Writers: Avoid the "Sample" Rip-off

Some low-life businesses make a habit of getting free work by asking potential writers for "samples". Either the samples are big enough to be useful, or they collect a bunch of them from several writers and collate them. It's writing for nothing, and the clips are free.

It is reasonable for a potential client to ask for samples of your work. I have a variety of printed items in my portfolio that a potential client can examine, including entire user manuals. I have links to many on-line articles I have written, and also have electronic copies on CD and a USB drive for the client to examine. They may make copies if they wish, but my portfolio leaves with me.

It is reasonable for a potential client to ask to see a small sample of how you would handle their material. I am willing to look at the information they have and discuss the ways the documentation could be done, and the advantages of each. I am willing to edit a small sample of their worst material, if it's in a field I have little experience in.

It is not reasonable for a potential client to expect you to hand over a significant quantity of publishable material as a "sample". I have a personal limit of less than 300 words for customer-specific samples of writing or editing. If they can't tell what kind of a writer I am from that, they aren't worth working for.

The first time I ran into the rip-off, the job was freelance editing instructional materials for a local trade school. They had the draft text, illustrations, and an outline. They wanted the materials edited and laid out into a certain format. The school's manager gave me the templates and a bunch of material, asking me to produce a "sample chapter" and come back for a re-interview. He wanted the sample files on diskette as well as a printout.

At the time I didn't have much experience as a technical writer, but doing a whole chapter - editing and laying out about 75 pages of technical text - seemed excessive. So I did the first 5 pages, printed them out, and went to the second interview. The manager was extremely disappointed when I handed him 5 pages and said, "I think this shows that I have the required skills." He asked for the disk with the files on it, and I told him that it would be available if I was hired. In the leave-taking after the suddenly shortened interview, I even managed to take the printout from his desk, leaving him with nothing. He never called back.

A while later, before local technical writers meeting, someone mentioned a sleaze-bag client who had expected her to hand over electronic copies of an entire chapter before she was hired. A second writer said, "We must have had the same client - a tech school guy wanted a whole chapter from me too." My scam-o-meter's needle slid into the red zone and I started asking questions. A larger than expected number of us had been interviewed and everyone had been asked to do a different chapter of this training material.

The good news: only three writers we could find had done an entire chapter, and only one of them had handed over the files and printout. The school had wasted almost a month of their educational director's time in this elaborate scam, and got almost nothing.

Even better news: there is a God, and she has a sense of justice. The school went out of business within the year.