I spent most of February and March working very hard - that's always good - but I was anxious only being able to work for one company as they had booked me for so many days that I was unable to take any other work on. In the event my anxiety was well founded.
My client was MQ Publications - a small London publisher who produce gifty type books. I have worked for them before and was prepared to put up with a heavy workload and not very generous fee because of the people involved. Abi, the editor I work with is hardworking and supportive and generally a sympathetic character, and it is nice spending a few days with a home economist that one might not have seen for a while, and being able to catch up properly. And I like having a book at the end of it as a collection of my work. See the pics above as examples.
Anyway we worked away through February and into the beginning of March, it was fun and busy and we squeezed the work into too few days - and then I invoiced.



I had negotiated an "advance" that was supposed to be paid in 30 days so I should have received it in mid April. I am still waiting for it - over £2000 and the balance of over £8000 is now also very late. It is really hard to speak to anyone in accounts (they only accept calls in the afternoons and even then you usually have to leave a message which they don't return). They rarely reply to emails.
The moral is AVOID MQ Publications. They are clearly operating very near the edge and are not to be trusted.