Shrinky Dinks

Don’t you love those fabulous offers that promise oodles of work for massive amounts of compensation? Now, now. Stop laughing. You know you get at least one a year; those promises of lots of work because this client has scads of venture capital and is even more blessed in the amount of ideas rolling around in the brain matter.

Still, Frump knows why you chuckle and snort. For Writing Frump has been on the receiving end of the very same offers, and in nearly every case the inundation of work and subsequent money never materialize. For Frump, it was a startup magazine whose publisher couldn’t remember if she’d called me. Oh yes, the signs were all there – messages that went unanswered, phone calls never returned, confusion as to what articles were already sent, and oh, the conference calls that were scheduled but to which the organizer was a no-show. If Frump’s economic condition hadn’t been directly connected to this woman’s inability to multitask, it would’ve been positively hysterical.

It is why I shan’t take on one “can’t lose” job by itself, for I have learned that they can indeed lose, and quite often they’re gone before you get started. ‘Tis a shame, for I had negotiated a very nice per-word rate. Alas, the road to Hell is paved in $1-a-word offers that die before seeing daylight.