Sep 24 2008
What Should Freelance Writers Charge?
(Note: I wrote this post a few months ago before I decided to “retire” from accepting jobs from commercial clients. Still, it is applicable to freelance writers in general.)
Ah yes … we work for money, don’t we.
And we should. After all, you wouldn’t choose to spend your afternoon writing a press release announcing ACME Balloon Rental’s new vice president of inflation instead of working on your novel, would you? Nor would you pop out of bed in the morning thinking, “Finally, today I get to write a brochure about widgets instead of finishing my screenplay!”
The fact is, as freelance writers, we work to eat, and to eat, we must charge for our work. But there’s the rub: What should we charge?
Let’s cut to the chase. I currently base my fees on $75 per hour for anything clients ask me to do, whether it’s writing, ghostwriting or editing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for a brochure, Web site, book, press release or what. It’s $75 per hour. (That rate is higher than some writers charge and less than others charge. The geographical market has a lot to do with it.)
My fees are almost never discussed when I work with repeat clients. They know what to expect and seem to be okay with it. If it looks like a project is going to cost more than the client is used to, I bring this up for approval. The last thing I want is to give a good client an unpleasant surprise when he or she opens my bill.
My fees are always discussed with new clients. I usually don’t tell them what I charge per hour. That really tells them little, because it’s only half of the equation. One writer might take five hours to do the project while another would take 10 hours. So simply saying “I charge $75 per hour” means nothing. That’s why with new clients I estimate what I would charge for a project, based on all the information I have been given. I also let the client know to expect changes in the estimate if the project’s parameters change midstream. An up-front estimate eliminates sticker shock when the client receives the invoice. (By the way, you could call it a “bid,” but I like “estimate” because it seems a bit more pliable.)
Ultimately, of course, you can only charge what the market will bear, but the fee structure I’ve just described has worked for me for years. I have, of course, periodically raised my rate.
Don’t be afraid to turn down clients who aren’t willing to pay you what you’re worth. If you keep saying yes to these people, you will get locked into a low-level of clientele and will always be underpaid. Believe me, there are companies and individuals out there who are willing to pay the price for a good writer. If you are a good writer, you just have to find them. But you won’t find them if you’re swamped with jobs that keep you perpetually unpaid and overworked.
I have a pet peeve: writers who low-ball their rates just to get work. They make life difficult for other hardworking, professional freelancers, and ultimately they cut their own throats. I recently went online to check out what writers were charging and being offered for online articles and content. I was appalled and frankly infuriated to read that some online publishers were offering 1/10th of one cent per word! Once cent per word was fairly standard. That sort of compensation is a slap in the face to serious writers, and any writer who accepts it is doing real damage to the profession as a whole.
Let’s put things in perspective: Yesterday a garage door repairman charged me $89 to fix one of our garage door openers. He spent – I’m not exaggerating – less than five minutes! The day before, my sister paid a plumber $180 to fix a leaking connection. He spend just over 30 minutes on the job. And they’re asking writers to work for maybe $2 per hour?
And some writers will do it? I can’t think about this without wanting to break something.
One last thought. Some writers wonder whether to charge on a per-word basis. This may work for magazine articles and the like, but is lunacy for most types of projects. It doesn’t take into account the time you might spend on research and in meetings, or the approval process and other variables. I once spent three days in meetings and creative time to come up with a small college’s three-word billboard headline. Had I charged per word, I would have had to charge over $400 per word. Had I told the client I would charge $400 per word, I wouldn’t have landed the job. But telling them that I would charge about $1200 for three days of work seemed reasonable to them. And it was. In fact, it was a steal. They used the headline for years in all their marketing materials.
By the way, I regularly get $400 per word for 2,000-word travel articles … in my dreams.
Such a timely post for me. I recently inquired about a newspaper’s monthy magazine’s query guidelines, only to find out that I had to post a blog on their website to to even be considered for a feature in the monthly. A feature in the monthly would pay only 50 cents a word. Blogging on their website is unpaid work, also known as free content for them. Riding the freelance road can be so full of potholes sometimes.
I really gain insight from your blog and weekly mailings. Thanks for sharing your insights and expertise.
