Jobs, Rates, and Freelance Writing
Like a lot of other jobs, Freelance Writing comes with tiers of work ranging from low-level to critical high visibility. Likewise, there are many levels of pay that go along with those tiers. Too many writers focus on what they “should” be making, or what they “want” to be making. Instead, focus on what work you can get today.
Fill Your Schedule
I’ve been writing professionally for a long time, but it was only recently that I cut the safety cord that had snuggly tethered me to the corporate world. When that happened, a fundamental shift occurred in the way I looked at my writing. Specifically, I stopped looking at my writing, and I started looking at my writing business. That little shift makes all the difference.
Look at it this way, as a writer, you have certain things that you enjoy writing, and certain things that you don’t enjoy as much. You also have certain gigs available to you that pay a lot and certain gigs that don’t pay as much. While you are in the state of mind where you evaluate and manage your writing making the calls as to which projects you will and won’t take can be complicated. But, if you are in the state of mind where you are managing your business, things get a little easier. Instead of considering what you do and don’t want to write, and what you should and should not earn, you start looking at what your revenue and expenses looked like last month. You look at what your revenue looks like it will be for the coming month and you do some simple math. You are either making it (profit) or you are not (loss), and you need to do some things accordingly.
No business can operate at a loss indefinitely. How easy is it to make this decision? Last month, your business had enough revenue to generate a nice profit. This month, however, your projected projects only will generate enough revenue to come out with a small loss at the end of the month. Do you take the short term, lower paying writing gig that will make the coming month profitable or not?
Pretty easy right?
Be the Business
Being a business means taking your writing from being the thing you do to being the thing your business does. You are not just a freelance writer, you are also a business owner. Act like you think a business owner acts. A business owner keeps an eye on the bottom line. As the owner of a freelance writing business you have the advantage of being able to work on making both sides of the equation work out. You can cut back on expenses during a month where revenues will be light and vice versa. You can take on projects you would normally turn down in order to boost revenues so you can cover those unexpected office expenses.
Keep an eye on the profit margin of the business as a whole, and a lot of the other questions will help sort themselves out.
How Much Does a Freelance Writer Get Paid
If you hang around the universe of professional writers for very long, you will inevitably come across both the questions and the answers to freelance writer pay. Some of these will have a specific focus, for example, what bloggers get paid, while others will be more general. Professional writers should make X.
Either way, there are sometimes a couple of assumptions that may not lend themselves to you setting your rates where you need to you. Let’s take a look.
The Pay Calculations for Writers
Most writers end up reading an article that goes something like this: If you want to make $100,000 per year as a writer, then you have to make $2,000 per week (50 working weeks per year). $2,000 per week works out to $50 per hour, assuming a 40 hour work week. So, your goal then is to make $50 per hour.
Later, most writers end up reading an article about what they are worth. This second article will highlight that nobody understands how valuable writers are so the pay rates out there are too low. And, then, that this is true because writers work for too little money. The solution then, is to never accept jobs that pay below X.
The Flaws in the Group-Think Math
There are a couple of flaws in this method of calculating rates. These flaws tend to stay hidden because most everyone already believes in the paradigm, so they don’t bother thinking it through. Anyone who questions the paradigm is cast as an inexperienced and naive writer, and they are the reason that writing rates are not higher, because they “just don’t understand.”
So, let’s do this together and we’ll see where we come out.
The $100,000 Myth
Do you make $100,000 per year at the job you are working right now? Did you make $100,000 per year at your last job? At any job you have every worked? Then why would you use math that assumes you should be making $100,000 as a freelance writer?
Sure, everyone should have a goal, but it takes years to achieve that level of income in virtually every profession. Even people working in the “high paying” professions don’t necessarily star there. Sure, the top grads from the Top 10 Law Schools make six-figures right out of the gate, but the vast majority of law grads start closer to $60K to $80K, and those guys do not work 40 hour work weeks. In fact, most law grads spend their first three or four years working 80 hour weeks. Break it down, and they make the same hourly rate as someone making $40K for a 40 hour work week.
