The silence that screams
Published by on April 6th, 2006
No, not more about horror scripts, this is about a certain period of time I loathe…
In days of old, that period happened between taking a photograph and receiving the processed film back from the lab. That’s a horrible silence where everything is out of your hands. You cannot influence, persuade, or even buy someone a box of chocolates to influence the outcome; just wait and pray that you got your exposures right.
Digital photography has pretty much removed that wait, or at least reduced it down to a second or two, but there is another regular instance of silent void which will never go away: the dreaded quote.
It’s a common situation: converse with prospective client about their needs, submit estimate/quote, wait. And sometimes wait some more.
It’s always tortuous. In the silence I always assume that I’ve not assessed the project properly and mis-priced - either way too high or way too low, both potentially damaging all round (quick, send them an email telling them you mis-typed the amount!), or that the whole initial briefing meeting was an April fool’s joke, or that I sent the email to the wrong person, or that… well, you get the picture.
Of course it generally ends up that the recipient had merely been dragged away for a day or two on a work project or pet duck vaccination session and they hadn’t actually read what I had sent. Phew.
Even after years of working freelance and rarely losing a pitch at all, let alone for price reasons, I still squirm during that period of post pitch submission silence. Perhaps it’s time to start delivering them by hand, strapped to a box of Quality Street.
Technorati Tags: freelance, pitch, business
One Response to “The silence that screams”
April 6th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Just don’t start biting my nails if you run out of your own… creepy.