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>Today, a person from
>the Canadian offices of this company requested that I send a copy of the
>file to their training coordinator so they can revise it for Canadian usage.
>I begrudgingly sent the file but I would like to know what everybody else
>thinks about this situation.
Jack:
It seems normal to me. One of my clients has a European division that
does exactly what you describe. Even internally at my client's site,
the files are given up begrudgingly because the European guys are
hacks. However, no one here wants the work (since there wouldn't be a
budget) or the job of controlling an overseas group. I dread to think
what the translations look like when they're done, let alone
formatting.
The good news (for me as a contractor) is that there's plenty of work
at the main site. The Europeans are too cheap to hire anyone, and my
main client leaves them to their own devices, so I'm not losing work.
That said, if you haven't already, talk to your client. There could be
animosities or document control issues that need to be addressed
before you send files to any individual outside the writing group.
>The client is one of my main sources
>of income, so I don't want to offend, but I would like for them to come back
>to me for revisions and other project spinoffs.
>Am I nuts in thinking this way?
I wouldn't say "nuts." We'd all like repeat customers! However, it's
probably unrealistic to expect them to come to you for every project,
especially for a division in another country. The managers there
probably see the problems of having you do the work as insurmountable.
I make it part of my contract to give all source files to the client.
They paid for them, and I've found that most people would rather have
me do the work than do it themselves, so just because they have them
doesn't mean they'll use them. It also gives the client a sense of
control over the documents -- they don't have to call me to fix a
misspelling on page 15. I just won a contract from a company that was
unhappy with their previous contractor because of this issue. My new
client felt that they should be able to add or change small pieces of
information, but the previous contractor wanted full control.
Good luck --
Barb
On Mon, 15 Sep 1997 11:04:23 -0500, you wrote:
>I have recently completed a product training manual for a client. The
>deliverable as stated in the contract was one copy of the manual that the
>client could copy and distribute to their sales force. This is first time something like this has
>surfaced since I've been a freelancer.
>
>Jack Wiley
>Logos Technical Communications
Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing
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