How To Safeguard Payments As An International Writer
By Brenda Townsend Hall, Thu Dec 8th

Freelance writers operate on a basis of trust. Whether acceptingcommissions or sending off unsolicited material to likelybuyers, they probably concentrate far more on the quality oftheir output and their marketing effort than on the honesty ofbuyers. In the days when writers worked primarily forpublications in their country of residence, it was easier tocheck the soundness of potential buyers of material, even if thechecks were fairly casual, such as recommendations from otherwriters. Now, however, the opportunities afforded by theInternet, electronic publishing and e-mail mean that writersquite literally have the world as their market. Over the pastfew 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 unfortunatelyit was of the bouncing variety and I ended up paying bankcharges for the privilege of trying to cash it. I decided thatin this case the publisher, who did not respond to my requestsfor explanation, had forfeited the restrictions imposed in thecontract and I sold the article elsewhere. On the secondoccasion I made repeated requests for payment and was promisedthat the cheque was on its way. However, no payment ever arrivedand I am not sure how to go about recovering my money.

Nick Inman, now resident in France, highlights the difficultiessurrounding payment of freelance writers in Europe: You'd havethought that it would be easy to collect a debt in the civilisedcountries of the European Union and that the National Union ofJournalists (NUJ) would help you to do it. But not always so. Iam 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; andnot quite a full member (because of the language) of the hostcountry's own media. Besides which, many countries of Europebarely understand the concept of a freelance contributor. But itshouldn't matter who you are or where you choose to live: a debtis a debt. The unpaid supplier has legal right on his side underEU regulations which came into force last August: these statethat 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 havedelivered the work - whichever date is the later. This rule canbe overridden by agreement between you but that is the onlylegitimate excuse for late payment.

In theory then, non-payment, particularly within Europe,shouldn't be a problem. But it still happens. So what is theanswer? First, I suggest the freelance writer needs to put inplace some means of self-protection. Work out a simple set ofterms and conditions and, whenever a new client is proposingwork, send these to the client and ask for them to be

signed andreturned to you before you deliver anything. Say what your feesare and when you require the payment but also say what youundertake to do on behalf of the client. A further safeguard isto request an advance payment of 25 - 30% of the agreed fee. If,on the other hand, the client has a contract, look carefully atthe payment provisions and ensure that they are acceptable toyou.

Of course, these measures cannot guarantee that you will befairly treated but they show the client that you have aprofessional attitude not just to your work, but to the way youoperate. If you still find yourself the victim of a non-payingclient what can you do? First, you can find out what systemexists in the country where the client does business for thecollection of bad debts. In the UK the Small Claims Court hearsclaims for bad debts up to £5 000. It is possible to obtainassistance with such claims online through a website:http://www.small-claims.co.uk/ . France also has an equivalentof the Small Claims system in the huissier de justice(www.huissier-justice.fr). Often mere mention of the huissier isenough to make French debtors pay up.

Spain is testing out similar legislation but you have to live inthe country to take advantage of it. 'Spain does now have a newsmall-claims system in place,' explains Valerie Collins, basedin Barcelona; 'You can go straight to the court and file a claimfor non payment without having to hire a solicitor. You have tohave issued a formal invoice, and have proof that you haverendered the service invoiced for (in our case, proof ofpublication). If you're owed money by a Spanish company but arenot resident in Spain, you would have to give power of attorneyto someone domiciled here if you wanted to file for payment, asthey won't send legal notifications outside Spain.'

The disadvantage of these systems is that the claimant sometimesincurs costs, so even if the money is eventually recovered, partof it will have been eaten away by charges. So, the poor writersuffers yet again as, no doubt, the fees payable are alreadyliable to the outrageously high charges made by banks when theytransfer funds from one country to another.

Other routes are to join journalists' and writers' unions andassociations. These, however, may provide little more than moralsupport unless the claim is really big and they think it worthsupporting a claimant for the benefit of the membership as awhole. As a last resort, I suppose freelance writers couldco-operate by sharing the names of clients who do not pay. Itmight be unwise to publish such a list openly in case thepublisher became liable to libel charges, but I imagine it wouldbe possible to set up an email list through which writers coulddistribute names on the basis of 'caution is advised beforeworking with X'.

About the author:The author is a British writer resident in France. Shespecializes in development and environment issues and writesabout the EU. Find out more at www.worldsapartreview.com