Good Work

A few weeks ago, as I was in the midst of cleaning out my mom's house (with no working AC), I got a call from a woman with whom I had worked several years ago. I may have mentioned this. She wanted me to do some writing for her business, but my experience in dealing with her in our earlier barter situation hadn't worked out so well. I was hesitant. The work is easy enough; still, I had reservations. I told her I'd think about it, and later sent an email with my rate (high enough, I had hoped, to price myself out of the job) and the suggestion that she might like me to contact other writers I knew to take this on. I also mentioned my upcoming foot surgery. Perhaps I wouldn't be able to complete the work in a timely fashion. It didn't work; she agreed to my rate and wasn't bothered by the fact that I might be off to a slow start.

I guess it's good. I'm not really in a position to turn down work. Well, I could if I had a really good reason, but my reasons here weren't adequate. I sent one article last week for her feedback -- kind of a sample -- and she loved it. She wants me to pump them out, a minimum of fifty, paying me as often as I like -- per article, per ten articles, whatever. Given my history with her, I won't send more than ten without payment. In our previous exchange, it wasn't that she didn't pay me. She is something of an expert in marketing, and our deal had been that after I did a major editing project for her she would walk me through marketing my business. The editing was finished, thoroughly and quickly, but the marketing help kind of trailed off. That was at least four years ago, and I was actually surprised to hear from her a few weeks ago.

Anyway, as I said, the work is easy, the pay is good, and she remembers me as a conscientious and punctual professional (maybe because, at least in that situation, she wasn't). She also knows a lot of people in the local business community and this could lead to further writing and editing work for me. I told her I had no intention of completing more articles until at least later this week, and she was fine with that. I'm feeling good about all of this; my previous good behavior has given me both more work and some breathing room, not to mention a steady source of income for the foreseeable future.