While you make a very important point about charging what you’re worth and sticking to it, I don’t think it was necessary to demean copywriting to do so. (”After all, you wouldn’t choose to spend your afternoon…”) I’m sure there are writers who don’t want to write a novel or a screenplay and who are happy to write that “press release announcing ACME Balloon Rental’s new vice president of inflation” or that “brochure about widgets.” (I’m one of them.) Crafting a well-written, informative, and entertaining three-panel brochure requires an incredible amount of skill and can also be fulfilling.
Bill, I didn’t intend to demean copywriters. I’m sorry if that’s the way it sounded. After all, copywriting is the way I’ve made most of my income during my career. I know from long personal experience that writing materials for companies and organizations demands an enormous amount of creativity. As they say, there is no true creativity without limitations, and the limitations placed on the copywriter are typically severe (word counts, graphic coordination issues, pleasing all the decision-makers at once, and so on) — not to mention having to write something that will get people’s attention and make them want to read what you’ve written. My hat is always off to good copywriters.
Your comment has made me do some introspection — especially your mention of being fullfilled by writing a brochure. My first reaction was, “How can anyone be fulfilled by writing a brochure?” Then I thought about it and, yes, I will admit that I’m fulfilled when I write a brochure, press release or other commercial project that comes together well. It’s a good feeling, perhaps because it does, in fact, take a lot of creativity and skill. Also, I love the writing process, no matter what I apply it to.
So there you have it. You’ve made me realize something that I’ve ignored for over a quarter of a century.
Having said all that, however, I would still rather sit down and write a story or work on a novel than on a brochure. But I suppose that’s just personal preference — maybe because I relate the latter to the day-in, day-out grind of making a living as a writer and having to please a lot of people to make it happen.
Hi all,
I’m a “bread-writer” as well, although I write technical papers and applications for grants etc. the end result is the same. I’m lucky to be able to ask a no cure, no pay, which almost always is a cure & pay.
But there are occasions when someone wants a hour price and a number of hours.
Or they try to get 5% instead of 15%.
They want to do it on their own etc.
When they ask for an hour price and the amount of hours, no problem. It’s just isn’t no cure, no pay anymore.
When they read online that some people do it for 5%, I warn them that the quality isn’t necessarily very good and the service is usually awful.
When they want to do it on their own, I’m really helpful and I really do give them all the documents I wrote for them in the past.
But, when the application isn’t positive, they don’t like paying. When the 5% guy ask them to write the application, they are not rejoicing to get behind their desks . Or when the own written application is plagued with question letters they don’t have the time to answer them.
That’s how I often get clients back again, and I have to say, they are the best clients. They are so happy with your service and quality, they never ask again for a reduction or lower prices!
But, special for Bill, in all honesty, I make a decent living out of writing. And I like writing. But then there are the interviews, project management, reports, differences between parties and all those other things to overcome. Surprisingly I don’t like that as much. Most of my colleagues don’t like several parts of this job as well.
Let’s face it, writing your latest novel can be a pain in the proverbial place as well. All those hours laborious behind a desk. And even worse when there is no publisher who wants to publish it.
So I would say every job has it’s own merits, be it writing the latest travel book, novel or a report to explain where all those Euro’s went on things and hours that where not on the forecast.
P.S. English is not my first language, neither my second come to think of it, so do correct me if I’m wrong, but keep in mind that you’re not fluent in Dutch either. Most likely. I hope. haha.
[...] What Should Freelance Writers Charge? [...]
Steve — your second paragraph hits the nail on the head (how’s that for a cliche?).
That’s exactly it. No matter what I’ve created, at the end of the day, I’ve written, and, like you, it’s the writing process I love. I once joked that I was a writing “whore,” because it didn’t matter what I was working on, so long as I was writing. And I’m self-aware enough to know that right now, I don’t have the discipline to write a novel or short story or screenplay; that brochure or press release or marketing material fulfills that need.
I work for a nonprofit (with some freelancing on the side), so there the added satisfaction that my brochure or press release or Web copy is helping people, either because our consumers come to us for help, or a donor decides to give, or we get positive media coverage.
Appreciate the info guys, thanks