unique rights. I immediately fired up the PC, fired off 10 articles and sent them off. I have liased quite a bit with the client and he stated he was happy with all the current articles.

He the said he was looking to pay $10 in reality. At the time this was my first private request and I accepted the offer, as it was steady work and held the promise of more long-term work. Problem is, the client has since stated that he can only buy the articles one at a time, when finances allow. This seemed fine but so far only one article has been purchased and it was quite some time ago.

My issue is this: The 9 other articles are sat in limbo, when they could be potentially be earning money in the public realm. I have asked the client to pick a 2 or 3 that he thinks he will purchase soon and let me know, that way I can remove the others from the private request. I have had no response.

Should I go ahead and remove the articles and place them in the general database? Can I do this with a simple edit? Am I being cynical to think that maybe this was a rouse to get the one article off me for a reduced price?

Please let me know what you think.

Darren

If it has been more than a few weeks, I'd release them to the public pool (at a higher price by the way) and let the guy know that when he's ready, you'll be happy to write a single topic at a time for him or that you'll lower the price back to his rate on any remaining articles when he's ready to buy them. You've got several hundred dollars worth of content that he's sitting on. If he wants the content, he should purchase it. If he doesn't, you should be able to sell the articles to someone else.

I agree with Celeste. Writers need to be less willing to acquiesce to the demands from the buyers. The more our writers stick together and create conditions for themselves that underline the respect demanded and the price deserved, everyone wins.

Thank you for the advice Celeste. As always, it is appreciated. I was leaning towards putting the articles up for general viewing and you have given me the push I needed. The price will be adjusted of course!

Constant, could not agree more.

And yes, I think you can just change the category from Private to whatever and it will go into the general pool. I think.

You were correct! It has been done (and it helped me leap a few places in an expert author group - bonus!)