I’ve fired clients before. It’s not something I like doing, but it happens. Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether a particular individual will become a problem before you agree to work for them. Thanks to this great, concise WritersWeekly article, “Getting Pooped Upon… and Six Other Reasons to Reject A Client,” by David Geer, you now have a checklist for potential uh-oh’s to look for and nip before they blossom into huge pains in the bum.

You’re welcome.

I particularly identify with “they are surprised you actually want money.” Um, yes. Oddly enough, we Professional Writers do charge for our services. Sometimes, you will not be able to afford us. Suck it up and get the money for the fee so you’ll have it done right the first time, or else get your “friend who writes good” to do the work, and see how far that little exercise in futility goes.

Missing from this list is the “oh, I just need a few edits to my website,” which turns into “oh, you have to actually edit the code for my website, otherwise I won’t be able to, like, upload the text myself, or get an unpaid intern to do this dirty work for me!” I do not edit code. I edit text. Words. You know, the things that form sentences? If you want me to muck about in your backend, you’d better be paying me code monkey fees. Look those up and then see how you feel.