Constant Content

Have I been stood up?

I responded to a public request weeks ago and the customer asked me to write the article. Very nice back and forth. Submitted the article and it was purchased. He liked it, spoke in very flattering terms about my work, and asked for five similar articles with an agreed price and said he would send the list through the Q/A if I was interested. I said yes then asked some questions about starting the first article. Um, that was more than two weeks ago, he never responded to my questions, and now the request is gone and I don't know how to contact him except perhaps through his website. (Won't do that b/c afraid it would raise questions and think it's against the CC rules anyway.)

I feel so sad.

Mary

Sounds like he's changed his mind. Sometimes customers have budget issues. I wouldn't take it personally. If he talked that glowingly about your work, he may come back later to have you fulfill his request.

Ed

Thanks Ed. You're probably right and I'm sure there was a good reason - he seemed like a really nice guy - but I just wished he'd said something. . . (gosh those words bring back some bad memories. . .)

Of course last Friday I heard from one of my editors that one of my regular magazine jobs may not renew the writers' contracts b/c of internal changes. So. . . I'm just having one of those wonderful character building weeks.

Appreciate your optimism though. . . I'll be over in the corner with a frozen margarita now.

Mary

Well cut your hand as you cut the limes or something... you need that third bad thing to happen so you can have good things happen too! Or, if you don't believe in the superstitious mumbo jumbo, make your own luck. Pick something you've been meaning to do for awhile and jump it to the top of the list. You never know, you might be surprised....

That's what I did this weekend when I backed up my files, and changed my operating system. I found some REALLY old files from college I thought I had lost years ago. It's great, it means I just found my electronic portfolio for basically all of my writing for the last 3 years of college. All of freshman files are lost, RIP my little Mac..... but I already knew that. This was most certainly a welcome find!

Always Smiling,
Elizabeth Ann West

That's a bummer. You never know what the situation is though so you can't take it too personally. Every now and then I'll have a customer go silent for a few weeks and I'll wonder what's up. Then the customer comes back with loads more work.

Maybe it was a sickness, vacation, family emergency, lack of funds, who knows? I have even had customers privately request jobs and then take months before finally buying them.

But, yes, a brief note would be nice, huh?

Thanks for the encouraging words. I'm trying to see it as an "opportunity" to try out some new markets. Yippeee.

M

Elizabeth - that's great that you found some articles that you had forgotten about. It's like finding change in vending machine!