Pubs. They took their name from Public Houses. When I lived in rural England, it seemed that every few miles there was a village of fifty homes, an Anglican church that dated from the 1200s and a pub that seemed just as old. There the regulars and even a few irregulars would gather where for centuries the pub served as a social center of the community. People met with their neighbors and traded stories about local news and gossip.

Before television, before radio, before telegraphs and newspapers and possibly town criers, pubs were the hub of information. The news made its way to the neighbors who carried it to other towns or vice versa.

Today’s version may be coffee shops. With their proliferation to the point that they seem to be on every street corner. Writers have been taking their laptops to the local coffee shop for several years now, typing away as they drank their white mocha, then using the wi-fi to get connected to the world and get ideas. But now they may provide writers new opportunities.

Are you looking for a meeting place for your writers group or book club? Local coffee shops offer a comfortable chair and nearby cup of joe. Or are you a blogger? Lately, I’ve attended a weekly local blogger’s Sip ‘n Blog. For one hour a week, the blogger discusses a topic of local interest with a special guest. During that hour, about a dozen local citizens have an opportunity to ask the guest questions. One guest was the publisher of the local paper. During the hour, the blogger also does a quick, regularly-scheduled five minute call-in to the local radio station. Imagine that hour as information reaches several media and personally reaches out to the citizens in attendance.

Have coffee shops become the new ale houses of old? Perhaps not yet, but as the print media industry faces growing challenges with diminishing returns, turning to an old establishment while employing one of the new media may be one way of getting your own blog started or revamped.

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Claude Berube is the President of American Independent Writers and teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy. The co-author of two books, he’s published over thirty articles in academic journals, popular magazines, and newspapers.

Your client with whom you have worked for many years has hired another freelance writer—and now requests your help in transitioning a new consultant to do what you once did as well as wants copies of materials and documents previously sent to them. Recently finding myself in this situation, I gathered advice from more than 30 freelance writers in the Washington, D.C. area who come down on two approaches to this problem.

Absolutely Do Not Help – here are reasons why:

When a client hires a consultant, they are hiring your specific expertise, including your previous work experience, institutional knowledge of your craft, and relationships. The incentive to keep you is your know-how. If they choose to go with someone else, despite your track record, they need to take the risk of starting all over again with a new consultant “who claimed or they thought would be better than you.” All you owe them is the funds raised. Sometimes clients hire younger, less experienced consultants because experienced ones are not as easy to push around and know enough to question dubious activities or business choices. Younger consultants may be cheaper, but clients often get what they pay for, especially with freelancers.

Parting thought – Why should you give them your ideas or contacts after treating you badly and choosing to go with another freelance consultant?

Absolutely Do Help – here are reasons why:

Do the transition if you are paid for your transition time, and then end the relationship on as pleasant, brief, and businesslike note as possible. One freelance writer advised to say something such as, “Although you regret this arrangement has come to its natural end, you respect their desire to move onto a new grant writer as they begin again under a new director and in a new direction. After receipt of a final payment, you will be delighted to promptly share all of the materials and assistance they have requested under a short-term close out contract. You wish them all the best, and your invoice is enclosed.” Since all relevant information has previously been provided during the course of your contract, you may consider that all business obligations are fulfilled. However, their request is probably being made because even if the organization can find where they have put these records, they probably do not know what story has been told. Give them a quote for the number of hours it will take you to enact a transition and don’t forget to give yourself a raise and insist on upfront payment for transition work.

Parting thoughts –

• Review your contract for sticky issues: Did you have a specified notification period for termination of contract? Did you fulfill all contract requirements? Did you work onsite or offsite? Was your contract an independent contractor/consultant basis? Did you submit grants/articles under your name, as if you were an employee of the organization?
• Demand a good reference; ask for it written so you can distribute when needed. Even better, write it yourself and ask the Executive Director to sign it on their letterhead.
• No new contract, no work.

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Deborah Wunderman has 20 years of experience in non-profit management and fund raising with close to 15 years specializing in foundation, government, and corporate proposal writing.  She first became a member of AIW while broadening her consulting practice in 2000 and served a year and a half term on the board in 2002.  Her work has brought in $7,635,669 dollars for non-profit and for-profit organizations that work locally, nationally, and internationally.  She has a BA from College of the Atlantic in Human Ecology with prior work experience in education, marine science, and the arts.

I have worked as a freelance proposal writer for 10 years in the Washington, D.C., area.  During this time, I have encountered many wonderful clients and some not-so-wonderful ones.