In fact, almost no profession out there pays six-figures for a 40 hour work week, so you might want to rework that math as well.
To get a more realistic number we should probably do the math with something like $60,000 and see where it comes out. How about $75,000?
By the way, if you are going to use the 50 week work year, then all you have to do is double an hourly rate and multiply by 1,000 to get the annual rate.
$50 x 2 = 100 X 1,000 = $100,000
Or in reverse, the annual salary divided by 1,000 and then half of that gets you the accompanying hourly rate.
$80,000 per year = 80,000 /1000 = 80 / 2 = $40 per hour
For those of you not super great in math (Hello? Writers, remember?) you can think of it as half and drop the zeros, or double and add the zeros (three of them).
Reality Check Salaries for Freelance Writers
$40,000 per year = $20 per hour
$60,000 per year = $30 per hour
$80,000 per year = $40 per hour
$100,000 per year = $50 per hour
Next up, the “Worth” Myth
Experience in AP Style or AP Style Required
Why, do so many job postings or Requests For Proposal demand an ability to use AP Style? Most often, it is short hand for, “You have to be able to write better than the average non-professional writer.”
I once heard someone say that photography and writing are the two professions that everyone thinks they can do. From the outside both of them look very simple. After all, all you have to do to get the same picture as Ansel Adams is stand in the same place with the same kind of camera at the same time of day in similar weather. Of course, that isn’t the point. No one cares if you can copy Ansel Adams. What makes him a great photographer is being able to see a great photograph where one hasn’t been seen before.
Writing is similar. Everyone can write. That isn’t the point. Describing what a murder scene looks like doesn’t make you Stephen King, and telling people why you think Microsoft sucks doesn’t make you a professional technology writer. A professional writer can hide their writing style. More specifically, they can write in the style that is requested. This skill is not common and therefore hard to quantify. Often, it falls into the, “I know it when I see it,” realm. So, when a client is paying good money for professional writing, they default to saying “AP Style” and hope it scares off the average non-professional. I’m not sure that it works, but I suppose it is better than nothing.
Learn AP Style
There are a lot of things in writing that can’t be taught, or that only come with experience, but the AP Style is not one of them. There is a book. Buy it, and flip through it a little. Don’t bother trying to read it cover to cover. It is a reference not a how-to book. Keep it on your desk next to where you write. As you go about your daily writings, don’t skip over those things you don’t quite know, and don’t guess. If you don’t know whether something should or should not be capitalized, look it up. When you don’t know if that phrase requires a hyphen, or is considered slang, look it up.
In the mean time, that doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself a better AP Style writer by doing some up front homework.
Here is your AP Stylebook Study Guide:
- Legislative Titles (how to reference politicians properly)
- Abbreviations and Acronyms (when you to use and not use)
- Time (AM, PM, AD, BC, and so on)
- Punctuation (a whole chapter, pay particular attention to comma)
- Organizations (look up ones you write about regularly)
- Race and Gender (which words to use in these touchy subjects)
- Titles (formal, royalty, judges, job titles, and more)
Then, when you come across someone who wants AP Style, tell them that you can do that. If you can write well and are willing to look up a few things, you aren’t lying.
Moonlighting as a Freelance Writer
The worst advice I’ve ever gotten came in written form. I can’t remember where exactly I read it, but I remember exactly what it said. It said that if you want to be a writer then you need to be a writer. Successful writers don’t moonlight as writers, they write and they moonlight on something else to bring in money if necessary.
I’m pretty sure as I remember it from the context, the author of those words was essentially saying that if you weren’t going to dedicate your primary job focus on writing, then you were wasting your time. I sort of believed it and went on accordingly, waiting for my time to come when I could switch what I do to the freelance side and the writing to the “main” side.
That chance came and I did switch. In fact, I just quit the other side. I don’t moonlight anywhere. I am a professional freelance writer, and I make all of my income in that way. Don’t get me a wrong, we have other income sources and another way to get health insurance (which is probably the biggest key to going freelance).
