Once upon a time, I had a simple idea — Writers Worth Day. Soon, the interest was such that I stretched it to a week. Good, right?
Today, Paula shows us how the actual price you’re paid may not align with the price stated.
Calculating the Actual Value of Per-Word and Hourly Rates
A few years ago a self-proclaimed freelance writing guru (with way more followers than her minimal amount of experience merits) flatly stated on a writers’ forum that she never accepts less than 50-cents per word. Because I’d seen the same “expert” give bad or misleading advice on numerous occasions — even contradicting herself at times — I couldn’t let it go. After all, one of my regular clients only pays 35-cents per word.
I challenged The Guru’s assertion that anything less than 50-cents per word was beneath her. Several other writers did as well — and each one had far more professional experience than The Guru.
I argued how — in certain circumstances — a lower per-word rate can equal a higher hourly rate.
Confused? Then consider these examples.
Editor A agrees to pay you $400 for an 800-word article (50-cents per word). Sounds great, right? But your editor wants at least four original interviews and you need to dig up supporting statistics and art. Let’s consider how much time every step will take:
· You’ll spend about one hour securing sources – the good news is they can supply the art. Still sounds pretty good, huh?
· You spend a solid hour researching and analyzing current statistics and another hour writing thought-provoking questions.
· You need to block out at least 30 minutes per interview (add in travel time for in-person meetings). That’s two more hours, plus travel time, if needed.
· You need to make sure the quotes you include in the article are accurate because the subject matter is complex or controversial. That means you need to record and transcribe the interviews (or pay someone else to transcribe). I’m not sure about you, but it typically takes me 90 minutes to transcribe a 30-minute conversation. But let’s estimate on the low side and say each of those interviews takes one hour to transcribe. That’s four more hours.
· You’re already nine hours into the assignment before you start writing.
· Your legwork paid off, and you’ve got such great information to work from that you’re able to knock out the article in two hours, including a final polish.
· Do the math: $400 divided by 11 hours equals $36.36 per hour.
Editor B offers you $250 for a 700-word article (35¢ per word). On the surface it might not sound very tempting, but only two sources are needed. This editor encourages email interviews since most subject experts aren’t accustomed to being interviewed and like being able to review their answers before going on record, but phone interviews are okay, too. The editor supplies a list of industry associations that have access to current statistics and may have leads on potential sources. No need to find art for this story.
· You spend about 90 minutes securing sources, analyzing statistics, and writing questions.
· You have one source opting for an email interview; it takes less than 2 minutes to email him the questions you’ve already written.
· Your other source prefers a phone interview; assuming the same transcribing speed as in the case above, that 30-minute call takes you another hour to transcribe, so you’ve spent 90 minutes, combined, to conduct and transcribe the phone interview.
· You also knock this article out in two hours, making your total investment five hours (plus the two minutes it took to email questions to the first source).
· Do the math: $250 divided by five hours equals $50 per hour.
Neither is a great hourly rate, but which job would you prefer?
The second example is typical of the client I mentioned earlier. When both sources request email interviews I can wrap an article in less than four hours, bringing my hourly rate closer to $70.
Again, that’s not an ideal hourly rate, but this is just occasional filler work, and it’s nearly double what the first example would net.
Maybe The Guru would refuse the straight forward, quick-turnaround job paying 35-cents per word in favor of a more complex assignment at 50-cents per word, but she’s the one losing out.
I write the 35-centers when I have lulls between better paying projects. My editor knows I need to prioritize higher paying assignments, so she’s flexible with deadlines. The company pays quickly, too. All of those things can add to the value of what on the surface are lower-paying projects. Better yet, I often get contacts and article ideas to pitch to major markets.
Instead of automatically rejecting an assignment that doesn’t pay much per word — or blindly accepting one with a higher per-word rate — break down how complex the project is, how much time it will take, and then calculate what the hourly rate would be. Consider intangibles like frequency of assignments, flexibility of deadlines, and speed of payment and you’ll find that sometimes a lower per-word rate is worth more than you’d think.
Paula Hendrickson is a full-time freelance writer whose byline has appeared in dozens of publications including Emmy, Variety, American Bungalow, Incentive, Advertising Age, and Creative Screenwriting. She also provides copywriting and editorial services for a select group of clients. Follow her on Twitter @P_Hendrickson.
Writers, what projects do you take on that are lower than your stated rate?
14 responses to “Writers Worth: What’s the Actual Rate?”
Great examples, Paula. It's not just about the headline rate, but about the time it takes. A slightly lower rate for a topic you're an expert in can be worth your while. It's always worth doing the math. 🙂
Love, love, love this post! This is a shining example of steering clear of "absolutes".
I'd like to say I was brilliant about my strategy to work on a project basis only. Truth is, I didn't want to deal with hourly or per word tracking.
Like Sharon said, it's about the time it takes. So regardless of the assignment, I create a project rate based on the time to do the project. Yes, I have a bottom-line hourly rate to come up with the project fee. I created a project template for myself to calculate my projects.
It works for the kind of projects I do. I realize not all clients or niches accept that (e.g., magazine publications that have a per word rate). But if you have the flexibility, I highly recommend the project fee. If not, writers should consider your very fine examples, Paula, as opposed to some Guru's "absolute". 😉
Amen, Paula! It's proof that not every job is good or bad based on first impressions.
I have a client I work with currently, and I nearly turned my back on them initially. The contact asked tons of questions, mostly "What's the price for…" variety. I thought it was a bargain shopper, but I stuck it out.
Turned out to be a lucrative decision — I've since worked with them on over a dozen projects. The rate is lower than I normally get, but the amount of work coming in more than makes up for it.
I try hard to keep a mix of work on my plate. At any given time, I have content production projects that pay very few cents per word, regular small-business clients who pay a set rate for things like blog posts and newsletters (this is often my highest per-hour rate work), and articles for both print and digital publications.
Keeping a variety of projects means I don't get bored, but it has also been surprised to see that sometimes a three cent per word project can result in a higher hourly rate than a $200 per 500 word project.
Thanks, ladies.
Lori made it sound like I did a lot more than upload and schedule a few posts. She had everything organized and ready to go well before her surgery, so it was her hard work, not mine. Yes, I nagged her into expanding Writers Worth from a day into a week. (What can I say? I love alliteration.) But she added an S, making it Writers Worth Weeks, which somehow grew into a month.
Wasn't it last year someone said, or quoted, something about writers charging per word is like carpenters charging based on how many nails they use? It really is true.
Most places I write for don't count the exact number of words (although it's easy enough to do in most word processing programs). Instead, they round to the nearest 50 or 100 published words or assign a word count range for a stated fee.
Perhaps some publications are moving toward the project fee model Cathy prefers. If nothing else, it would discourage new or greedy writers from padding their copy with useless words.
This is so true, Paula. If you're working per-word, you really need to keep track of your time to see whether it works out to an hourly rate that's acceptable to you in the end rather than just being snooty about a particular per-word amount. A higher per-word rate is only better if you can complete the assignment in the same or less amount of time. I've gotten to where I can figure out how long something is going to take me, and then evaluate whether the per-word rate works out to what I want to make. I also have a regular client that pays per-project. The rate isn't great, either. BUT what works out for me is that he provides multiple, related projects and pays the same amount for each one. When I have to do only two interviews for all three projects, the rate goes up to something much better. The Guru would probably turn down these projects based on the flat rate and would miss out on the (usually) great paying assignments!
You're right, Dava, having a good mix of clients and projects helps keep your workload from getting boring. There's nothing wrong with work that pays a lower per-word rate as long as it's simple and fast, especially if it's in addition to other assignments.
And after reading your comment, Ashley, I realized I should contact the client I mentioned in my guest post. The work is quick, they pay fast, and the first installment of my property taxes is due next month!
Haha Glad to help! 🙂
Totally agree, Paula. Your examples make it so clear. Thanks! I love the easy work… gives me time to work on the writing rather than all the other stuff.
Good point, Anne. Some writing assignments go well beyond simply putting words on the page. (See what I did there, Lori?)
Awesome post Paula!
Don't you just love those "gurus?" I had a run-in with one of the worst a few years back. In a rate-related post on my blog, I shared an example similar to this where a lower project rate was actually worth consideration where others might walk away.
In this case it was an old client that I didn't raise rates for over the course of several years. I knew I was at the top of their budget and they'd leave before paying more. It's not like we hadn't discussed it.
Even though it was my lowest per-project rate, it paid me $60 per hour OVER my base hourly target. So keeping their rate lower than those for new clients made a lot of sense.
"Guru" apparently couldn't do simple math and missed the hourly rate it worked out to. So they publicly criticized me for not charging enough.
Man, did that rub me the wrong way, especially since they routinely talked about their own rates and most of my new clients actually paid me much more than they earned per piece.
Then again, it's usually the ones who boast the loudest about their own projects, clients, or yearly earnings who are blind to the fact that many colleagues they think are "beneath them" have surpassed them years ago. Sadly newbies don't pick up on those things nearly fast enough. But this post is a great place for them to start.
No matter what kind of rate system you use for billing, it all comes down to your hourly — even if your clients never know what that is.
This particular self-professed writing guru also put off a lot of people in the group by constantly boasting about her income. To listen to her you would have thought no writer had ever earned as much as she did. Another turn off was seeing her claim to have written for a publication I've contributed to regularly for over a decade, but her name didn't appear anywhere in the publication's vast database. That made it even harder for me to believe much of her self-generated hype. I might not have any respect for her writing ability or knowledge, but I have to admit she's a good marketer if she can lure so many followers despite giving iffy advice.
But when it comes to determining the real value of an assignment, all it takes is a little basic math. Not the word of a so-called guru.
LOL! I see what you did, Paula. 🙂
That's where most gurus lose me, Jenn. The minute they dismiss your methods or ideas, they're setting themselves up as THE example of perfection. Right. I know at least one guru whose advice I'd not only NOT follow, but I might suspect is baseless. Plenty of writing going on out there that's been made up out of thin air.
Paula, basic math. Amen.
The funny thing, Lori…while I tried really hard not to give any clues as to the identity of the the "guru" I mentioned, a couple people suspected who it might be. And they weren't wrong. More than likely, the one you just mentioned is the same so-called guru.