SiteDo You Write for Cheap? Read This.
I was recently on a writer’s forum where a writer posted that he was writing articles for a penny a word and wondering if that was wise. The other posters shared that they also write for a penny a word, and boast that they can bang out the articles quickly so it’s worth it for them on a per-hour basis.
I decided to run some numbers. Keep in mind that these are all estimates and based on my own sketchy knowledge of how much my expenses are, how many weeks people work per year, etc. Also, keep in mind that freelance writers typically aren’t working on paying work 40 hours per week, so the income I figured for freelancers would be even lower.
The minimum wage here in New Hampshire is $7.25 per hour. If you work 40 hours per week at minimum wage for 49 weeks (leaving some time for vacation and sick days), that’s $14,210 per year.
If you could research and write, say, a 1,000-word article in an hour, that would earn you $10 per hour. If you work as a writer for $10 per hour for 49 weeks, that’s $19,600 per year. But wait…being a freelancer, I pay $1,800 per year for my own (crappy) health insurance, and let’s give a conservative guess of $5,000 annually for expenses, including computer equipment, office supplies, mortgage and utilities just for my office space, etc. If I subtract that from the yearly freelance pay, that’s $12,800 per year — less than minimum wage!
Now, I realize that some people do freelance writing as a supplement to their full-time jobs, or they’re supported by a spouse and their freelancing income is fun money. For me, though, working at a penny a word is simply not sustainable.
Also, why write for a penny a word when, with some thought, you can easily earn 10 times as much: 10 cents per word, which you would earn at some small trade magazines? Then you’d be making $100 per hour.
Writing is undervalued by many. But if businesses that use writing value the work, skill, and knowledge that goes into a 1,000-word article at a measly $10, it’s partly because there are hordes of writers willing to write for that much!
However, I don’t believe that if people weren’t working for these bottom-feeders, wages for writers would rise. There’s no way that someone currently paying a penny a word would raise rates to a much more reasonable $1 per word (or even 10 cents per word!) because writers refuse to work for a penny a word — he would simply disappear.
If you’re a good writer, persistent, and professional, you can earn $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 per year and more. And yes, I do know someone who earns $200,000 per year writing magazine articles and corporate communications.
You also don’t need to start at a penny a word and “work your way up.” My first assignment, back in 1996, paid $500. And no, that was not a fluke, and no, I was not just lucky. I pitched magazines that paid a reasonable amount because it never occurred to me that the effort and skill I put into an article would be worth mere pennies. I wrote a query that sold, and I deserved to be paid a decent sum for my idea, skills, time, effort, and knowledge.
Of course, I’m not at the top of the pay scale by any means, though I make a very comfortable living as the main breadwinner for our family. My minimum rate for articles is 50 cents per word, and those articles have to be fairly straightforward and easy. My top rate so far is about $2.50 per word for national magazines. But there are probably people out there earning $6 per word wondering why I put up with such low wages! So the bottom line is that you need to figure out what your work is worth and what’s economically sustainable for you. Just don’t sell yourself short!
Do you have a minimum rate? Have you ever worked for pennies per word? Do you still do it? Why or why not? Please post your experiences in the Comments below. [lf]
21 Responses to “Do You Write for Cheap? Read This.”
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DianaBurrell
Said this on January 14th, 2009 at 6:23pm:Right on, Linda. I think the lowest rate I’ve ever gotten is about .33/word — it was for a newspaper, and newspapers typically pay crap. I did it for the clip. I’m confident there aren’t any pubs out there pay .01 a word who’d give you a clip worth highlighting in a portfolio.
french panic
Said this on January 14th, 2009 at 6:37pm:ooohhhhh, I am so curious to know if anyone is going to respond to this blog post with WHY, for the love of all the gods, WHY they would work for such an insulting amount. I have yet to actually compose a query – I’m more on the editing/proof-reading side of things right now, but sometimes I amuse myself by reading the craigslist postings for writing jobs that offer payment like “experience” and “for your portfolio” and “getting in on the ground floor of my fabulous new start-up”.
Bah.
Andy Hayes
Said this on January 14th, 2009 at 6:52pm:Linda, you always have impeccable timing. I was just discussing this with a friend last night who thinks I don’t charge enough.
Let me start of by saying I steer well clear of the bidding sites, and I’d never consider working for a penny a word. Ever.
But my problem is so many online and print publications have stated rates – e.g. we pay XXX for these features, ZZZ for these reviews, and so on. And those rates aren’t great.