What I know now, is that those words of wisdom were actually words of stupidity. It is a lie that you cannot or should not moonlight as a writer. It is completely false that your writing, your craft, or your freelancing career will suffer in any way if you moonlight as a freelance writer. In fact, only good things can come from comporting yourself in a professional manner as a freelance writer.
Professional Freelance Writer Skills
For starters, you will develop your writing skills. You may think you are a good writer now, and you may be right, but trust me when I tell you that when you write all day every day professionally that you will come across dozens of nuances and subtleties that you have never considered. If the freelance project calls for a newsletter with a “conversational tone” but the target audience is high-ranking municipal court judges is it acceptable to use the word “you” in the writing? Before you answer, keep in mind that whenever you are addressing judges in their professional role as judges (which you are, because they are getting the newsletter because they are judges not because they wear black in the summer) you are supposed to address them as “judge” or “your honor” depending on the jurisdiction and level of court. Now what do you think?
As a professional freelance writer, you develop a wide variety of skills that don’t come up for most people who are just “really good writers.” For example, how to handle sex based pronouns: he, she, him, hers, and so on. There is the “fake plural” format where the writer converts sentences to read with they or theirs to avoid the issue. There is the “switch hitter” format where the writer bounces back and forth between masculine and feminine pronouns to avoid any gender bias. Then there is the “forced pronoun elimination” format which I am using in this paragraph by referring to “the writer” without ever using a pronoun. There are others, and many times, the person whom the writer is submitting the article to has no idea which one they want (they probably haven’t even thought about it!) – Did you notice the false plural there?
There are thousands of other skills a professional freelance writer needs that have nothing to do with writing. There is marketing, sales, taxes, corporate structure, copyright, publishing, web development and design, not to mention setting up computers, fax machines, and printers. Every one of these skills can be developed on a part-time basis, and when you do go full time, you will be much better off for it. (By the way, there is another professional skill right there in the previous sentence. Do you know when to hyphenate part time and when not to?)
How to Get Started Moonlighting as a Freelance Writer
The first step to moonlighting as a professional freelance writer is to forget about “moonlighting.” There is no such thing. Many professional writers do not work what would be considered full time. That isn’t important. What is important is that you are a professional freelance writer. That is important. As a professional you will return calls and emails in a timely manner, you will keep track of your billing, and you will act professionally on the phone and in person. As a freelancer you do not have an employer other than yourself. This is not a detraction, it is a blessing, it allows you to specialize in clients that you work best with. And, last but not least, you are a writer, that means you write things. Remember all three and you can’t go wrong.
So, where to find your freelance writing jobs. Start small. Look for opportunities to write for established blogs. They don’t have to be big or flashy, just a step up from where the same blog would be if you started it today. You don’t even have to get paid. Right now, you want a credit of some form (a link back to your business page is good) so that you can point to a website that you do not own and say “That is my work, and it is good enough to be published by someone else.” Check Craigslist (don’t restrict yourself to your city) and forums. Read blogs that you respect and could write for if given the chance, then look for the chance. If the blogger posts about being busy, offer to help. If you see a job ad, jump on it.
A lot of people will tell you to offer your services to non-profits to build up clips. This advice only works if you find a struggling, “we’ll take anybody” non-profit. These don’t always make the best clips. The Ronald McDonald House already has fifty top-notch professional level guys who do their writing, so bring it down a notch and you can make this work for you. Think local. The Omaha Humane Society is much more likely to need some help with their writing than the national level organization.
Google. That’s right, Google. They don’t need you, but they can help you search for someone who does. Start by including your city name when you search. Too many results? Use your actual city name, that is, the specific suburb or town that is “near Ann Arbor”. Smaller towns attract less spammers and webpage builders who just try and lure people to ad based pages, so get specific.
There are also a ton of “auction” sites out there. I’d steer clear of those unless you really need the money. Getting paid can be tough, and there is a lot of low-balling and plenty of clients who don’t care about quality they just want it done cheap. That grad student in India is going to eat your lunch on pricing that deal.
Get Started Now
The important thing is to get started now. By moonlighting as a freelance writer, you can build up experience and connections that will make the transition to full time easier. More importantly, you’ll be building up writing samples all over the place. Nothing screams amateur more than someone who can only produce writings from one or two locations. The more your writing is out there, the more likely someone is to give you a chance. So, don’t wait to be switch your moonlighting. Go now!
