I'm a new freelance writer and am actually currently in communications with my first (hopefully) real client. And of course I've been debating what to charge. I have price lists from at least one established copywriter, and that's pretty much all I'm basing my fees off of. Well, that and what I feel comfortable charging, and I feel my work is worth… and what the client will pay… which is yet to be determined.

Anyway, this helped. Thanks!

Glad you're making a clean break from them!

The chronic random payer is late again, and this final batch of articles ends our relationship, thank goodness.

That will remove both of my lowest=paying clients, who, interestingly enough, are the slowest payers.

I charge a minimum of $300 per press release. Same idea you've outlined — the work is such that usually I can knock it out in a short amount of time.

Since the bulk of my work is writing articles, my main sticking point is how little flexibility publications have with their rates.

Don't focus only on per-word rates. If you can knock out a story with a low per-word rate quickly, you're hourly rate will be higher. Some articles with a higher per-word rate can be so labor intensive you might wind up making half your desired hourly rate.

Last month I turned down three articles from a fill-in client I sometimes work for when I have a gap in my schedule. The assignments usually require minimal effort (four or five short quotes in a 400 word short), but I turned them down without looking at the assignments simply because it was mid-December and the stories were due in early January. If I'm going to work around the holidays it's going to be on a high-paying project (which I did this year while still managing to take a full week off for Christmas). When I looked to see what I'd turned down I was really glad I'd said no. One of the pieces needed 10 "man on the street" sources and photographs – with no extra compensation for the additional sources or the photos. Since when am I a photographer? And why would I want to go out of my house with a sub-zero windchill? No thanks. If a client suddenly demands twice the interviews and photos, demand they compensate you for the extra work or walk away before their demands grow.

This week I turned down a multi-story offer from a former client – the Slow Payer I threatened with legal action a year ago following weeks of excuses for my payment being several months late. It came from a new editor (their two long-time editors both quit last year), so I politely explained why I couldn't accept the assignments unless they paid upfront or immediately upon submission.

That's a really long-winded way of saying that even with the article market where clients tend to set their prices, you still need to do the math to see if their terms are compatible with your rates.