"View your writer as a source of ideas and marketing knowledge, not a place where layouts are made or insertion orders typed."

Speed of turnaround, too, has to be a factor in your deliberations. Who, after all, is less expensive: the writer who charges £30 an hour and spends a week creating the communication you need? Or the writer who charges £60 and turns the project around, satisfactorily, within two days?

The case for a fixed price quotation is clear – enabling you to make a true ‘apples-with-apples’ comparison and ensuring there will be no nasty surprises when the invoice arrives in your In-box.

With the latter in mind, you should also insist upon a supporting Copywriting Agreement setting out any and all applicable Terms and Conditions - including undertakings (on both sides), access to background information and key personnel, revisions and alterations, proof reading, treatment of expenses and deadlines. On which topic…

Most writers will ask for as long as possible to refine and polish your piece – and rightly so. The longer they are allowed, the better the job will be.

Final word count is of no consequence here: it can take far longer to create a focused 30-word press ad than to write a six page direct mail piece. (Lest we forget Blaise Pascal’s apocryphal postscript: "I would have written a shorter letter but didn't have time.")

And it’s not about inflating your invoice either. In fact, it’s the hours the writer doesn’t bill for that can be the most productive: the period, for instance, between the preliminary briefing session and that all-important ‘first cut’.

During this (usually all too short) hiatus, the writer’s subconscious sets to work, assimilating the supplied information, and devising, sifting and rejecting an infinite series of approaches and ideas.

Consequently, when the time comes to write, the communication is invariably half-formed, and the act of writing comes easy (well, easyish).

On a similar note, the luxury of a break between the first and subsequent drafts allows the writer to revisit the job with a fresh eye – enabling them to quickly pick up on, for example, typo’s, verbosity, clumsy phrases and ambiguity.

The message then is clear: wherever possible, give the writer the time s/he needs to do the job. Properly.

That said, once it’s agreed, your deadline is sacrosanct. And although few writers would be keen to match Steve Calder’s rip-up-your-invoice guarantee, some form of penalty – for late delivery – is not unreasonable.

If – like you – the writer is looking to develop a long term relationship, s/he’ll be happy to oblige.

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