Fab Freelance Writing Blog

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Can you set your fees for your freelance writing services and products with absolute confidence?

I’ve just posted “Writing business: set your fees, get paid” on Writing Hacker. Here’s an excerpt:

Setting fees for writing services and products is a challenge for many writers. And I include experienced writers in this too. Many otherwise competent writers give up freelancing because they can’t get the hang of pricing their services.

Experience helps with pricing. For example, occasionally I zoom around the out-sourcing sites to see what’s happening. At least 90 per cent of the writers using these venues are shaky on pricing.

Tip: when you undercut other writers, you’re undercutting yourself as well. Bidding low to get a gig is a waste of your energy. Take it from one who knows, because I’ve been there: when you cram your calendar with low-paying gigs, you don’t have the time or the energy to get highly-paid gigs. The highly-paid gigs are out there - finding them is easy, once you know how. Much depends on your marketing skills.

Read the rest…

Technorati Tags: get paid to write, writing skills, Freelance writing, writing process, writing tips, fees, Writing

Most freelance writers have no idea what rates they should be charging, so they charge minimal rates and are unfair to themselves.

Read Jennifer Mattern’s excellent post What Buyers Need to Know About Freelance Writing Rates. She comments: “The fact is that there are a lot of freelancers who don’t understand these concepts themselves. They look at $10 per hour as being better than the minimum wage jobs in their area, so they take on the work to learn the hard way that they’d be better off in most cases working for the local McDonalds (in a financial sense).”

Whether you’re a full time or part time freelancer, writing for minimal rates is the sure road to ruin. You can’t operate a business that way. Trying to do it will ensure that you end up tired, bitter and burned out. Not only is it bad for your mental and physical health, it’s bad for your writing too.

Be fair to yourself and charge what YOU need to stay in business

I repeat this mantra regularly to my writing students: “YOU set your rates; your clients have a budget”. Often, you’ll be contacted by clients who have no budget for a decent writer - that’s fine; they can’t afford you.

Focus on marketing your freelance writing business, get known, and you will get clients who are prepared to pay decent rates because they have a good business and they know that good writing gets them a fantastic return on investment.

Technorati Tags: freelance writing, fees, rates

On the Web writing blog, I’ve just written a post about getting paid.

Getting paid is a complex topic for writers, with most freelance writers being price takers, rather than price makers.

As soon as possible, you need to get yourself onto the price making side - that is, the side where you set rates which are appropriate for you.

I’ll be discussing more on how to set your rates in this week’s issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, with an article called “Advertising Yourself”. Don’t miss it.

There are writers who routinely complain about “low pay for writers”, never realizing that just because they’re getting low rates, it doesn’t mean that other writers are.

Technorati Tags: writing, freelance writing, getting paid, freelance fees