Charge for the time a client asks you to hold
Reserving availability for a client can prevent a freelance from accepting other work even when the promised project never starts. Start-up payments, retainers, delay clauses and cancellation fees define how that commitment is compensated and when the writer can take other work.
Reserved windows and delayed starts
Holding substantial time for a project can mean turning down other business, and cancellation can leave that time uncompensated. A request to wait is particularly difficult to refuse when it comes from a good client offering frequent, well-paid projects, while rejecting opportunities is financially risky when freelancing is the writer’s only income.
A writer can explain that other clients also depend on the service and that availability cannot comfortably be guaranteed unless the client guarantees the project’s timing. Negotiation can then cover a retainer or guaranteed partial payment, comparable to a magazine’s kill fee for an assigned article that is not published. If the writer accepts the uncertainty and another project requires the same window, subcontracting some work to a trusted colleague may help.
One freelance began requiring a start-up fee, usually twenty-five percent of the agreed budget, after a client delayed a project three times and then cancelled it. Most of that writer’s projects were long-term, and the fee covered time set aside if the work did not proceed. For an established client’s small project of less than twenty hours, the writer would consider reserving time but would make clear that other projects could be accepted while waiting. That practitioner preferred occasional overbooking and nights or weekends spent clearing the schedule to waiting without work for a project that might never arrive.
Where the work warrants a reservation fee, collecting it in advance can be preferable to trying to collect after the reserved time has passed without a project. A writer can explain that reserving working time includes guaranteed compensation, much as a physician may charge for an appointment missed without cancellation.
Contract provisions can guarantee payment for set weekly or monthly hours, require an upfront payment at signature or release the writer from the commitment if work does not start within a specified number of weeks. A delay clause can instead specify freedom to accept other work after that interval. When another client offers work during a stalled project, notifying the first client of that opportunity can sometimes prompt movement. Many causes of delay or cancellation lie outside the freelance’s control.
Retainers
A retainer is a written agreement for a set payment at agreed intervals in return for availability over a specified period, which may last until project completion, for a year or indefinitely. Fees are usually paid in advance, although payment terms depend on the agreement. The client pays the agreed amount even when it supplies little work, providing income stability, but unexpectedly heavy workloads can reduce the effective rate substantially if the terms are not carefully agreed. The choice depends on the client, the work, the writer’s finances and workload, and the writer’s willingness to work with that client.
Steady income can make a retainer attractive when starting or returning to freelancing. One copywriter returning from hospital public relations accepted an advertising-agency retainer to develop contacts, experience and a portfolio while guaranteeing income. Work was steady initially but became uneven, and the apparent hourly rate proved lower than project billing would have produced. Gaps offered a chance to take other clients’ work, but their unpredictability and the requirement to be available when needed made time-sensitive commitments risky. Concern about dependence on a client that could leave led the writer not to renew, while continuing to serve the agency on a project basis.
A retainer can also support continuity during a client’s transition. A retiring pharmaceutical-company contact arranged a six-month monthly retainer so colleagues would continue using an established writing supplier. The writer billed the full retainer covering forty hours at the normal daily rate in the upcoming month and charged fees above that amount at the established rate. The full retainer was paid even in December, when the holiday closure reduced project fees below it. The writer’s departmental experience and knowledge of transition plans helped colleagues in new roles and produced lasting relationships.
One practitioner’s objections to retainers concern four risks.
- Unused hours may be expected to carry forward: a client that provides no work in a twenty-hour week may want forty hours the next week, conflicting with other commitments.
- Other clients may hesitate to offer projects when the writer has limited availability, since work rarely fits neatly into the remaining gaps.
- A retainer taking all available time can leave the writer without other work when it ends, at a poor time to begin seeking replacements.
- The payment purchases time rather than the value of the work.
Other experiences favour carefully bounded retainers. One writer early in a career negotiated one hundred guaranteed paid hours monthly at a reduced rate, additional hours at the normal rate and priority for the client over other work. The client was responsible for assigning the hours and supplied only about forty to sixty monthly during what the writer recalled as approximately a year, while paying the guarantee in full. The writer regarded this as unrepresentative and would consider a similar agreement again only for appealing work and a valued client, with carefully negotiated language because regulatory scope changes make an open-ended priority commitment difficult.
A practitioner who likes retainers has accepted discounted rates for guaranteed monthly income but recommends avoiding a discount for a large monthly commitment unless finances require it or the client and work are especially attractive. That writer once accepted an effective rate well below the work’s value for an enjoyable project and team over several years, supported by better-paid projects alongside it. A poorly specified agreement can reduce the effective rate below half the usual rate, while a client’s project management must provide essential materials to avoid paying for time the writer cannot use on the project. A retainer client should, in that practitioner’s view, be prevented from becoming the largest share of the business where possible.
Cancellation and kill fees
A kill fee is an agreed payment when a client ends a project early after the writer has reserved significant time and potentially turned down other work. Some experienced freelances charge one for discontinued projects, while others use progress invoicing to ensure payment for completed work. A fee can also be proposed for cancellation before work starts, to compensate for reserved time and other work declined.
Practitioner advice is to include the fee in the contract and obtain the client’s agreement, since it cannot be collected without agreement. There is no fixed calculation: the writer sets the amount in light of the business likely to be lost, the project and the client. One practitioner does not add kill fees to ordinary hourly-billed regulatory projects but recommends a contractual penalty when a client ends a promised multi-month hours commitment early.
That writer applies the penalty when offering an approximately twenty-five-percent hourly discount for guaranteed hours over an agreed period, generally to agencies or contract research organisations. If the promised volume is not supplied, the contract requires retroactive payment of the full undiscounted rate for all hours already billed.