Where's my money!? How to handle late payment

Sometimes, you have to show your teeth!

Overdue payments cause some of the biggest stresses in my life. Sure, it might take me a billion years to invoice a business for my work, but once I have sent all the relevant bits and pieces, I expect the money to be in my account around the 30-day mark.

I've had two bad experiences chasing payments (the other, less-known version of that Adele song).

One was when a company went under while I was chasing my invoice. Firstly, the editor ignored me for months, and I wasn't even sure if my piece would be published. I emailed them every week to get an update on the work, and every week, I'd be filled with rage as I'd get no response. In the end, I asked what the kill fee was, and then the editor moved along with the piece. I was pleased that the article was published, but then came the frustration of chasing my money post-publication. The company went under, I emailed four different editors and finally was connected to their finance email. Phew. By the time the money arrived, my frustration wasn't even about the money but how everyone at that business treated me.

The second, and more recent encounter, was with a dream publication. I did some research work for them and ended up chasing my money for HALF A YEAR. I honestly couldn't believe it, a big company like them?! I must have slipped through the net, but the experience was horrible. It can be a degrading experience — continuously asking for your own money and refreshing your bank app to see if there's been a mistake. In the end, I got a rapid response when I put a late fee on my invoice, which shows that sometimes you have to show your teeth and escalate the matter.

How to handle late payment

• Be prompt with your invoices (unlike me lmao) and read everything you sign and the terms and conditions of your work contract and payment

• Know your rights as a worker! Join a union (NUJ if you're a journalist) to get more clued up on invoicing issues as a freelancer

• Always be polite but firm

• Do not hesitate to chase things up; it's your money! The more you delay dealing with it, the more they will too.

“How did you get into this?”

This is the series within the newsletter, where I chat with people I admire about how they got into doing what they do.

This week's guest is Annie Lord, who is the author of 'Notes on Heartbreak', Vogue's dating columnist and has written for The Guardian, VICE, New Statesman and many more!

How did you get into doing what you do?

I got into writing when I was at uni because — you know when your parents are like, "you should join societies", and I thought the cocktail societies seemed pretty lame — so I decided to write a sex and relationships column for the student paper.

When I finished uni, my friend's sister worked at Stylist as a graphic designer, so he managed to get me a three-month internship. Then I got another internship at The Times for two weeks. I kept building stuff up and worked at the pub in between all of this, and my parents would help financially too. Everything changed when I got a three-month VICE internship because they let me write articles, and it was paid. Then I could freelance with more confidence when I finished it.

Things started really changing for me when I wrote an article for VICE's 'DM that changed my life' series, and I wrote about the one my ex sent me. The article went viral, and I got an agent off the back of that, and the Vogue column happened eventually. I was doing shifts for the Independent at the time. Now, I'm doing a mix of writing the Vogue column, freelance and creative writing, and it's all so fun.

What's your number one tip for people starting out in the media?

Just know that rejection is normal, especially when starting out. If you can handle that rejection, you will eventually come out the other side. It just takes a long time.

It's so hard, but you get to the point where it starts feeling easy. Work will come without you having to email seven million people, and you will be able to structure an article without having a breakdown. You will also make friends you can whinge to.

Things I enjoyed:

• These two pieces came out close to one another, and they are both worth reading. Moya Lothian-Mclean, who has guest written for this newsletter (!), wrote on binary victim and villain gender narratives in romantic relationships in The Guardian and Rachel Connolly wrote on very similar themes, touching on one-sided narratives in the 'Sad, Put-Upon Woman Essay in SLATE. Not to sound dull because I'm adding absolutely nothing else to this conversation, but I just really agreed with what both writers said, and with that Guardian piece being published shortly before, everything Moya and Rachel wrote really rang true. If you enjoyed both of those pieces, I recommend reading Rachel's essay on 'The Crane Wife'.

• I'm back in my reading era! and I can't stop thinking about Sayaka Murata's 'Earthlings' and how bizarre it was. I also thought 'Home Is Not A Place' by Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts is a beautiful book, full of poetry, short writings and photography.

• If you're unfamiliar with my recent climate work for gal-dem magazine, I would appreciate you checking it out! I wanted to spotlight this piece on the myth of the perfect protest by one of our writers. It's vivid.

Stuff I’ve written recently:

I've been on a small break from the serious stuff, but I've done some of the usual *contenty* writing recently.

• For DAZED, I reflected on 2022's biggest pop culture moments.

• For THE FACE, I interviewed some of Britain's most hated climate protesters, which was worthwhile but hard to translate in a 1,200-word feature.

Subscribe to my new newsletter — The Green Fig Tree!

I’ve launched a brand-spanking new newsletter containing a regular array of my observations, recommendations and some personal musings. This is because I will be working on a long-term project for most of 2023, so I needed a space to write regularly and scale back on short-term commissions.

I always envisioned The Freelance Fraud as a resource that can live through time and space and only be updated infrequently, so at some point soon, I hope to finish writing it! If you want more regularity — I’d suggest subscribing to me on there.

And finally… if you found this newsletter useful, you can buy me a coffee!

This newsletter will always be free, and I’m grateful that many of you have found it useful over the years. A few people have asked how you could say thanks or donate a bit of money, so I set up a page where you could do exactly that.

If you want to say thanks, I’d be delighted if you could buy me a digital coffee! But also absolutely zero pressure in this day and age.