Weekend Discussion: How Much Do I Charge
May 4, 2007 by Deb Ng
Filed under Freelance Writing
Sorry, there’s no guest blogger this weekend, you’re stuck with Yours Truly. I want to address a question I’m coming across more often lately, “how much do I charge?”
I receive several emails a week from newer writers asking me to advise them on how much to charge, I tell them I’m not comfortable answering this question. Rates are kind of a personal thing. It depends on the writer, her experience, the research involved and other factors. I thought maybe this weekend, you guys could discuss your tips for determining how much to charge.
Here are few things to keep in mind when determining rates:
- Who are you writing for? Is it a large client with a big budget? Try and think about what your client can afford.
- How much work is involved? Will there be hours of research and interviews? Certainly you would charge a higher hourly rate than if you’re writing an essay.
- How long have you been writing? Perhaps if you’re just starting out, you don’t mind a low quote to help get your foot in the door.
- Who Owns the Piece? If you’re selling all rights, you’ll want to be paid accordingly.
- What Are Your Expenses? Will you be making many long distance calls or purchasing coffee or meals for interview subjects? Will you be required to drive long distances or take public transportation? These are important considerations when determining rates.
Here are a few links to help out:
Putting a Price on Capabilities: How to Set Your Fees as a Freelance Writer
How Much Should I Charge for My Freelance Writing
How Much Should a Freelancer Charge?
How Much to Charge for Work
Freelance Writing Rates, How Much Do I Charge?
A Beginner’s Guide to Freelancing
How Much Should I Charge?
Discuss…
Even after factoring in all the above, I still don’t know what’s reasonable. What if another person bid lower? It’s so hard to figure out an amount that works.
Very interesting topic and one with which I think plenty of freelancers struggle. (I know I do!)
I have adopted the philosophy that, wrong or right, I only have one chance to ask for my personal “top dollar”, whether that’s determined per word or per project. When you’re the “seller” in any negotiation, your first bid sets the tone, and you can never request more. So why not shoot for a reasonable amount?
For instance, if you want to bid on a job and you request $50, you can’t turn around and “up the ante” to $75 (unless other factors come into play, like travel fees that were not originally disclosed to you.) You’ve basically set the bar at $50, that’s that.
I know that many writers worry about being “under bid”, but my suggestion is to let that go. After all, if you ask for $50 to complete a job and someone else offers to do it for $5, would you really want to make five bucks for work you think is deserving of ten times that amount?
That being said, if you consistently lose bids, you could slightly lower your usual “asking price” by 10% or so and see if that has any effect.
Just some thoughts on a sunny Saturday morning in the northeastern United States…
AHC
If you own Writer’s Market and can access their online features, there is a very useful chart they have for going rates: http://www.writersmarket.com/assets/pdf/How_Much_Should_I_Charge.pdf
For article writing, I like to look at submission guidelines for a bunch of similar periodicals and see what they’re compensation is. The major ones sometimes pat $1 or more per word, and the smaller ones may offer $0.25/word. So you can take that and use it as a guide to about what you can/should average in compensation.
I agree with the person who said not to worry about being underbid. Let’s face it, some of the less, um, sophisticated people/periodicals may simply be looking for the cheapest bid with no regard for real quality. In the end, they will get what they pay for. But don’t sell yourself short just to land a gig like that. Truly reputable employers won’t automatically go with the lower bid, they’ll want the person with quality and experience.
As anonymous said, I’ve worried about being underbid for a while. I’ve been freelancing for 3 years next month and was a reporter before that. I’ve come to the point recently that I’ve stopped being concerned about others’ pay so much. While I still price out comparable writers’ work, I have to look at my own needs.
Right now, I aim to make $25 an hour. I work within a range of $20-30 an hour, and all of my current projects stay there. Working full-time, that’s $40,000-$60,000 a year. (Of course, I don’t work full-time, but that’s another story.)
I’d like to move up in pay but have realized that to reach the $50 an hour mark, which is my current goal, I have to move to a different type of writing. I’m making that transition right now, and it’s going well so far.
Another thing I’ve realized is that I have to stop spending so much time with writers who make much less. I think it’s one of the reasons I’ve accepted lower pay. Now that I’ve been lurking in places where the writers expect more from their clients, I’ve had far more confidence to seek out better-paying work.
