Friday 11 April 2014

Turning Down Work as a Freelance Medical Writer - Not for the Faint-hearted

I have been a freelance medical writer for 14 years, and I am glad to say that things have gone from strength to strength over that time. In fact on some occasions I have been in the enviable position of having to turn clients away because I felt I had too much work.

Turning down work is not an easy judgment to make since as a freelance your first instinct is to accept all offers of work. Being freelance and waiting for work to turn up is what’s called in the UK the double-decker bus syndrome: when waiting for one, you can wait for hours (or in the case of a medical writer days or weeks) then they all come along together. When this happens, and some may disagree with me, I think it is important to think carefully before accepting all the offers that come along. I want to maintain a high standard and to deliver the required documents to customers that fulfil the brief, and on the agreed date.....in short, I want them to come back again.

Over the years I have formed a loose network with a few trusted freelance medical writing colleagues and I will recommend them if I feel I have too much work to allow me to offer the standard of service that regular clients expect. These trusted colleagues also refer work to me when they are too busy, or the work on offer is outside their normal scope and more suited to the type of writing I can offer.

I have heard other freelance medical writers say that they never turn work away. If you are truly working alone then personally I do not know how you can manage to provide all the agreed documents if they are heading for the same deadline date. Some rely on deadlines shifting to make space, but this is like planning for a spending spree, by hoping you will win the lottery.

Managing you clients, their expectations and your workload is a big part of being a freelance medical writer and should not be undervalued or ignored.

What do you think?

As a freelancer:
Would you like to have your say on this?
Do you have other means of coping with conflicting deadlines?

As a customer:
Do you appreciate it when a freelancer is honest about conflicting deadlines?
Will you be more/less likely to seek them out next time you have a writing task?

If you have a view on this subject please feel free to post a comment.

This blogpost has been adapted and updated from a short article I first published in TWS, volume 13(1) 2004 exploring the thorny subject of how to deal with too much work when you work on your own.