Writer’s Worth Day
May 16, 2008 by Lillie
Lori Widmer at Words on the Page has declared today as Writer’s Worth Day to encourage writers to expect and get decent wages for their work.
I haven’t looked at any of the bidding sites in a very long time, but I’ve read other bloggers talk about the ridiculous prices that some projects pay. Often beginning writers have no idea what a fair price is for their work, and they’re excited to have an opportunity to write and get paid for it. They accept low pay because they think they have to do so to get started.
I’ll talk more about setting rates in a future installment of my series-in-progress on starting a freelance writing business. This post is just a reminder that freelance writing is a business, even if you’re doing it part-time. Businesses have to earn enough money to pay expenses and make a profit. As a freelance writer, you don’t have an employer providing insurance, vacation, holidays, and other benefits. You are responsible for the full amount of your Social Security tax; as an employee, your employer contributes half of it. You have to pay for your own computer, phone, and Internet. And your time is worth something!
Think about those things when you’re tempted to write an article for $1. If you want to give away your work, volunteer to write for a worthy cause as a charitable contribution. Start your own blog and write posts to your heart’s content. But if you put yourself into the market as a professional writer … expect to be paid like one.
Thank you for your support, Lillie! You make a very good point – if you want to give your work away, work for a nonprofit. Excellent advice, for now the writer must pause and think “Am I about to give this away?” instead of “Oh, goody! Clips!”
We need to understand our actions a bit more. Why are we bidding on jobs with such horrid pay attached? What does that say about us as “professionals”?
I say any writing job that does not pay you at LEAST minimum wage is not worth investing time in. And that’s a per-hour minimum wage, not $5.85 for the ENTIRE 9-day, 16-hour-a-day project.
Loris last blog post..Raising Awareness One Writer at a Time
I’m working with students right now in a freelance paper writing business (somewhat unethical, but what can I say? we all need to get paid), and writes I pay make great money! Good luck to you.
Each of us has to make our own ethical decisions. I’ve written a series about Writing Ethics – linked from my series and related posts page.
Although I edit academic papers, I do not write papers for students. One lady was having so much trouble writing her dissertation that she asked me to take her research and write the paper. I told her I wouldn’t do that, but I would help her get it written. She came to my office – many times over a period of several months – and told me about her research. I asked her questions to clarify and helped her focus on the information for each chapter. I sat at my computer and wrote what she said then edited it.
Later she told me how glad she was that I refused to write her paper because she felt a sense of pride in her accomplishment rather than guilt over cheating, and she really came to understand her research. It cost her a lot more than she would paid someone to write it for her, but she wouln’t have learned as much and she wouldn’t have felt the same way about herself.
I like your this post very much.Thanks for inspire for blog.I will try to open a blog of my own and will try to write posts from my heart’s content.
reises last blog post..Wie sind die Erfahrungen von Urlaubern, die Lastminute Reiseangebote gebucht haben?
@ Lillie: I couldn’t agree with you more. I have always been very aware of not going down that cheapskate payment road as it serves no one in our industry.
I especially loved the how you put it all into comparison with holiday pay, etc. It’s amazing how many writers are prepared to write $2 articles.
In the end it depends I guess were we live too as $2 in one country might pay the bills. However I don’t agree with these rates because they ruin the industry.
Monika Mundells last blog post..Client Testimonials – Freelance Writing Guide
Good luck with your blog.
Monika,
You’re right that pay rates differ among countries – and even among different locations in the same country. But in general, I would expect that people who live in countries where $2 for an article would be a good price will not have the same language and writing skills in English as a writer whose native tongue is English. They may be very skilled at some things, but in most cases, the quality of the writing is not the same. And if the writing skill is excellent, the writers can raise not only their own standard of living but the standards within their own country if they consider the value of the work to the client as well as the pay scales where they live.
Yep, I get a whopping $6 for each of my newspaper columns. But they take less than an hour to write, and I really enjoy doing it. Plus, I have an ulterior motive. I’m using the columns to get together a book proposal.
So maybe I’ll end up getting paid for the same work twice.
Coffee Talk
Thanks, Lillie, for all your helpful advice!
Renaes last blog post..Holding Together
Renae,
You’re at least making minimum wage, as Lori suggested in an earlier comment should be the minimum anyone works for. You’re not competing against other writers in a bid situation bringing down the rates others can earn. And you’re developing a book proposal,which has the potential to earn you significantly more money. That’s not the same as going on a bidding site and making a lowball bid for work that you can’t use again in competition with other writers.
That’s interesting. I don’t know anything about these bidding sites, but I can see how that would be frustrating for someone to underbid everyone, this lowering the value for all writers! Thanks for the tip.
Renaes last blog post..Holding Together
Renae,
At one point in my freelance career, I used to go to the various sites and bid on projects. I never got any jobs because I was always way too high – even though I bid what I considered to be a fair price for the work.
You’re right about not selling yourself short. Good luck with your blog.
Thank you, Roberto.
I think it’s sad how writer’s are forced to write for so little. Many are wise to it and able to find other jobs but it is not easy with these low paying sites out there.
Diane Brunners last blog post..Carnival Blog – How Renaissance Festivals Have Grown Over the Years
[...] You’ll also need to determine your freelance writing rates. You will find excellent advice on setting rates on some of the sites mentioned in Parts 1 and 2 of this series. When you’re new to freelance writing, you can’t expect to charge the same as someone with many years of experience. However, you need to determine what you’re worth and charge accordingly. [...]
Renae is writing for a newspaper. Is the process the same for blogging, that the material can be repurposed for a book later on?
Sally Fergusons last blog post..Cultivate Your Calling!
Thanks for this blogpost. I don’t think it’s fair that writers have to work for free. It’s their profession and they should get paid for what they do. Most creative fields are that way in the beginning though.
lionheart,
Writers never have to write for free, and I hope more will realize that and refuse to do so (unless they choose to donate writing to a cause they believe in).
Lori,
I learned about pricing when I was in the highly competitive interior landscape business. I was really struggling to pay rent on a good-sized warehouse facility, maintain inventory, pay nearly 20 employees … and have any profit left over for me. I hired a consultant who said, “There’s only one thing wrong with your business – you’re not charging enough.”
On his advice, we had a computer program created to track all our costs and analyze every account. I was shocked to discover that we were actually losing money on some of our biggest accounts. I fully expected to lose the accounts because we had plenty of competitors who would underbid us. But as each contract came up for renewal, I met with the client and explained we needed to raise their price … a lot. We didn’t lose a single customer – they trusted us to do the job right and knew we were fair. I did compromise on the amount of increase in a few cases where corporate policy allowed our contact person to approve an increase of only x%. Anything above that had to be put out for bid. So I raised the price x% … every year. To my amazement, we went from struggling to profitable in a short amount of time.
So when I started freelancing, I got advice from my CPA on how much to charge and expected clients to pay that amount, and they do. Of course, my hourly rate has incrased considerably in the 12 years I’ve been freelancing, but my beginning rate was pretty high by a lot of writer’s standards – several multiples of minimum wage.
Diane,
The purpose of Writer’s Worth Day is to educate writers that they don’t have work for so little. Writers have to be confident enough to demand a fair price and willing to pass up the low paying jobs. It might take some time, but they can earn a living wage.
Sally,
Yes, blog content can be repurposed for a book. In fact, there have been several blogs compiled into books and published. “Blook” is the term some people use for a book created from a blog.