Words on the Page

The Freelance Writing Contract, Explained

Posted on by lwidmer

Thanks to longtime chum David Geer for resurrecting this four-year-old post the other day with this comment: This post is rocking awesome, and I’m not surprised, Lori, you always bring the good stuff. I have a selfish request: could you post an article with an example of a solid writer contract in its entirety? I…

Refining Your Freelance Message

Posted on by lwidmer

Sometimes these posts just write themselves. I was in the company of someone a few months back who’s a real talker. Mind you, I like a good conversation, and I love hearing other opinions. What I don’t love, nor does anyone else beyond theater and the comedy circuit, is a monologue. And no one loves…

How Far You’ve Come, Freelancer

Posted on by lwidmer

Unlike the rest of humanity, who is busy trying to piece together some resolutions they’ll forget in a week, today isn’t about looking forward. It’s about looking back at your own freelance writing journey. A number of years ago, I was talking with a cousin, who happened to be hoeing her garden. I mentioned how…

What Turns Freelance Writers into Cynics?

Posted on by lwidmer

Since very few people are in today or the rest of the year, let’s have a little fun. I was talking offline with a writer friend, and we were going about the business of reading into people’s motives. Then it dawned on me — I’ve become a cynic. And a skeptic, but that’s probably another…

2019 Freelance Writing Tasks to Take into 2020

Posted on by lwidmer

It’s quiet this week, isn’t it? Oh, there are a few client projects to wrap up perhaps, and maybe more being discussed, but for the most part, things are calm. And you’re itching to get earning at a time when the world is on holiday. I know I am. But instead of sitting here for…

Protecting Your Freelance Writing Rate

Posted on by lwidmer

Saw a discussion online a while back among writers wanting to raise their rates. At one point, someone suggested that writers make sure to negotiate a raise with their clients. Couple of things wrong with that thinking. You’re not an employee; you are not talking to your employer. Your rates are yours to set. They’re…

The Worst (and Longest-lasting) Freelance Writing Mistake

Posted on by lwidmer

This post is about entitlement. It’s also about the big mistake some writers are making while thinking they’re entitled to something. I saw an exchange on a forum I frequent that made me wonder about a lot of things, but mostly about how some writers must truly love shooting themselves in the foot. Here’s how…

5 Ways to Organize Your Freelance Writing (and still have time for fun)

Posted on by lwidmer

My to-do list today: Finish summary article for Client A Continue on feature article for Client B Finalize article for Client C (and invoice) Get it all done by noon because my son is arriving and staying for the next four days ‘Tis the season, isn’t it? December used to be when my freelance writing…

Tales From the Stranger Side of Freelance Writing

Posted on by lwidmer

This post is serious. Seriously weird. Know those clients and interactions and projects that you get that make you wonder WTF years later? For some reason, one of those popped into my head last week. It was random, too. I was playing Solitaire before I got to my emails and boom! I’m thinking about one…

What’s Your Best Freelance Writing Rate?

Posted on by lwidmer

That title alone probably causes more than a little agita for freelance writers. It still does for me. In fact, I’d say most freelancers struggle on occasion with what to charge a client. That’s normal. What isn’t normal is what I’ve seen online when writers ask each other the “What should I charge?” question. Some…

Devon Ellington

I try to give individualized quotes, based on the type of work and my estimation of thinking time, research time, writing time. I don’t like doing hourly — I do it as little as possible, because there’s always pushback. I prefer per project rates. When I’m forced to quote an hourly rate, if I get pusback, by that point, I already know I probably don’t want to work with that client, so it becomes moot.

Again, because locally the automatic response to a quote is “we don’t pay writers anyway, that’s too high” more often than not my response is, “then I’m not the right writer for the project.” The attitude here is that writing isn’t “work” and it should all be done for free. Now, if I was doing web development — they’ll pay up the ying yang for that. But writing? Graphics? Nope. They want it for free, or have their neighbor’s high school kid do it as a project for credit. Here, one is supposed to do writing because it’s a “hobby.” It’s not respected as a profession, unless you’re a NYT best-selling author who has a summer house here.

The remote jobs I do, with companies based in other areas, handle it much more like a business arrangement. Some of them want hourly, or at least an hourly breakdown of what I do in the project, but most companies are comfortable and realize that the per-project rate works better for everyone.

As far as expenses? This year, food has already gone up 35%. My rent just went up 9.5%. Everything else is going up. the 2% increase isn’t going to work next year. I’ll be adjusting my rates and adjusting a bunch of other things to reflect my reality.

Plus, I have some major expenses coming up next year that need to be addressed, and my work life has to be able to cover it.

1. lwidmer
  
  Devon, you’ve always impressed me with how you budget.
  
  That attitude is so pervasive in areas where the wealth is what I call transient. My son lives in a similar area — rich come in for the weekend and the locals are holding service jobs. You never get a fair wage in that situation.
  
  Where I used to live, getting $30K annually would have been considered pretty decent wages. Here, that wouldn’t pay the taxes for the year. I couldn’t have marketed to the locals in my hometown, but here, the locals aren’t flinching. That cost of living makes such a difference.
  
  Where you are, you shouldn’t have that trouble. Those people aren’t poor. They’re just cheap.
Paula Hendrickson

I’m pretty sure I saw the very same exchange, and had a similar reaction. In my opinion – coming from a position of having far more years of freelancing experience than the pontificating “pro” – not only did the start from a misguided one-size-fits-all approach, it was delivered in what came across as a condescending way. Not cool. Not helpful. (I say it came across as condescending, but fully understand that she might not have intended it to sound that way.)

What she was advising has clearly worked for her, but that doesn’t mean they’re universal truths. Each situation is unique.

1. lwidmer
  
  Yep, you have to mean the same person. I read the same thing — someone who was condescending and trying way too hard to impress everyone with how much she knew. It fell pretty flat.
  
  That’s the thing — what works for you may not for me and vice versa. We have to find our own formula. We can use the same steps to figure it out, but that answer is going to be different with each person.
2. Paula Hendrickson
  
  Long ago, this particular person I’m thinking of, commented in a LinkedIn writer’s group stating she would NEVER work for under 50-cents per word. (Just look at her list of credits and then review their payment terms and you’ll see that in at least one case that’s not true.) I illustrated the stupidity of her statement by giving examples of two of my clients: One I think paid 30-cents a word, but it was fun, quick work. Another paid over $1/word but was a micromanaging nightmare. When I divided the fees by how much time I spent on each one, my hourly rate was much higher with the “lower paying” client. Not. Rocket. Science.
3. lwidmer
  
  Exactly, Paula. Each job, each client is different. You can’t make blanket statements about what to accept. It’s going to vary based on negotiation, simplicity/complexity of the job, and your will to do it.