Communicating with a client

Back to the grind. The book rewrite is turning out to be a much bigger undertaking than I originally thought. So this weekend I contacted my client to tell them it was going to take longer. They understood, and we set a new deadline that will give me plenty of time to finish it off and not feel I have to rush anything.

That is an important lesson for any new, professional writer. I know many writers who, if they run into unexpected obstacles, don’t say anything. They end up going over their deadline or turn something in that is missing key elements. Big no-no, in my opinion.

Clients for the most part will understand if you communicate with them promptly. If you let them know ahead of time then they have time to adjust their efforts and their commitments. They appreciate it. What they don’t appreciate is a writer missing a deadline, then offering up lame excuses why they didn’t finish the project on time.

Of course, one key thing I always try to do is build in more than enough time to finish a project. But of course, stuff happens. In this case the project was a bit more complicated than I first realized. I also overestimated how much writing I’d be able to do while on my trip to Southern California. The best intentions and all, but when meetings go long and evenings go longer the best intentions are often foiled.

So in my case, the project turned out to be more complicated and the ten-day head start I thought I’d get fizzled. When I got back and realized that was the case I quickly contacted my client. I explained the situation and requested and extension. They replied that they are more concerned with a quality work than a hard deadline, and gave me an extension a MONTH later than I’d requested.

Now that’s a client easy to work for!

Remember that, when you’re writing and the clock is ticking…