Setting fees for freelance writing projects

Learning how to set fees for freelance writing projects can be confusing, especially for the beginning freelance writer. When I started my freelance writing business, I had no idea how much to charge, so I searched online for other writers’ websites. Not many of them posted their rates on their website and now I know why. Rates should be set by the project after taking many factors into consideration.

In the first year of my freelance writing career, I joined the freelance writers pool at Guru.com where I had to bid on projects. There were a lot of writers and a lot of project leaders, and I was overwhelmed; however, I had paid my annual fee to join, so I decided to do my best. Many times I did not win the tender for a project that I really wanted, or the pay was minimal. I made a low offer for a salary and accepted any project that was awarded to me. I was working for less than $8 an hour and was about to take the plunge into self-employment unemployment. Once I built my writing portfolio and gained confidence in my writing skills, I increased my fees just to survive.

Print ads didn’t generate much response and were expensive to start. I decided to do some online marketing through a newsletter and quickly got subscribers who agreed to receive it as an email every month. I joined several networking associations and soon had clients coming to me regularly. So I had a new problem. I couldn’t work fast enough to serve all my clients and still had time to do marketing.

Yes, you have to market your business even when you have many projects. Otherwise, the well runs dry and you have no job or income once you have completed your current assignments. I raised my rates again thinking that I would probably attract fewer clients, but earn more with each project. The clues kept coming and I realized that I needed help. I asked a writer friend of mine if she would like to take some of my projects and do some outsourced writing for me. That worked so well that I hired another writer and did more marketing and networking. The snowball kept rolling as word of mouth continued to grow and soon I had six writers on my team and most of them were busy. Some of them agreed that my fees reminded them of a circus; in other words, he was working for pennies! My prices were much lower than the going rate on the writers’ market, so my team and I set our project rates to compete with the going rate.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING RATES

ability to pay A corporate client may pay more than an individual or non-profit organization, but there must be fairness and consistency. If someone has a project but doesn’t really have a big budget, I might be willing to work with them if they’re willing to pay me a portion of my fee through advances and royalties, but I have to be pretty sure. the client’s book is going to get a publishing contract or he might end up working for free. There are times when I traded my services for something I needed, but I’m not a horse trader and can’t depend on bartering to pay my bills.

Demographics – Another thing to consider is the cost of living in different areas of the country. While $40 an hour doesn’t sound like a lot for someone who lives in New York, it’s a lot of money for a single parent in Mississippi.

Writing pace- Every writer has their own pace and my team quickly discovered that a “per page” rate was not the best way to get paid. Some writers could write a 250-word page in 30 minutes; others took over an hour to write a page. You have to know how fast you work to estimate how many hours a project will take. I estimate each project based on the amount of research, interview time, phone calls, emails, etc. needed to gather the information and the number of hours I think it will take me to write and edit the piece.

Amount of work involved – Pricing also depends on the amount of research, interview and phone time the project will require and that is not always easy to determine in advance when quoting the project to the client.

Your Personal Experience/Expertise – Someone who has been writing for 20 years will have more business skills than a writer just starting out. An impressive track record and a large writing portfolio lend credibility when dealing with a client seeking experience. They are usually willing to pay more for a writer who is a highly-skilled professional than someone who has little experience.

Project Type – Different types of writing pay different amounts of money. Most writers know that business writing or copywriting pays more than writing blog articles. Fees for ghostwriting a book may depend on whether or not the ghost gets cover credit. You might consider working for a lower fee if the author of the record is willing to put her name on the cover of the book. That depends on the notoriety of the registered author and how many copies you think he will sell. If your celebrity client has a contract with a major house and is willing to give you credit on the cover, they might ask for an advance plus fifty percent of the royalties. A book with his name on the cover featuring a celebrity could earn him more than the difference he would normally have charged for the project. If the client is an unknown author with no editorial contacts who hasn’t decided whether to self-publish, get their money up front rather than risk not getting paid for the project if the book doesn’t get published.

