To ask for support and tips on not backing down? It's a work-related skirmish.

[FortunesFave]

Long story short, I'm a freelance copywriter. I work with many businesses and agencies.

I've been freelance for 12 years. I'm very good at what I do.

One agency has recently brought in a new SEO expert. She's great at her job...really good. But as soon as she began, she was leaving notes on our Slack channel about my copy.

"Lovely work...the SEO is good but I added more commas"

Upon reviewing her additions, they were all incorrect.

I had to spend time removing them. She also deleted a word and changed it for her own choice. Badly.

She's German and English is not her first language. So the word she deleted has different connotations in German.

Now she's just reviewed my most recent article and added new spacing...fine....but the owner of the agency...who knows that I was annoyed about the commas previously, butted in and said "Please don't alter Fortune's copy."

He later messaged me to say the SEO expert was not happy with him saying this to her and he's going to allow her to make changes to my work!

I'm NOT HAPPY. I have told him this...and I have intimated I won't be working under her. She's NOT an editor and doesn't know how to use commas so my work will be compromised. I can't share work that's shit...I can't repeatedly go back in and check her "editing" to make sure it's good...because it won't be.

He hasn't got back to me yet...he's probably stewing and panicking because he values us both.

I honestly am a little offended. He's cow-towed to her ego here and to the detriment of the work I turn in. Help me deal please!

Part of me is stomach churningly anxious because this is a good client....the other part of me is outraged. Any tips on not backing down please?

Ummm, Velourvoyageur - I think you’ll find that those words were used by Poncheck, not the OP.

There's some weird replies on this thread. Anti-German sentiment? ODFOD.

Anyway, I would be furious too, Op, and i think you're doing the right thing in holding the line against this. You can't allow your reputation to be tarnished by having incorrect copy published under your name. The cheek of the woman, though!
Btw, I am also a writer (technical, not copy) and would not allow this, even though what I write is not published under my name.

Plain
I do apologise if I’ve mistakenly accused the OP of posting as Ponchek and of being a sock puppet.
At the same time, I think Ponchek’s post is very unpleasant and my post was actually in response to someone saying that I shouldn’t be overreacting to what I saw as ‘anti-European sentiment’, so it doesn’t really matter whether the OP said it or not.

You’re not wrong @velourvoyageur with pulling up Poncheck on her casual racism, which I have reported. “Führerin”, wtf?

@FortunesFave I would do it, but prepare examples of what happened that you can refer to (such as the misplaced commas, the wrong word being used) so you can be concrete.

I think you just need to be firm and say you're happy for her to have input from an SEO perspective but you cannot have her making incorrect changes to your copy that will then show you and the company in a bad light and that's your bottom line. You won't accept mistakes being inserted into copy you have written because it isn't a professional way to operate.

You could also suggest they pay you extra to look over it after she has 'interfered'. Then you can put everything back the way it was with the bonus of earning more money.

Oh and I think you should say it's not a matter of artistry, it's a matter of correctness and professionalism. Inserting errors isn't just two artists' styles clashing; it's just bad practice.

Fuhrerin. It was yes a charicatured reference. Reference to an aggressor coming in and riding roughshod over the legitimate authority of others, on their home patch. Cultural/historical reference and not 'racist'. I would have applied it equally whatever the nationality of the aggressor. And it is not a racist term against Germans - it is solely associated with the political affiliation of extreme right-wing Nazism.

Aka, it was a joke.

@FortunesFave

He's now asked that we speak on the phone on Monday. He also made a comment about how the SEO woman and I are "both artists" and he understands both perspectives.

What to do? I feel like telling no thank you.

But what is her perspective? Why does she think she has the right to edit your work?

It doesn’t make sense. She shouldn’t get a perspective; she should do her work and you do yours.

YANBU. Stay firm!

If you have to spend time correcting someone else's "corrections" to your work, then you invoice the client for your time, clearly highlighting the errors you had to fix. If it costs them, it'll sink in.

@FortunesFave - If just blog posts I would let it be actually.

Very different if it’s copy for the websites main landing page, or for an article that is being published digitally in a publication - these need to spot on in terms of grammar.

