Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of royally screwing up a relationship with a freelance blogging client–in a Defcon 5, nuclear kind of way. I hesitated so long to write the apology email that it was too little, too late, and I lost any relationship that could have been salvaged (as well as my writing fee.) Not being the type to sit there and cry (for very long,) I wrote myself a template to make writing difficult emails easier, so that I’ll be prepared with an apology should I ever need one again.

So, here’s what happened: I was working on a project with a buddy of mine to write some blog posts and web copy. The buddy and I had worked together before with no hitches, and the buddy had known the client for years, so it was important to keep her happy. That’s… not what I did.

You see, I was frustrated with the project because the client was doing a lot of ‘midnight editing’ and requesting fixes for copy she had already signed off on. One day, in frustration, I replied to only my buddy out of the email thread where all three of us had been talking. I told him that I wasn’t willing to do any more revisions just for the sake of revisions.