Freelance writers operate on a basis of trust. Whether accepting
commissions or sending off unsolicited material to likely
buyers, they probably concentrate far more on the quality of
their output and their marketing effort than on the honesty of
buyers. In the days when writers worked primarily for
publications in their country of residence, it was easier to
check the soundness of potential buyers of material, even if the
checks were fairly casual, such as recommendations from other
writers. Now, however, the opportunities afforded by the
Internet, electronic publishing and e-mail mean that writers
quite literally have the world as their market. Over the past
few years I have sold material to Hong Kong, Singapore, the USA,
France, Belgium, Jordan and the UK.
To be fair, I have only twice encountered problems over payment.
On one occasion I received the promised cheque but unfortunately
it was of the bouncing variety and I ended up paying bank
charges for the privilege of trying to cash it. I decided that
in this case the publisher, who did not respond to my requests
for explanation, had forfeited the restrictions imposed in the
contract and I sold the article elsewhere. On the second
occasion I made repeated requests for payment and was promised
that the cheque was on its way. However, no payment ever arrived
and I am not sure how to go about recovering my money.
Nick Inman, now resident in France, highlights the difficulties
surrounding payment of freelance writers in Europe: You'd have
thought that it would be easy to collect a debt in the civilised
countries of the European Union and that the National Union of
Journalists (NUJ) would help you to do it. But not always so. I
am particularly concerned about the burgeoning expatriate press,
the worst of which behaves as if it were a entity unto its own:
out of the reach of British law and the NUJ's solicitors; and
not quite a full member (because of the language) of the host
country's own media. Besides which, many countries of Europe
barely understand the concept of a freelance contributor. But it
shouldn't matter who you are or where you choose to live: a debt
is a debt. The unpaid supplier has legal right on his side under
EU regulations which came into force last August: these state
that a client has to pay you 30 days after he (or she or it)
becomes aware of how much he owes you, or after you have
delivered the work - whichever date is the later. This rule can
be overridden by agreement between you but that is the only
legitimate excuse for late payment.
In theory then, non-payment, particularly within Europe,
shouldn't be a problem. But it still happens. So what is the
answer? First, I suggest the freelance writer needs to put in
place some means of self-protection. Work out a simple set of
terms and conditions and, whenever a new client is proposing
work, send these to the client and ask for them to be signed and
returned to you before you deliver anything. Say what your fees
are and when you require the payment but also say what you
undertake to do on behalf of the client. A further safeguard is
to request an advance payment of 25 - 30% of the agreed fee. If,
on the other hand, the client has a contract, look carefully at
the payment provisions and ensure that they are acceptable to
you.
Of course, these measures cannot guarantee that you will be
fairly treated but they show the client that you have a
professional attitude not just to your work, but to the way you
operate. If you still find yourself the victim of a non-paying
client what can you do? First, you can find out what system
exists in the country where the client does business for the
collection of bad debts. In the UK the Small Claims Court hears
claims for bad debts up to £5 000. It is possible to obtain
assistance with such claims online through a website:
http://www.small-claims.co.uk/ . France also has an equivalent
of the Small Claims system in the huissier de justice
(www.huissier-justice.fr). Often mere mention of the huissier is
enough to make French debtors pay up.
Spain is testing out similar legislation but you have to live in
the country to take advantage of it. 'Spain does now have a new
small-claims system in place,' explains Valerie Collins, based
in Barcelona; 'You can go straight to the court and file a claim
for non payment without having to hire a solicitor. You have to
have issued a formal invoice, and have proof that you have
rendered the service invoiced for (in our case, proof of
publication). If you're owed money by a Spanish company but are
not resident in Spain, you would have to give power of attorney
to someone domiciled here if you wanted to file for payment, as
they won't send legal notifications outside Spain.'
The disadvantage of these systems is that the claimant sometimes
incurs costs, so even if the money is eventually recovered, part
of it will have been eaten away by charges. So, the poor writer
suffers yet again as, no doubt, the fees payable are already
liable to the outrageously high charges made by banks when they
transfer funds from one country to another.
Other routes are to join journalists' and writers' unions and
associations. These, however, may provide little more than moral
support unless the claim is really big and they think it worth
supporting a claimant for the benefit of the membership as a
whole. As a last resort, I suppose freelance writers could
co-operate by sharing the names of clients who do not pay. It
might be unwise to publish such a list openly in case the
publisher became liable to libel charges, but I imagine it would
be possible to set up an email list through which writers could
distribute names on the basis of 'caution is advised before
working with X'.
About Author :
The author is a British writer resident in France. She
specializes in development and environment issues and writes
about the EU. Find out more at www.worldsapartreview.com