So how do you get higher paying gigs? Sure, I charger higher rates when I manage to get a direct relationship with a corporate client, small/medium businesses, etc. But those gigs are few and far between.
Julia
Said this on January 14th, 2009 at 10:12pm:While I’m still on the hunt for my first assignment as a freelancer, I have already decided that I’m not going to go for any of the penny-a-word jobs. Thankfully I still have my full-time job while I start my freelancing adventure, but I don’t think I’d take one even if I didn’t have a full-time job…a girl’s gotta eat!
lori
Said this on January 14th, 2009 at 11:01pm:I went renegade when I wanted to write professionally: I wrote for free. But I wrote for a big, non-profit publication in my field at the time (training). It was the ASTD’s online magazine focusing on e-learning, and seven years later, I still get e-mails from people who’ve read the article (or one of the other two I followed up with). I’m still glad I did it — I worked probably 30-40 hours for free across the three articles, possibly more. But I knew that the e-mag had a huge readership, was well-respected in the field, covered a hot industry topic, and that my articles would be on the front page for a couple of weeks. I ended up with three professionally published clips in my field. More importantly, those articles meant that I never felt I had to start at the bottom of the pay scale any time after that, and nobody expected me to. I was an established writer who had work published in a national publication, wasn’t I?
So newbies, don’t half-ass it and write for a penny a word, practically giving your work away (on a regular basis) to a small-time company; jump in with both feet and give your work away two or three times to a reputable non-profit publication with a national audience of professionals. You’ll end up with an editor you can use as a reference and professionally published clips. And you’ll never need to work for a penny per word again.
JR Moreau
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 12:51am:I’m pitching myself to better paying gigs, but not getting them. I still work full time and am trying to put all my energy into this after work. I’m going to stay at it though until I find the well-paid grove that you’re speaking of. I’m a little above a penny a word, but not by much. So, I want to get higher, quicker.
Leo
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 1:54am:I have to agree with you here. Anytime I have ever been outsourced, it has never been cheap and I would scoff at a penny a word. These people who undercut those of us who really write (I am not talking about the overseas people who do quick rewrites of PLR articles or spin articles), really don’t understand the economics of things…or maybe they are just plain stupid.
Anytime I get someone sneering at prices, I have to think to myself, “fine, go ahead and buy those 10 articles for $10…but just know….you will get what you pay for…”
Lauren Piro
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 2:20am:Those who are working for pennies a word are a) lowering the value of all freelancers and their odds of making a living wage by writing and b) probably contributing to the SEO’d, ad-click-obessessed mess that is a lot of Internet content – doesn’t have to be good, just good enough to get Google to recognize it’s there. I love the Internet, but this part just kills me.
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Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 4:35am:[...] Go here to read the rest: The Renegade Writer Blog » Blog&#… [...]
Maureen
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 11:36am:I wrote for free several times locally to get my first clips. Although I am a pretty new freelancer I will not write for free unless it is for charitable organizations that I support. I have received many offers from these “writing” job posts that offer insanely low fees like a penny a word. I will not give away my time and knowledge. That being said, my work is not all over the net but I am really pleased when I am offered reasonable payment from a reputable publication. Ultimately, you could spend your time better by recycling cans for more money than a penny a word.
Alison Stein Wellner
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 1:21pm:There are other forms of compensation besides money, and many reasons why a freelancer would take a gig, and frankly, I don’t think there’s anything shameful about it.
I’ll agree there’s something insulting about a penny a word, like leaving pennies for a tip in a restaurant, that *feels* worse than getting paid/leaving nothing…but that’s emotional reasoning and not a sound way of making decisions.
Star
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 2:54pm:I listen to my novels now and the other night listened to short stories by Evan Hunter, Ed McBain, Richard Stark or whatever his name is (or was, I think he passed on). Anyhow, he was giving the history of each story and he was decrying the horrible pay of 3 cents a word–this was 1950! For cripes sake, this Craigs trash has dropped everyone many notches–free ads, might get AdSense income, let’s get some sucker to sort of reword a story by a real writer and pay nothing. They won’t notice. Well, we noticed–those of us who do this for a living or try to. If you want to write for free for your church or whatever, do it. I have–for a worthy cause. But remember, nonprofit does not mean “has no money” and people very rarely see an article in a venue that does not pay (meaning low-rent) and say, “Wow, I must hire that person.” It’s happened, but it’s rare and the possible exception was mentioned–a professional society. But they should pay, too! Tsk tsk.
Oh, well, this is a huge gripe with me.