Expert Status
Expert Llama
I won’t pretend to know how hard it is or anything, but I have been awarded “expert author status” on EzineArticles.com. I hope to use Ezinearticles as a place to publish some of my writing that hasn’t found a more traditional home. Sometimes you like to write about what you want to write about instead of what other people will pay you to write about. Should be fun.
Might write about ADD Tools Help next.
Ezinearticles Expert Badge
Becoming a Freelancer
Not long ago, becoming a freelance writer was akin to becoming an actor. Talent, ambition, and hard word were essential, but somewhere along the way you would need a lucky break. Jim Carrey languished in Hollywood for years before ending up on the television show, In Living Color, where his talents were finally on display in front of enough people for someone to notice. Likewise, a freelance writer could work hard to develop their craft but never get in front of the right people at the right time without some sort of a break.
The problem, in writing at least, was that people are reluctant to take a chance on an unproven writer. So, most people who needed to hire writers demanded some proof of skill and ability to deliver under the proper conditions like deadlines and changing requirements. This proof took the form of “clips” or writing samples. The famous catch-22 in any career path is that no one will hire you until you have experience and you can’t get experience until someone will hire you. For writers, no one would hire you until you had published clips to prove yourself and you couldn’t get published clips until someone would hire you. So, you worked for free, or submitted query after query until, hopefully, that big break came along. Once your foot was in the door, your skill and professionalism could finally carry you along.
Make Your Own Big Break
Today, with the ubiquitousness of the Internet, it is possible to develop a wide array of clips to rival all but the most prolific authors without needed to rely on “the big break.” By either starting your own web sites, or writing for those that take all comers, you can develop an array of links and electronic clips to reference for any job or query. However, the ease of establishing such an electronic portfolio means that you may be competing against others with similar pitches. The important thing is to distinguish yourself by generating the “right” kind of portfolio.
The most useful clips are those that match the kind of writing that is being asked for. If you are interested in writing about animals, then make sure you are devloping a portfolio of clips that includes articles you have written about animals. Start by writing basic how-to articles for a site like eHow. Then, move into writing more research oriented or topic oriented articles at another site that accepts such articles. This will allow you to build up a collection of stories and articles that you can point to when you apply for jobs. Make sure that you keep your own copies of these articles and be prepared to format them in a more traditional manner if the need arises. Not everyone is willing to accept “links” so you may need to attach your writing to an email, or even print and present it in person or via mail.
While developing this portfolio will give you some clout, there will be many other writers who have a similar collection of writings. It is paramount to make your writings stand out from the masses. The two best ways to accomplish this task are to develop your own web sites, and to expand fully into your niche.
Build Your Own Site
Developing your own web site allows you to write about everything you want to write about without the constraints of writing for others. If you choose to write very long or very short articles, humorous or melancholy, foraml or informal, your own web site gives you a place to publish them all. More importantly, as you develop your web site, the repository of writings availible also begins to position you as an expert. While there may be dozens of writers with samples showing their ability to write about animal shelters, only you would come with a collection of dozens or hundreds of articles about animal shelters including everything from operations, to fundraising, to community perception. This appearance of mastery makes you much more likely to be the person selected to write the newsletter for your local Human Society. After all, not only can you write what they are looking for today, but you have shown that you are almost certainly able to write what they may need in the future. Even better, you have demonstrated that you will be able to generate content without the constant need for prompting or being fed article ideas. Indeed, you wrote about two hundred different topics all by yourself.
Don’t worry about the complexity of developing a web site. While it is true that a full commerce site like Amazon.com takes an army of highly skilled programers, developing a regular content based web site is suprisingly easy these days. A number of software programs are availible for free to help with your site, or you can spring for the same kind of programs the pros use like Adobe Dreamweaver. Either way, making a web page becomes just like writing a Word document, and if you are going to be freelance writer, you better know how to write a Word document. Pay no attention in the beginning to concepts like search engine optimization, or CSS, or your web site’s design. Just start getting the copy on there. As you do, you’ll pick up knowledge that will help you better understand those things when you are ready. Remember, the purpose of your site is to have a place to show off your writing, not to become the next pets.com. Nobody needs to “find” your site, you’ll be telling them to go there.
