by Leo Wiles
03 May 2017
I need advice. For the first time, I took on far too much work and missed a deadline following some illness in the family. It’s not like me; I just dropped the ball. I was only a couple of days late with it but I stupidly didn’t let the editor know and she had to chase me for it. I apologised profusely when I filed it, but she wasn’t impressed. Have I blown it? What can I do to fix this? A
Honest answer? Probably not a lot. Unless you’ve been in a car accident or had a death in the family there’s really no excuse for handing work in late – especially in our industry, where missing deadlines puts you on a fast track to career suicide. Sorry if that seems harsh, but on a magazine or newspaper especially, not filing copy by the deadline your editor gave you can let down an entire fleet of people. The editorial team may have to scramble to fill the gap, pay someone else and shuffle flat-plans – especially if your piece was front of book or worse, cover material. If your lateness has held up the presses, that might mean the title misses their in-house printing slot or incurs penalty rates if they farm out their printing. All of which leads to your commissioning editor being berated by their publisher. Good times.
In my previous life as an editor, unless we had a VERY long standing blemish free relationship, I would pay you a kill fee, block your number, delete your email and let other editors know that you were not to be trusted. And even if we did have a spotless history and I kept you on my books, I’d ensure that the deadline I gave you allowed for some wiggle room in case you were late in the future.
On a personal note, I remember typing up a cover story (cannula in hand, post-Caesarean) from my hospital bed after my first born son ‘arrived’ early. In 20+ years Tom’s birth was the closest I ever came to missing a deadline and here are three ways I’ve since learnt to avoid sailing that close to the wind.
Doing so gave me the breathing space to rationally consider what the commitment entails, including whether I have the skillset and have the time with my existing work and family commitments to deliver the piece. This moment of reflection has I am sure saved me, and my clients, a lot of heartache.
Often for big video jobs I will use a Gantt chart with milestones to make sure I am on track for films that may take between one and two years. For smaller pieces, like writing, I work backwards from the deadline blocking out time in my diary for research, interviewing, transcribing, writing, polishing etc. and add in a little bit of padding too. Because of course, life happens! Case in point: Cyclone Debbie completely blew out five days of carefully orchestrated back-to-back face-to-face interviews. I called the client and because it was well in advance of our delivery deadline there was no bad blood and plenty of understanding to go around. (It helped that her brand new car had narrowly missed being turned into a pancake by a fallen tree and that she also had no power for three days, so she could feel my pain).
There have been times when I have resorted to hiring a nanny when the children were ill, or booked before and after school care sessions to ensure work was handed in on time. Even when it meant that I would be just breaking even, it was worth it as a) their fee was tax deductible and b) it was an investment protecting my reputation as someone reliable to do business with.
If you’re still reading and in a pickle the best thing you can do is examine why it happened and work out safeguards like those above to ensure it never happens again.
Have you ever missed a deadline? What did you do?
TOTALLY agree with this especially 1 + 2. I always ask editors and clients if I can get back to them now, whereas in my early days freelancing I jumped the gun and took the work every time, even if it meant pulling all-nighters and working entire weekends. I can’t afford to do that now so it’s critical I figure out first if I can do something before saying yes.
And the scheduling thing. It’s one of the hardest things to learn, creating that puzzle piece of projects and stories and knowing that you have time and buffers in place to meet all your deadlines. I think you become better at it with experience but it’s so easy to make mistakes and take on too much!
I guess you’ve learnt a lesson: always let your editor know if you’ll be late so they can prepare (and do all that shuffling Leo outlined) as soon as possible.
I’ve not found my tardiness to be career threatening but I have managed to ‘fess up to my clients about poor time management when I’ve taken more jobs on than I could handle. They will be annoyed but if your work is good they will probably give you another chance—don’t blow it!
I’m never very late but I do have a terrible habit of filing late at night on deadline day rather than the beginning. Now when I take on new clients I tell them how to manage me: I work best with externally set deadlines rather than them asking me ‘so when do you think you’ll be able to do that?’ and with ‘open of business’ dates.
I have also sent flowers and a card just to acknowledge that I put the editor in a difficult position and she still commissions work to me so a sincere apology doesn’t hurt either!
Good point Adeline a sincere heartfelt analogue apology can go a long way. L