There is no Wednesday Writer entry this week. That’s not what this post is about.
Monday afternoon I got a call related to my copywriting business. A major player in my main target industry needed a technical document written by an ESL author turned into native speaker English.
The content was interesting, the task possible but only with considerable effort. Timing was good, so I took the project and managed to turn in the results on time.
The last two words of the previous sentence are key. One thing that gets around is reputation. In freelancing, reputation is everything, and word on the street gets around fast with all the cross-pollination in my target industry.
Rule number one for a writer is never miss a deadline. That is something I strive for in my copywriting business, but it’s important in fiction, too.
When somebody needs your content to do their job, missing a deadline costs the customer money. When your actions (or lack thereof) costs a client, an editor, or a publisher money, chances are good the next project will be offered to somebody else. That is bad for business, my friends.
For the project I completed on Tuesday–on time–it was a first assignment from this client. First impressions matter, and because I was able to meet the requested schedule, this company can proceed with a plan that looked like it would not happen at all before calling me. That radiates good vibes in every direction.