Part of presenting yourself as a professional editor includes how you go about pursuing clients who owe you money. You should approach clients about payment without alientating them from doing future business with you. Rarely will you have a problem getting paid, though there may some clients who will take forever to do so. If you are a staff editor, you don’t have much to keep track of except the number of days you worked on a project for internal purposes. But if you are a freelancer or boutique owner/editor, you will have to carry the burden of doing your own paperwork.

Whenever I have negotiated a price for my services, I have preferred to offer a day rate rather than an hourly rate. It is generally accepted that a “day” is an 8 to 10 hour day, so the hourly rate “in your head” should add up to an 8 hour day. I charge 1.5 times the hourly rate from the end of the prescribed day for the next four hours (usually from 8 p.m. to midnight), then double-time after midnight. Be sure to indicate in your invoice if there were any events that incurred overtime. Obviously, your client should know about this up front so it bears saying that they should expect these overages when they receive them. If you did not discuss an overtime contingency, you really shouldn’t bill for it unless you discuss it first with the producer.

I recently encountered a situation where I was booked freelance a month in advance for a period of three weeks. Just before the job began, however, I was offered a much higher paying job. I had to decline the job because I had already been firmed by another client. Unfortunately, the client who booked me for three weeks unexpectedly released me for a whole day twice, and a half day twice, amounting to three days. The producer would not permit me to bill her for the days I did not work even though I she had firmed the entire three weeks. This is bad policy on her part, and I expressed myself about this breach of protocol, but to no avail. I lost a lot of money.

You must express your policy up front before you begin a working relationship with a client. You might not get the terms you wish, but at least you have a say in the issue.