If you accept writing jobs from home, sooner or later you’ll get clients who don’t pay up when they’re supposed to. If this happens, try the following steps.

Send a Reminder

If you are a professional work from home writer, you certainly have a day planner. Make a note to yourself to send a reminder if payment for a project is not received on time. The first reminder should be friendly. Reattach the invoice and email it with a note like, “Hi, just wanted to remind you that payment on this project is now past due.”

Send Additional Reminders

A week after the first reminder, send a sterner email: “Payment on this product is now overdue. I will be unable to complete any more work for you until the invoice is paid in full. Please pay immediately.” If you haven’t already, cease work on other professional work from home jobs assigned by this client. Continue sending reminders once a week for one month.

Stop And Evaluate

If the client has been keeping in touch with you, even if it’s just to offer excuses, you may want to continue sending payment reminders, offer a payment plan, etc. On the other hand, if all communication has stopped, it may be time to report the nonpaying client to his IP provider and/or to writer websites that publish “warnings.” If your client has used your content without paying for it, contact the sites on which the content is posted and let them they are publishing stolen work. The very threat of these steps can shake money loose from some clients.

In The Long Term

Consider joining the National Writers Union which offers free grievance assistance to members in good standing.

If you take writing jobs from home, not being paid can be a frustrating reality. But with persistence, you’ll probably be able to get most clients to pay what they owe…eventually.