Oh–and if you think this does not affect you, several months ago, I was offered an assignment for Medical Economics–a big boy. I accepted then learned it was 50 cents a word. I said–hey, what happened to a dollar a word? They said they had checked ads and were paying too much. I passed–I was that ticked.
Carolyn Erickson
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 3:21pm:I would rather work for free than write penny-per-word articles that I have to “bang out.” I hate the term. (I can bang out 1000 words in 16 minutes, but wouldn’t want to be caught charging anyone for it … unless I was working as a typist!)Maybe I’m just jealous of those who can write intelligibly with remarkable speed.
When I began freelancing, I wrote articles for $50. I don’t regret it. It was for a real magazine, earned me real clips and more importantly, *real* experience: I had to find sources, conduct interviews, do research, provide solid, accurate information, and my editor mentored me through the process. It wasn’t a bad way to start out.
BUT I’ve always loved the Renegade mindset of shooting for the top markets and working your way down rather than the opposite. If I had to do it all over, that’s how I would do it. Back then, I was flush with newbie confidence and whenever I picked up a magazine, I thought, “I can do this.”
Now I hover in the mid-range of pay. I should reach for higher-paying markets, but at least the checks I get are for more than the cost of the gas needed for a trip to the bank.
Let those who want to write for a penny-per go ahead and do it if that’s what makes them happy. I want my byline to be something of value.
LindaFormichelli
Said this on January 15th, 2009 at 4:48pm:Thanks for your comments, everyone!
Andy, going from low-paying to higher-paying gigs is simple though challenging: You stop pitching the lower-paying magazines and spend your time instead pitching magazines that pay better. When someone offers you a penny a word (or whatever you think is too low), you say “No thanks” and use that time to pitch places that pay more.
Valencia
Said this on January 16th, 2009 at 11:20am:My very first online writing gig was $0.01 a word. I didn’t know any better back then. It was simple web content (200 word SEO articles), and I could write five or six an hour. But as I stumbled upon better paying opportunities, I quickly gave up the gig. I don’t think I could ever write for pennies again.
Jenni
Said this on January 18th, 2009 at 7:42pm:I’m a new freelancer and started writing this year for our local food co-op in exchange for hours (free groceries). I’m not ashamed of this because it helps out with the grocery bill and has given me me clips and a chance to practice writing. Now I write for regional parenting magazines that pay per article. My first assignment, to be printed this month, paid .10/word but it’s also a timely article I can sell as a reprint. Your post and the above comments are helping me get up the guts to pitch to higher-paying markets.
Russell
Said this on January 19th, 2009 at 7:35pm:Odds are that most of these people live with their parents and have no real expense in life. Sites like Triond and Suite 101 seem to be full of these people … Transient writers, almost certainly.
RJ Medak
Said this on January 20th, 2009 at 1:53am:I totally agree with this post. Way too many writers are willing to work for low pay. Some as low as $0.006 per word is what some people looking for writers are willing to pay.
I don’t write for low pay. I am looking at higher paying jobs. One problem I have when looking at some writing jobs is that the job requires an advanced degree, or 5 years experience in a something like writing for gaming.
As a freelance writer, you really do need to do your homework and find the right source to pitch to for the good assignments with good pay. Never settle for low pay, not even to get your foot in the door.
You must also make sure that your writing is good, and always strive to improve your writing. It only takes one or two bad writers to ruin it for the good writers.
Five Ponds
Said this on January 22nd, 2009 at 12:52am:I have writing on the internet for over a year now and I seem stuck in the 1 to five cents/word range. My part-time day job is in the winter doldrums, so yes I am kind of stuck in a rut, right now. I wish I had more time to query the higher paying markets, do what I can. What has been most frustrating for me, is that when I land a good article at a place that I like, I am unable to come back with a follow-up article. Many times my query is not even answered, even though I have published with them before.
Hopefully things will improve before they get too frustrating.
Truly,
Five Ponds
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Said this on January 23rd, 2009 at 7:20am:[...] Do You Write For Cheap? Read This is a post from The Renegade Writer which discusses the ongoing debate about writing cheap articles. This post is quite detailed and well worth the read. [...]
Dylan
Said this on June 26th, 2009 at 5:01pm:Who the heck can consistently research and write 1,000 word articles in an hour, getting paid $10 for each. Wow, that’s some crazy work ethic. I take way longer and get paid more. Never heard or conceived of .01 cents a word. Someone says they get paid .33 cents for newspaper and say that’s crap??!?! That’s $330.00 for a 1,000 word article. That’s not crap. I’ll take that rate, I’d sign for that for the next 20 years, you write one article a day and do whatever else you like.