You are still being tasked with compiling the body of these posts and in effect the SEO consultant is working on your work. As long as you are doing the work and still being paid I wouldn’t worry.

Just get it in writing if you can that the agency owner is happy with you creating and the SEO consultant amending for these blog posts.

Anti European? 😂😂😂👌

No. Anti someone whose first language isn't English 'correcting' an English text incorrectly.

Just as I am anti someone whose first language isn't German 'correcting' a German text incorrectly.

If only you knew who I am. Trust me, national and racial boundaries do not exist for me. You would be hard-pushed to find a more pro-European person in the planet.

But I see how it could have been misconstrued by the more earnest among us, so do apologise.

Ha it was a typo, by the way - ON the planet!

(must be my first language interference there 😉)
(another joke)

I have never worked in your area of work but I was in a work situation where I had saved agendas, completed statistics and documents ready for an event and then took TWO days annual leave.
During my al, my manager had asked a colleague to find something for him - I can't remember what, probably a result from the spreadsheets I had created.
When I returned said colleague asked me how I spell something in a room full of others. When I got it incorrect she said "and that's why I've corrected it for you" so everyone else thought that she had saved the day.
Open the folder, half the agendas had been deleted, documents renamed and grammar changed (wrongly) and don't even ask about the statistics.
My point is, some people will mess with your work for what ever reason. I would most definitely stick to your guns and walk if they don't agree to her not correcting your work.

'Both artists'.

Authenticity of language will limit this. She has to work within the bounds of what is actually genuine English.

And is her job to write copy, then? No, it isn't.

A lot of people on this thread fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the freelancer / client relationship and how SEO works.

Tricky.

I can understand your perspective and your frustration. But honestly you sound like a bit of a diva. Throwing your toys out of the pram and issuing ultimatums that quickly doesn't paint you in a very professional light.

I don't think you should concede the issue, but it sounds like you've pressed the nuclear button straight away, rather than trying to find a solution to the problem. I guess that's your prerogative, if you have an abundance of clients and don't need the business, but it sounds rather overdramatic to me.

I run my own business (as an editor) but there are some things I won't accept in a client as a matter of professional pride so I just don't do those jobs. Luckily I can afford to be choosy like that and not work for clients whose workflows or processes make my life more difficult or devalue the work I'm doing. Freelancers don't have to just be mercenaries.

Also if OP is now being expected to check and review copy after others have made changes then she should be paid to do so, so worth negotiating that, OP, if this is now an additional task that has fallen to you.

Staying firm means being clear on the acceptable outcomes for you and what compromises you are prepared to make. So for you is it literally she doesn't edit your work or you walk away or would there be a compromise? For example, are you willing to have edits that directly relate to SEO but not grammar corrections? Presumably people will expect the final draft not to be your work exclusively. If you have sufficient work and this won't damage your reputation then treat Mondays meeting as a discussion about your final piece of work. My line would be, your reputation is built on the quality of your work and you can't afford to have grammatically incorrect work under your name.

Just be clear, polite and professional.

Cba to argue much more, but just a tip - it’s not an apology if you insult the person you’re apologising to, Ponchek. Plus your original post was so aggressive that the ‘joke’ just got lost, and clearly you wouldn’t have used that word if the SEO person wasn’t German, so your point about its ‘sole association’ is moot.

Snack it is blog posts at the moment but it was copy for the website the first time she interfered.

Your client can change your copy however they see fit

He's not changing it....she is. And he's letting her and he can't actually because he wants my name on it. And I won't put my name against bad work.

Hearts according to the owner of the agency, she wants to be allowed to alter things "for SEO reasons". I tried to draw him on these reasons but he wouldn't or couldn't tell me.

Because they're bull.

OP you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I agree with @elessar you are not portraying yourself in a good light here; if you want to stop working with this client then do, but don't handle it like this. Word will get round that you are difficult to work with. Politely say no to the call, that you have decided it's time to move on and work on other projects, etc, then just move on.

@ponchek

‘If only you knew who I am’

Sorry that made me laugh so much 😂😂
We could ALL say that, because it doesn’t mean a thing...