Kimberly, it's ironic that I, a total math klutz, would be advocating calculations. ;)) But it's helped me stay on track, which has helped me increase my revenue over the years.

So I was upfront and said while I do celebrity interviews all the time, the work involved – scheduling the call, doing the interview, transcribing the interview, and then writing the article – would take far more work than $100 will cover.

I said if I have time, I would be open to some shorter things, and she mentioned that it sounded as if the rates might be an issue for me….so perhaps there is some wriggle room??? I don't know. We'll see. It could be some nice fill-in work – but as I told her, my higher-paying jobs will have to remain my priority.

We'll see what, if anything, happens. If it's meant to be, we'll work something out. Otherwise, it wasn't meant to be.

When you know the worth of a project and charge clients accordingly, they really do respect what you do.

Eileen, it's true. The value of the job HAS to be considered or you're going to under-bid and look like an amateur. Obviously this isn't going to apply to content mills because the low-ball bid is money in their pockets, but in business writing, you have to compete with other professional writers and you'd better be close to the average bid rate. Unfortunately, there are people under-bidding in an attempt to win the job. I stick with my pre-recession quote. I can easily justify why I quote higher because dammit, I don't discount out of fear.

Paula, I know. Ten cents a word – who'd have thought it was ever acceptable? But if you're starting out, you have to start somewhere. I'd rather writers went for a lower-paying magazine job than an ongoing gig that locks you into the mindset of quantity over quality. More on that tomorrow…

For blogs, the price right now seems all over the map, but I'd quote a per-post rate and stick to it. If they want you, they'll pay it.

Wendy, I couldn't have said it better. Exactly the point. Pro-bono work for charities. Actual decent pay from everyone else.

If I was asked to write a couple of articles in the financial field where I didn't have experience and don't have enough skills to do a good job, then it would be a whole different story. For me, there would be no value in going too low. It would take me twice as long to write something like that.

The thought of writing 2-3 articles an hour for a 40 hour week, makes me gag. There's no way I could do it. Actually, I could, but 99% of them would be pure crap. Imagine using those as clips for a higher paying client.

Good timing on this post Lori. This morning I heard back from the place I mentioned in the assessments thread – the job ad that seemed ideal for me. Their senior editor sent me an e-mail outlining the types of things they need, and some seemingly low prices. But I say "seemingly" since she didn't mention word counts. These are blog posts for a major portal (and by major I mean household name). If they want 200 word posts, the pay is adequate. If they want 500+ words, it's squat.

Before I checked your blog this morning, I knew I needed to have a rock bottom number in mind before I contact the editor, and was already pondering most of the things you mentioned. Frequency of work will come into play for me, as well. I can't let low-to-adequate rates interfere with my ability to work for my regular clients. But these could be nice filler work for those occasional lulls (like a temporary one I'm in now while waiting for one of my regular editors to assign for the February issue). Yes, having a few hundred extra dollars a month sounds nice, but I need to figure the real cost of that before I make a decision.

Bid the value of the job

This will protect you from wasting your time, because anyone with half a brain should recognize that a 500 word article is worth more than $2 But even more importantly, as you progress in your career, it will keep you from leaving money on the table – assuming, of course, that you operate your business on the premise that you will only work with clients who value what a good writer brings to the table.

It's impossible to factor in the fiction royalties, because you can't estimate how many books you'll sell. You just work your butt off marketing and hope people are buying AND hope your publisher is being honest with you on the royalty statements. When you're getting lots of fan mail and the royalty statements don't reflect it — start asking questions.

I just got my first royalty check from a non-fiction anthology that earned out its advance after three years. That was nice and totally unexpected.

The plays are easier to factor in because I know how much i get paid per performance, and, since at this point, the companies that commission me book limited runs and then put it into repertory, I can figure out how much comes in during the course of a run. And anything on top of that is gravy.

I still say, if you're starting out and want legitimate clips that will land you the well-paid work, pick a nonprofit about which you're passionate and take them on, for a limited amount of time, as a pro bono client.

Few companies will hire someone who's worked for free (once you set up the free or cheap tag, that's it), but you can move into a paid position at another nonprofit and/or use the clips to vault yourself into well-paying, more commercial work.

I personally prefer to work for nonprofits — I find the work more interesting. Even though the hourly is less than I get for corporate work, it's still well within my rate range (and far, far, FAR above content mills) and I find the work more interesting.

I also learned more working in the development departments of a couple of museums that I was apply to other jobs moving forward than I learned anywhere else.