Gleep! It’s the end of September already. But you know what? I love October, despite the super-sweaty-muggy heat. Usually I decorate for Halloween the day before, but I think this year I’m going to pull a Christmas and just start putting up my black nets and spider webs and purple lights as soon as it hits October. My youngest son, Mr. Destruction, loves Halloween too, so I figure he’ll enjoy it a lot. Plus I’ll get more use out of my Halloween decorations than just a day or two.
This week’s comic is one I’m sure fellow editors will identify with, particularly introverted ones like me.
In case it’s not clear, the red boxes are red flags. These red flags are things that pop up and whisper in a freelance editor’s ears, telling you that you’re in for stress, trouble, and heartache. But what if you’re just being weird? What if you’re simply paranoid and *gasp* offend someone by telling them you don’t think you’re a good fit? What if you just can’t bring yourself to be that big of a jerk? Because that’s what you are if you can’t work with everyone, right? So what do you do?
You quote high. That’ll chase ’em off!
Ha ha, not always. I’ve done this a total of one time, and I quoted 4x my normal rate only to have the person sign on. Fast forward to the end: It did not go well.
I’ve learned how to say no since then, but it took me a long time to be able to type those words, and it still fills me with anxiety to do so because the very idea of turning work away is something that I’m constantly trying to get used to.
How about you? Have you ever had this happen to you?
My Grammar-Nerd-Apalooza is still going on. Don’t forget to enter!
Catch up on SimpleMarkup in the archive, and don’t forget to check out the SimpleMarkup store!