Legit Academic Writing... My personal payment/exchange process.

I have been a professional academic writer and editor for several years and have run into my fair share of clients who have been scammed by large websites and craigslist postings. Unless I am handling a request within my niche, it's damn near impossible to conduct the preliminary research and gain the understanding needed to write a typical junior or senior-level essay. Anyone arguing otherwise is highly suspect.

Further, if you are interested in working with a writer off craigslist, do not pay 50% upfront. It's a strong indicator that the poster is either a rookie or looking to scam students.

Another issue that is important to consider, and may be one of the reasons students are caught cheating even though their essays are original, is making sure the writer uses the same academic databases that your institution provides. If I have access to project muse or jstor and you don't, it's a red flag. In addition, it is important that you discuss your course and share lecture notes so your writer is able to appropriately frame the essay within the scope of your class. There are dozen different ways to write about any one topic, and if I unknowingly introduce an angle that hasn't been discussed, especially if it's advanced, then there's another red flag.

I strongly recommend the payment/exchange process that I use.

1). New clients pay 15% of the total upfront

2) Once a client requests random samples for review and they prove to be satisfactory, only then do I send the invoice for the remaining balance.

3) Once payment is received, the essays in your mailbox. You should demand these guidelines! It's also nice if the writer provides his or her cell number and sends you progress updates or is available to answer or ask questions.

Best of luck to all of you who are trying to survive college! As there are so many independent academic writers, I have only heard of one or two.

Braiden, this seems to be really sound advice. I write for one website at the moment but I've put myself out there to get work independently...on Craigslist, Vivastreet & Gumtree, for example. But nothing seems to being coming through. Perhaps students have just been scammed too much in the past and have decided to only go through the established websites. Where would you recommend that I advertise for freelance academic writing jobs? Ta.

I have an idea! Instead of spamming on two-year-old threads in a desperate attempt to get clients, you only chime in when you actually have something useful to say?

I didn't even realise how old the thread was; and I'm not looking for clients on here...I am asking for advice on where's the best place to advertise my services. Isn't this a forum for writers to discuss issues and help each other? I really don't think there's a need for your tone, pheelyks.

It's not a place for advertisements or recommendations, and if all you need is advice there really isn't a need to post useless crap in many different threads at once, is there?

The OP's system works well for online transactions. However, I try to avoid dealing with online clients because of the problems that I have seen my friends go through the minute the order develops problems. The seemingly endless revision requests, the threat of a chargeback or refund, and the arguments that always end in a stalemate, left me with a distaste and distrust of online transactions.

If I cannot meet you in person, discuss your writing needs in a formal setting with notes that the client must sign as an agreement to prove that complete instructions have been provided prior to work being done, if I cannot personally swipe that credit card in my portable contactless credit card reader or Paypal chip and swipe reader, then I will not take a student on as a client. I will not risk that severe financial burn.

Clearly neither you nor the OP have ever had to deal with the influx of orders during the hot season. When you have to write 4-5 or more papers each day, talk to customers, send bills, cook, clean, take out your dog, and find time to sleep on top, you have absolutely no time whatsoever to accommodate partial payments (except in cases of large orders over 20-30 pages), regular updates, and other similar nonsense. Just answering emails takes at least 2 hours a day, time you could spend writing so you can get more sleep. It goes something like this - you take the order, charge the client, forget about it until your calendar beeps red, write the paper, send the paper, and move on to the next paper you have booked in your calendar, which is completely redded out during the season.

This system may, and only may, work for new writers, but even then it's far to complicated and time consuming.

I only provide the percentage of work the client pays upfront. There is no way I will complete and entire order, even if I only send the percentage paid, until the order is paid in full. I don't have time to complete work that is not paid. I'm sure other full-time writers will agree. I happily work with clients to split payments, but the work is also performed in stages according to those payments.

For example, 15% of a 10 page paper would be about 1.5 pages. That is all I will do until the next payment is made and so on.


Also @Braiden992's policy for working with unknown or "advertised" writers is a good one. Using any service you aren't familiar with whether freelance or through a company is a risk and minimizing the risk is the goal, or it should be.

While you're welcome to go about your business whichever way you see fit, splitting payments for papers under 20-30 pages is just a gigantic waste of time for both sides. Having to send dozens of emails to and from just to finalize a 10 page paper is just not worth the effort, not to mention one can write three papers in the time it took to finalize one. But, if it makes you happy, knock yourself out.

While I don't disagree with Wordsies, I'll let a new client pay me for just a small portion of a larger project because I totally understand that it's a minefield of con artists and totally unqualified "writers" out there from the client's perspective . However, I will not, under any circumstances, ever even consider writing one word more than whatever portion of a project the client is willing to pay for in advance. If the client doesn't leave enough time for partial payment followed by the remainder of the payment for subsequent completion and delivery of the rest of the project at a later date, that's not my problem. In those cases, the client will either just have to trust me with full payment or maybe just try me some other time without the rushed deadline, to preserve the option of partial payment for partial delivery.

That's a fair point, and something I do as well. But that's only for new clients who have reservations, and in most cases it's not a part of a project, but a small independent project to establish trust. Doing that repeatedly with clients who come back is just a hassle I'm not willing to accept to be completely honest.

I was using the 10 pages as an example not a personal/professional rule. In fact, I agree with you. Not only is a waste of time in the back and forth for a few dollars at a time, it even more stressful as a 10-pager typically has a nearing deadline and waiting on replies, payments, replies, payments only makes timelines tighter.

However, as @FreelanceWriter said, for a new customer, then maybe the first 2-3 pages to show them what I can do is fine. However, in general, you are right, splitting a small order isn't practical.

I always negotiate a payment schedule with the clients. Not all of them can afford to pay in full upfront (My writers and I are guaranteed to be worth it.) and most of them ask for payment schedules to help them afford the payments. I tell them it all depends upon the turn around time for the paper. If the turn around time is too close, as in a few hours to 24 hours, then that is definitely a payment upfront case. If it is a one week deadline, then 2 payment installments are acceptable. The longest payment schedule I have is 4 equal installments. That is for the farthest possible deadline. During this time, they receive regular updates from their writers and a paragraph or so of the paper they paid for every time they complete a payment. When they complete the payment process, we send out the completed paper. This way trust is built on both ends, resulting in an easy and relaxed writing transaction.

@FreelanceWriter would you mind giving us a sample of your payment process? That is so the students who might be considering your services will have a chance to fully consider you as their writer based not only upon your postings, but also additional information such as your fees and payment schedule.

My payment process is very simple and already described in my earlier post in this thread (and many others since 2008) and on my website, but I prefer to discuss prices privately with my clients. I'm perfectly comfortable relying on my writing ability as demonstrated in my posts, the published federal government samples linked on my website, and my ability to prove that I wrote them, as well as my real identity and my exact street address and (landline) phone number to prospective clients, but privately, as well.