I’m sorry for the rambling response, but this issue has been hitting home with me lately – something about someone calling me a “kiddie pool wader.”
Brandi
Related to this, and perhaps it deserves its own post, is how to increase your rate for an ongoing client. I’ve been with my client for just over a year, and I want to raise my rate, but I don’t know the proper protocol. I’ve read that I should just send a notice saying “effective [date], my new rate will be $$” and another freelancer friend said I needed to schedule a business review with my client and negotiate. My client is very pleased with my work, and I know I’m better than a year ago (they are the first client I landed after going freelance), and importantly, I know their business much better and that has profoundly impacted my writing ability and the ability to ask questions and to edit the content (I both write and edit for them).
Thanks
why no guest blogger this weekend?
There’s no guest blogger this weekend because I wanted to address the quote question. I get so much mail regarding this, I thought I’d bring it up.
Ditto what lynn said.
You can never win the “low bidder” game. Remember, you’re limited to 168 hours a week (7×24). I received back an offer the other day to write a 500-word article for $1. I would have cried if I wasn’t laughing so hard. Even as a college writer 30 years ago, I made more than that.
The range of 25 cents to $1 a word for journalistic work is right on. For most pubs, the $1 a word work will take about twice as long as the 50 cent a word work. Most work at a lower rate (25-49 cents a work) is usually only good to fill holes in the schedule.
Another very important item regarding rates — if one is accepting a lot of work at the low end, is that taking time away to market to the high end? One might say they made $200 writing an article that took 8 hours, but in that time could they have made inroads on landing a new client? Maybe there would be no immediate income, but the potential could be outstanding.
Case in point: I went to a tech conference a few years ago just to try to land work — something I hadn’t done before.
The prospect (now client) I met there has generated some $20,000 in business in the last five years.
Of course, this is hard to keep in focus when you have a $200 bill that’s overdue. I’ve been there, too, and taken on work that was well below my standards just to pay the bills.
But if one isn’t squeezed by expenses and lack of income, one shouldn’t take less than a professional rate — $50 or more an hour (you know yourself how long it takes to write certain material).
And, unless squeezed, don’t cut rates — will the doctor, insurance company, utilities or repairman (auto, plumber, etc.) cut their rates?
Thanks for letting me comment/pontificate.
My rule of thumb is to never compete on price. Period. That doesn’t mean I ask the earth for my work. I try to stay competitive with people who are at my level of experience and competence. But I just don’t want customers for whom price is a big consideration.
I recently turned down $30 an hour for a job writing sophisticated financial analyses of publicly owned companies (for a newsletter, anonymously).
Hell, the chick who cleans my house charges me $18 an hour and that’s off the books. I think that after 25 years as a writer and two well-received books I should be worth at least three times what a house cleaner makes. Yeah, I know it’s apples and oranges but I’d have to be nutty as a fruitcake to take that kind of money.
Setting a rate for a publication (magazine) article should not be your job. Any reputable publication has guidelines and rates that they pay and would not have to ask you for a quote.
Where rates do come into play are with business writing and the like. Most of my business clients are on yearly contracts at a per hour fee billed monthly. I have found that businesses would rather pay by the hour than have to put each project out for a quote. Also, I find that I get more work from my clients because they start to find other things they need written and throw my way.
My rock bottom hourly fee for writing is $50.00 per hour. My lowest fee for consultations is $25.00 per hour. I do have clients I bill at three figures per hour, but most are in $75-100 per hour range. I have never once had a business client tell me I was charging too much.
The key to this is to give them a long contract. I start out with a 6 month contract. When its time to renew, we renegotiate the rate increase and the contract goes to a 12 month time frame.
I once answered an ad that was looking for a writer. I did not notice that in the “compensation” area they had put $8.00 an hour or I would have never answered it. They contacted me for the job and I told them I couldn’t take it for that rate. They asked what I charged. I told them the minimum I could go would be $50.00 an hour. They said, “send me a contract.” This just goes to show that companies will try to low ball us and nickel and dime us to death, but if they like your writing and your stick to your price, they will pay it! This client is now (3 years later) paying me well into three figures an hour and not complaining one bit about it!