Let me call her Ms. X. it was a
chance encounter with her on one of those numerous FaceBook pages where
freelance writers and clients post their requirements. Ms. X has posted a job. It
was simple and to the point. The gist was: she is a budding writer and has a
collection of short stories. She needs someone to read, analyse and send her
feedback.
What got me interested in that
post was the nature of the job. Being an avid reader, I always have a soft
corner for something to do with books. May be a review, a critical analysis of
the characters or simply to rewrite the story in a nutshell. Naturally, I was
curious and was interested so I shot a mail to Ms.X
A series of emails was exchanged.
Ms.X sweetly informed me that she is an aspiring writer and has managed to
write a few, “good” short stories which she wants to be read and a feedback
needs to be given to her on “What works” and “What does not work” for the
stories. She also informed me she intends to publish the stories and is in
talks with a few on this. Delighted, I asked her to send across the stories to
me to go through. She assured me it is a paid job and as she wishes to publish
the stories, more work is expected to follow.
The stories arrived via an email
attachment. I began going through the stories. Plainly speaking, I was aghast
that someone spends time to write these. On no account these can be called
stories. Full of errors, the narrative had nothing that can be called a story. A
few jumbled up thoughts loosely connected with wrong grammar and syntax made
her “stories”. I could not decide what to say and more importantly how to say
it. But, I had a job at hand and looking at her enthusiasm I decided that I
will go easy on my feedback.
Painstakingly I went through each
story and wrote a feedback on each one. Since there was nothing much to write
about anyway, I just managed to tell Ms.X what she should do with the stories, what
these lack and how to rectify these. I even advised her to remove two stories
from the collection as these two were not worthy of publication.
I clearly pointed her that she
must rewrite the entire collection if at all she wants these to be published. I
sent ny feedback on the due date and waited for her email. There was no email
from her side and ultimately I sent my bank details to her for the payment. Her
return mail had just one sentence: “I am not happy with the feedback”, which
meant she had no intention of payment. She never had and that I should have
understood when she had given me a missed call expecting me to call back.
If, Ms.X did not have rs.2 to
make a call, how will she pay me in thousands for a critical acclaim?
