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Our Policy on Low-Rated Writers

Hello Studio writers,

We wanted to address some threads in the forums regarding writers being let go this week. We have actually been doing this since the inception of Demand Studios, especially in regards to a high number of rejected articles (as a percentage of their total articles submitted) and uncontested plagiarism flags. We also take a hard look at writers who have had more than 40% of their submitted articles (all time) sent back for rewrites. One of the major complaints we’ve heard from our writer community is not having timely, fair reviews of their content. One issue that works against that is poor writing which backs up the copy-editing queue.

We don’t want you to panic and think we are on a firing spree, because we’re not. We are currently working on tools to give you better visibility into your library of content. As a reminder, things that play a big part in terminating a writer’s privileges are a high number of valid rejections, a high percentage of rewrites, poor content that doesn’t meet the stated guidelines and plagiarized articles. Of course, we will also continue to give you tools and training like the recent writer conference call hosted by the Demand Studios team and featuring writing tips from Richard Lally and Eve Lederman. We do want to help in every way to make you better at your craft – but we also believe that a key way to do that is by supporting our community of quality writers through efforts like this.

I hope this puts most of your minds at ease. Thanks for listening.

Johan and the Demand Studios Team

14 Comments

If this is the case and you are working on tools to help the writers, especially newer writers, give us the chance to learn the ropes before you let us go. I was very upset to find this out today after working very hard to learn the ropes. I feel that my work is improving and have printed out all the strategy guides for each article type to improve my own writing and feel that newer writers should be given an opportunity to improve on their work. Thanks and I am sure other writers feel the exact same way I do.

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I don't agree at that the number of re-write requests should be a factor. Sometimes, it is due to a reference link not working properly or other minor items. Most writing businesses in the world have editors, that is what they are for. If the corrections are made the way the CEs ask, then revisions should never count toward a writer losing their job, unless over a period of time there is no improvement. It should not go by the number of articles. It is fact in every job that people learn over time. If someone does ten articles in one day and the first one has problems, then the chances are good that the other nine will need some fixing as well. Steady improvement is what should count, as well as the writer's ability to work well with the CEs. I personally feel that the writers, CEs and publishers all work TOGETHER to make the article great. They way it stands now, if a CE is having a bad day it can be a very bad day for writers. I can tell by reading the forums that there is no sense of teamwork, it is more of a CEs against the writers type of feel. This is probably the reason why I do not spend much time on the boards. :) just my two cents and I mean absolutely no offense, I am just a little afraid to write.

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agree with everything you said, kim. it is a little unnerving at time. i rarely go on the forums, anymore, as well.

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KimK - this is Jeremy from Demand. You did a brilliant job of explaining how we approach the rating of writers, copy editors and other roles. We aim to create more opportunities for folks who come into the Studio with proven credentials (those approved to be in the Studio) and who continue to produce quality over time. As someone who has been edited many times - I couldn't agree more that rewrites are a needed, valuable part of the process.

And outside of the extreme cases like in the event of proven plagiarism, we only remove someone based on 'period of time with no improvement.' We take all of this to heart because, as you said before, it only works with the CE, writer and publisher all work to make something great.

We will keep it at and we hope you will notice the continued improvement on our end.

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Thanks so much for this blog! I've been worried about people getting cut. I'll be really happy when our scores are up so we can know if we're getting close. Getting a rewrite or hearing that someone was let go is always unnerving and I appreciate the reassurance that Demand Studios is putting a lot of work into helping writers and that they're not on a "firing spree" :)

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Dear DS,
Any dateline as to when we as writers will visibly see our own rating system? Ive been anxiously awaiting the day the tool will be visible.
Thanks Demand!
Julie

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Julie,

We don't have a target date as of yet. We're still in the process of designing the new dashboard where the ratings will be visible. We'll try to get it rolled out as soon as we can, but we want to make sure it looks good and will be easy to interpret for you writers.

Johan

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Hi all,

Just a note to let you know that we are currently working on a forum thread which will allow writers to consult Demand Studios editors in regard to rewrite request questions. This will be set up much like office hours, therefore, you will receive responses to your pressing questions in a timely manner. It should be a great way for you to receive clarification on rewrite requests!

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This is all great news! Thanks!

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There is a marked difference between editorial attitudes from story to story. I've defended some decisions I made re: information included in an article in a field in which I have extensive experience. The editor was wrong in what he asked me to do. I made my case and he apparently accepted it. With a lot of editors I'd be afraid to do that and the story would suffer as a result. If you want good content, you need to find a way for specific editors to develop a stable of talent with whom they are comfortable working. On the writer's end, I'd like to have an editor I work with all the time so we can get to know each other's styles. I'd be able to write faster and my editor's work load would be easier. Pleasing a whole bunch of faceless editors is hard, uncertain work for a writer and I think costs the company in quality of writing. So is there a way to assign writer's to specific editors. I know if I was an editor, I'd prefer it that way and certainly as a writer I would.

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Our Policy on Low-Rated Writers

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