PRICING OPTIONS The most common pricing options for freelance writers are: – Flat rate or project rate – Hourly – Daily rate – Withholding rate – Per word – Per page I use a combination of several of these methods with the exception of daily rate and retainer. Each of the pricing options has advantages and disadvantages depending on the assignment, your typing pace, and the wishes of your client.

Flat fee or project fee – If you commit to a project fee or flat fee before you know much about the job, you could end up disappointed if the project turns out to be bigger or more complicated than you originally thought.

Hourly rate – Also, hourly rates may be the best approach for freelancers who write at a slower pace. For me, an hourly rate is the best way to get paid, not because I write slowly, but because it’s hard to know in advance how long a project might actually take. I give my client a ballpark about the number of hours I think a project will take me. So that the client knows what to expect, I give him a margin of 20% more or less hours than what I estimate. For example, if I think a project will take me 10 hours, I will quote the client for 8-12 hours in case I need to make adjustments once I get involved with the project. If I finish in fewer hours than I expected, I only charge for the hours I used.

per diem rate – If you go to the site to write for a client, you will have to leave all other projects behind while you travel. You’ll need to consider not only accommodation, travel expenses, food, and your hourly rate, but you should also include an amount that covers any help you need to hire to care for children or pets while you’re away. A fee per day is not set in stone. You can give the customer a day rate (your hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours on the site), but you can also ask for expenses to be covered.

in the retainer – If you have a client who wants you to be on call and ready to take on their project at a moment’s notice, you may have to drop everything to serve that client’s needs. If you’ve cleared your schedule to allocate a certain number of hours to her project and she ends up not having a task for you that month, she’s lost money she could have earned otherwise. A down payment can be useful in such cases to ensure that you have some income even if the client defaults on a project.

page rate – Our team started using a per page rate (one page is 250 words). If you work fast, a page rate is advantageous. However, I found that we were not being compensated for our research, interview and phone time, so if we charge per page, we charge for research and interview time separately.

word rate – Many journalists and magazine writers use the rate per word. I have seen some charge $1-2 per word. The thing to remember about the fee per word is that you can do the same amount of research for a 250 word article as you would for a 500 word article, so your time spent will be about the same with some extra time added. for the actual writing of the longer article. If I charge by the word, I can also ask for an hourly rate for research. Regardless of the method you choose, you should always get a deposit up front. We typically ask for a quarter down payment and bill monthly based on the number of hours/pages we have completed at the end of the month.

THE CURRENT RATE

Whether you decide to charge by the project, hour, word, page, or some other method, you want to set your rates within the range of rates earned by your competition. If you ask for a lot more, the client will probably look for another freelancer. If you ask for much less than the going rate, the customer will likely think you’re not a professional and will, again, seek help elsewhere. In a survey of members of the American Medical Writers Association in 1996, the average hourly rate for writing was between $60 and $70. Remember that some of your work is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that pay much more than average. A good piece of advice is to never quote a price on the spot unless you know exactly what the project is about. If you’ve done a particular type of project many times, you may be able to set a fixed fee.

Get as much information as you can about a project and consider the lowest rate you’d be willing to accept. Then assess the consequences you would have if you accepted such a low rate. Consider your hourly rate, how long it will take you to complete the project, and the price of similar projects you have done in the past. Even if you lose a project, don’t take a job that pays you less than you’re worth.

I use a stopwatch to record my hours and an excel spreadsheet to record my project records. In it, I list each task performed during a job and the amount of time each task requires. I use this data not only to show a client an accurate account of my billing, but also to determine how much time I might need to allocate if I do a similar project in the future. Important items to include in your registry are:

– Meetings with clients, emails and phone calls.

– Research the background of a company, product or person you are going to write about

– Interview time

– Write the draft.

– Development of tables and figures.

– Edition of the draft.

– Creation and format of your works cited and bibliography

– Make changes after reviewers return the document

– Mail, faxes, travel, accommodation and other incidentals

For more information on how to set rates for standalone projects, I recommend: Secrets of a Freelance Writer: How to Make $85,000 a Year by Robert W. Bly and How to write what you want and sell what you write by Skip Press. Ultimately, the right rate is a price that is fair to the client and adequately compensates the writer.

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