The economic crisis has demanded much tightening of budgets and doing more with less.  It has also brought to the surface in many areas of business the not so savory side of people.  Perhaps the best known icon of this phenomenon is Bernie Madoff.  He and others like him also try to get more from less, but are willing to compromise others to achieve their personal goals.

Following are some of my experiences in encountering such people as clients, and the importance of letting go of such unsavory clients sooner, rather than later, to avoid wasted time and unpaid invoices.

Beware the client who:

• Uses overly dramatic words and tone to try to engage your emotions. Rather than dealing in a professional manner, such a client wants to elicit an emotional response from you, and the matter soon begins to looks more like a feuding family rather than a professional business relationship.  Often applying logic to solve differences only enrages such a client, and you may get a response such as one client sent to me, “It’s as though I work for you, or I feel that you perceive me to be a hostage where you call all the shots.”
• Touts him- or herself as a savior, and nobody would be anywhere without them. Case in point, a client once said, “I just came back after almost five years of being away from the day-to-day operations, and what I have learned, and the money I raised in two months is mind boggling to most people.”
• Uses guilt to manipulate you to do something that benefits them, but rarely benefits you. Case in point, a client said, “Until now, I thought it was about the mission of our organization.  But, was it ever about us, or was it only about you.  I fought against the former Executive Director and even the board when everyone but me wanted you gone, and now….”

Crotchety clients can be smooth talkers face-to-face.  They are great guests at parties – very animated, but they often resort to using convoluted correspondences as a weapon to get their way.  For instance, they rarely respond promptly to e-mails or phone calls – even when money or a deadline is at stake.  This type of client responds only when it suits them, and then their response can be so twisted, it can be hard to recognize what they are responding to from the original correspondence.

Sadly, in my experience and line of work, these clients are often revealed over time to be hiding things such as embezzling grant monies for personal use or using designated funds for non-designated purposes.  They are more times than not late in making payments on invoices, if they make them at all.  One cantankerous client took eight months to pay over $8,000 dollars owed, and another client simply declared a completed project incomplete and refused to pay.

The hassle, stress, and lost time on your part as a consultant are not reimbursable, so dump these clients early before they drain your pocket book and spirit!  One quote from an old-time radio show called the ‘Shadow’ that for some strange reason brings me solace when encountering clients and people such as these is this one – “Who knows what evil lies in the heart of men.”

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Deborah Wunderman has 20 years of experience in non-profit management and fund raising with close to 15 years specializing in foundation, government, and corporate proposal writing.  She first became a member of AIW while broadening her consulting practice in 2000 and served a year and a half term on the board in 2002.  Her work has brought in $7,635,669 dollars for non-profit and for-profit organizations that work locally, nationally, and internationally.  She has a BA from College of the Atlantic in Human Ecology with prior work experience in education, marine science, and the arts.

Have you taken a class recently?  Will you in the near future?  If you’re a writer, then take advantage of what a classroom experience presents.

This is true whether you’re taking a humanities course (English, History, Political Science, etc) or a science course.  In addition to earning a grade or credit hours, make the course work for you as a writer.  Being in a classroom environment offers three important commodities to a writer.

The first commodity is time. How many times have you tried to write another article, especially under the gun, only to find yourself lamenting, “If only I had more time!”  Do you find yourself getting up earlier in the day or staying up later scrapping together a few more minutes here and there?  If you’re in a class, you have automatically found the time to write.  In fact, if it’s a humanities course, you’re required to write a paper.  You will, therefore, automatically be required to set aside time to meet the class deadline.

The second commodity is inspiration. In a learning environment, particularly in a graduate course, you’ll be exposed to new concepts.  With the instructor and from other students you’ll have the opportunity to flesh out your concepts; this is especially true in a seminar where the readings precipitate classroom discussions – and I’ve found that the most animated discussions produce the best ideas.

The third commodity is research. Throughout the semester or the year, you’ll have the resources whether it’s an academic library or interaction with guest professors, or even other students in a graduate course who represent a variety of professions from whom to learn.

Although you can’t use a paper from one course for another, you can try to publish the paper.  There are a few options.  The first is the academic route.   A paper I wrote about private security companies in a Naval War College course was accepted by a peer-reviewed academic journal which then asked me take my 3,000 word article to 7,000 words.  In a different course through the Naval War College, a paper I wrote on U.S. involvement with Ho Chi Minh in 1945 became the basis for an article in a popularly read magazine – and it paid!

While not every paper can be turned into a journal, magazine, or newspaper article, the next time you take a class, instead of dreading a writing assignment, use that opportunity to build your body of published work.

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Claude Berube is the President of American Independent Writers and teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy. The co-author of two books, he’s published over thirty articles in academic journals, popular magazines, and newspapers.