The only question becomes understanding the internet well enough to get up and running. If you aren’t experienced with computers and the Internet, just head for the big boys. Microsoft recently began offering a free service to small businesses (that’s you!) to get a website online with virtually no technical knowledge. They’ll even register the domain name for you so you can write for juliarobertsanimalshelters.com. Don’t get discouraged regarding the domain name. Yes, animalshelters.com is almost certainly already taken, but keep trying and look for something that expresses you a bit. For example, utopiananimalshelters.com might be availible. Two rules of thumb to keep in mind. First, get a domain name that ends in dot com. It may seem like animalshelters.info is better than wishfulthinkinganimalshelters.com but everyone is very used to just typing dot com. Even if someone is looking at your resume there is a chance they’ll type dot com instead of dot info. They’ll probably realize their mistake, but there is no reason to give them the chance to make one. When you are big and powerful you can ignore this rule. The second rule of thumb it to never ever use register.com to look up your domain names. They keep track of what you look up and if you don’t buy it right away, they’ll “reserve” the name for you. Of course, then they’ll charge you extra to register the reserved name. It’s a big scam masquerading as a service.
Actually, Build More than One Site
While developing a single web site can be immensely valuable, developing more than one web site can be even better. Consider the pet food company looking for a freelance writer. While your animal shelter web site certainly positions you as an expert in that realm, as well as a compotent writer in the topic of animals, it does not show any ability in the ability to write in a more “corporate” sense. A second web site, perhaps dedicated to innovations in animal products would show that not only can you write about animals from the perspective of animal shelters, but also in regards to the products that exist for them. While you never would be able to develop a web site for every single kind of project that might come your way, just having two related, but different web sites shows that you aren’t a one trick pony. While the animal product web site is right up the alley of the pet food company, the combination of the two web sites shows anyone your ability to write on any animal topic. When the fur industry comes looking neither of your sites matches exactly, but you have already shown both an ability to write in different styles. There is no reason to assume that you won’t be able to write from their vantage point.
Once you’ve published articles both on your site and on others, your goal should be to fully expand into your niche. In construction there is a product used for insulating around objects that by necessity go through holes in the walls. It is a foam that you spray into the area around the object you need to insulate and it exapands until it fills the entire space so that there is not one tiny pinhold of unsealed space remaining. To build up a powerful resume full of clips do the same thing with your writing niche. While there thousands of people out there who want to write about animals, only a few are dedicated enough to follow through to a fully completed portfolio. This is because doing so becomes more difficult the further you take it.
Fill the Hole
Finding a web site that takes articles about animals is easy, as is getting one or two published on them. Starting your own web site is more difficult, but still not cumbersome. Going the extra distance to find a small online publication dedicated to hamster environments stimulating enough to improve the hamster’s ability to navigate mazes would take more research. Having something published on their site, as well as on sites about horse racing, dog shows, cat collars, vetrenarians, and so on again establishes you as not only an expert, but also as a valued and prolific writer. Also, sooner or later someone who reads highintellecthamsterworld.com will need a freelancer and the sample you have from their favorite web site will carry more weight than a hundred samples from elsewhere.
To fill your niche completely, don’t start out by doing research. Instead, start by writing for what you already know. After you complete an article or posting for a web site you arleady know about, read that web site for references to sites or topics you don’t know about. Follow those links until you find your new place to post. Write for that web site, and then follow from it to others and so on and so on. Incidentally, this is how search engines find all the pages on the internet. If you follow all of the links, theoretically, you would eventually find all the pages. While you are building up your freelance writing career, do the same thing. Eventually, you will find yourself far off the beaten path and your writing samples will far eclipse the ones of those around you. When they do, your big break won’t be a matter of luck, it will be a matter of being the best out there. Do us a favor, and remember us when you are writing the cover story for Horse and Hound.
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