Deadlines? What Deadlines?

If you worked as an accountant and paid the sales taxes a month or two after they were due, do you think there would be any negative implications? If you worked as a receptionist and answered the phone only after it stopped ringing, do you think this would pose any problems? What if you worked as a garbage collector but showed up to work five hours after the trucks came back from the route?

Not meeting deadlines can have all sorts of implications from having to pay fines, interest, and penalties in the case of the overdue tax form to getting yelled at by a boss, to losing your job. Not meeting freelance writing deadlines is no different.

When you accept a writing assignment, you accept the deadlines that come with it. If you think those deadlines might pose a problem, discuss it with the editor right then and there – give the editor a chance to either schedule you in for a later due date or find someone else who can do the necessary job in the time frame given.

But please, whatever you do, don’t accept the writing assignment and then not meet the deadlines. Not unless you want to commit career suicide and don’t care about burning bridges.

We’ve had writers do this. They accept writing assignments with specific deadlines and then not meet them, but not only do they not meet the deadlines, they don’t bother letting the editor know that they can’t meet them. Until Fahim contacts them a day or two after the deadline to find out what’s going on, only to receive a typical response of, "Oh, yeah, sorry, I need a few more days or weeks." Or, "Yeah, can’t do it. No time."

Not good, people. Really not good.

We have deadlines for a reason. The magazine is scheduled to go to print on a certain date. In order to meet that printing deadline, the editors have to edit the articles, the graphics/layout person has to lay out the articles, the editors and layout people have to proof the magazine both electronically and on hardcopy, plates have to be made, and finally, the plates go to the printer. Each step takes a certain amount of time, and any delays at any point in the process will result in a magazine being late in going to print.

If an article is delayed by two weeks, chances are it’s not going to be in that issue of the magazine, if it makes it in at all now, due to needing to meet the other deadlines, so that means that now, the editor has to find someone else to write another article at the last minute.

When writers meet deadlines, editors are much less likely to curse and much more likely to continue using that writer, even if his/her writing is less than perfect. Writers who meet deadlines can be worked with and are considered reliable. Writers who meet deadlines get more assignments and therefore earn more money. Writers who can meet deadlines will get those last-minute assignments that the other writers can’t finish on time.

Tip: If you can’t finish an article on time or at all, let the editor know as soon as you know. If you give the editor sufficient notice, s/he may reschedule that article to appear in another issue, and at the very least, it gives the editor more time to find another article to fit into that slot. Editors are people, too, and they know that sometimes unavoidable things happen. If you let them know in advance, they’re more likely to be understanding and give you another chance on another article later.

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This post is part of a series. They can be found here: