lwidmer | Words on the Page

Is Freelancing Dying?

Posted on by lwidmer

Peter Bowerman had a great response to an article on the Is writing for the rich? article appearing in The Week not long ago. The author, Francis Wilkinson, is fairly convinced freelancing is not a lucrative field any longer. In his last paragraph, he says it all – if highly skilled, high powered people write…

Yes Virginia, There Really Are Stupid Questions

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Some of you asked about the service I’m using to identify “unknown” or otherwise blocked numbers on my cell. It’s called TrapCall, and I found it thanks to someone on Twitter who’d posted a CNN article about the service. For the majority of the wireless providers, it’s free. No more calls. None. Miraculously, it has…

Can You Hear Me Now?

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I don’t know whether to be confused or ticked off, though I’m leaning toward the latter. I received a number of hang-up calls to my cell phone again yesterday, and one very odd call to my home phone, which came right after a “private” call hang-up. Normally, I might think the message that was left…

What Constitutes Conflict of Interest?

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Over the weekend I was asked to work for a new client. Client B was the subject of an article I wrote recently for a Client A. They liked the article so much (and liked working with me, they said) that they called me first to handle their new writing project. I was tickled. The…

An Open Letter to Coffee Shop Dwellers

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Dear Freelance Laptop Nation: I saw you. Yes, I did. Right there in every coffee shop and in every free WiFi spot in town and all around the region. You were sitting there with me, vying for that one outlet to share among a dozen laptop users. You thought you had it figured out, didn’t…

Associating with the Right Crowd

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Recently, I was mailed an “invitation” to join a women’s business association. After a cursory look on the Internet to make sure they existed and appeared legitimate, I filled it out the postcard and sent it back. Then the fun began. I got a call from the group’s “Executive Vice President” who wanted to ask…

Here Comes a Rant

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Let me just say this: I’ve been patient. Really, for me, holding my opinion longer than a minute constitutes extreme patience. But I can’t hold it any longer. I’m about to get ugly on you – and it’s about the rates you’ll accept for the work you do. Most of you here are already savvy…

The Denegration of Freelance Writing

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Now I’m ticked. There are a few places in my online world where I think I’m safe from the crap offers, the low-balling freelance rates (and nonpaying posts), and writers competing to do a thankless job for exposure. Can I vomit now? It’s just creeped in to my LinkedIn experience. It was a post in…

Monthly Assessment – March

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Yes, it’s time once again for us to look at the month and see what went right, what went wrong. Ready? Oh, what a month. No, not work-wise. Just oh, what a month. Too much weirdness, too many failed attempts to find work, too much idle time spent dealing with unnecessary, well, crap. Here’s how…

The Price is Right

Posted on by lwidmer

Ruthibelle asked last week how to find what other writers are charging. Great question. Anne Wayman wrote a post about this a few years ago, and it holds true today. She includes a link to Eldon Sarte’s Profit Goal formula, which I think is brilliant for determining how much you need to make to pay…

Devon Ellington

I was just approached by someone with whom I’d talked about work several months ago. She went with someone cheaper, who didn’t work out (gee, there’s a surprise). She wants me, now, but the numbers are still to low for too high a volume of work for it to make sense for me to take on. The amount of research it takes plus the rate per word would make it pennies per article, and not worth it.

Plus, my workload and my priorities have changed since we firs talked.

Devon Ellington

That should read “first talked”.

I THOUGHT I had enough coffee this morning, but so far I’ve polished and article, written a review, and spat at Microsoft for not having a Conficker patch on the site, just a bunch of totally useless information.

Devon Ellington

“An article” — jeez, I should just pack it in. And it’s not even noon!

Lori

LOL! Steady, girl. It’s Monday. :))

Gabriella F.

Lori, is that $100 per hour for all work?

Here in Chicago, I can’t justify $100 per hour for editing. I’m at $60 (and that’s with publications that see the value of $1 per word for writing).

I’m able to charge $75 per hour for writing. I think that should be higher, but I haven’t been successful.

Lori

That’s just it, Gabriella. Some areas will support that rate – some won’t. I’ve been able to charge it for five years here on the east coast, and for west-coast clients. And yes, that’s my editing rate and my writing rate.

Proofreading, obviously, is a lower rate because you’re not restructuring anything – you’re simply pointing out/amending simple mistakes or inconsistencies. That’s a lower rate for me – averaging between $30-40/hr.

Ruthibelle

thanks so much for responding, lori. this is helpful info

Lori

Any time, Ruthibelle! It’s a question that comes up a lot, and obviously one we all need help with. 🙂

Eileen Coale

For those of you who are quoting hourly rates, I am curious to know why you do so, instead of quoting project rates. I have found it’s much more palatable for a client to hear “the brochure copy is $1200” vs “My hourly rate is $100, and I estimate 12 hours for this.” For some reason, too many people seem to think $30 an hour is more than enough to pay a writer. By quoting by project and not by the hour, sure, sometimes I end up making less, but more often I end up making more than $100/hour.

Lori

Eileen, it’s not often I will give a client my per-hour rate up front unless they ask for it specifically. This post was to answer Ruthibelle’s question, which was how much to charge. 🙂

I do this – I figure how much time it will take, add 25 percent to the total, and multiply by my per-hour rate.

To be honest, I’ve had people think $30 per hour is too much. I like to be as straight as I can with a client. I tell them what they’re getting for their money and how much of their money they’ll be using for me to deliver that.

EIleen Coale

Thanks, Lori. That’s why I think everybody wins with a flat rate. The client knows exactly what he or she is going to get for exactly how much money.

People are so funny. I once had someone perfectly happy with the flat fee I quoted and they accepted it. When they found out that meant I’d make $100 an hour (don’t recall how that part of the conversation unfolded, but clearly I didn’t handle it well), they changed their mind. They felt very strongly that it was overpaying if it was only going to take me X hours. If I’d lied and said it was going to take three times as long at 1/3 the rate, they wouldn’t have been bothered in the least – despite the fact that the end result was the same either way.