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Topic: Pay rates?
| Author | Message |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/17/2008 9:03:41 AM | show profile One advantage of an anonymous forum is that we ought to be okay with sharing rates, right? I am curious about what's happening in the industry right now. I"m seeing $2.50 - $3/word for the national consumer publications. For custom publishing maybe $1.75, depending on the publisher and the project. Specialty pubs around $1/word. How is that comparing with what the rest of you are seeing? |
| Canadiana | Posted – 4/17/2008 9:53:18 AM | show profile I've not been around the freelance world for too long now but I have done a lot of research. Those rates you quoted sound high: top pubs around here tend to pay $1.00 pw and trades anywhere from .30 to .75 per word. Perhaps the top consumer pubs pay $1.50 but I haven't seen too many of those. |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/17/2008 10:55:37 AM | show profile What is "around here?" Is that NYC nationals? Or a major metro regionals? |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 4/17/2008 11:07:01 AM | show profile A NY regional just offered me 50 cents a word, typical of their rates. Canadiana, if /she lives in Canada, is likely inured to $1/wd there, where consumer mag rates appear to have been stuck for decades. How about web pay? And multimedia reporting? Newspapers? Trades? We all know you can bargain up if an editor thinks you're worth it. |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/17/2008 11:25:06 AM | show profile I have a regular newspaper gig for which I get $50 for 400 words. And that was a raise. Ouch. |
| recovering_jersey_girl | Posted – 4/17/2008 11:41:08 AM | show profile I get $1.50-$2/word for major consumer pubs, and $1.50/word at the online branch of a nat'l glossy. I also do trade stuff; mostly $1/word, but some smaller things (like updating listings) pay less. I'm really curious to know what geographic areas and/or industries pay $3/word. Can you share? |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/17/2008 11:47:04 AM | show profile I see that rate at major nationals, but I have had several national cover stories and have written books, so I was suspecting I was getting more than the going rate. This thread is confirming it. Good to know so that I don't have unrealistic expectations elsewhere! And so that I appreciate the work that I have. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 4/17/2008 1:52:26 PM | show profile My experience is fairly similar. National consumer magazines about $2 a word. Custom publishing ranges from $1.25 to $2 a word. Trade magazines about $1 a word. That said, I have certainly had clients who contacted me about potential projects disappear when I quote those rates. --I"m seeing $2.50 - $3/word for the national consumer publications. For custom publishing maybe $1.75, depending on the publisher and the project. Specialty pubs around $1/word. How is that comparing with what the rest of you are seeing?-- |
| snappiness | Posted – 4/17/2008 1:56:22 PM | show profile I've had clients likewise quickly disappear when I quote rates. Which is one reason I was looking for a reality check -- are my rates that far out of line with the industry average? I think they kind of are. So, that gives me a reality check. In future I can be snooty about "my rates" if I don't really want the work, or be more realistic if I do. |
| Canadiana | Posted – 4/17/2008 2:02:49 PM | show profile Yup, Canada (southern Ontario), hence my username. I should add that corporate clients pay me significantly more but even the top magazines here pay about $1.00 pw. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 4/17/2008 2:16:25 PM | show profile $1 a word, trades and non-profit nationals, although the range for both can go lower than that. I definitely wouldn't take less than 75 cents per word, and that's for stuff that's formulaic. It's just not cost-effective for me, otherwise. |
| sophiesMOM | Posted – 4/17/2008 2:29:09 PM | show profile i'm getting $1.25 per word for trade press, $1.50 for custom publishing, and close to $2 per word to produce Web content for some large tech clients |
| sophiesMOM | Posted – 4/17/2008 2:33:33 PM | show profile also, since we're on the topic, i recently did two copyediting/proofreading projects with a new client (they actually found me on FLM!)...when they asked my hourly rate i had no idea since i haven't done that work before but i blurted out "$45 an hour!". was i in the ballpark? |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 4/17/2008 2:46:33 PM | show profile People with big name clips and a book or two often can ask for more money, but some pub's simply refuse to negotiate. We all know someone out there will do the work for less, a lot less or free. Set your rates and see where the chips fall...The sweet spot is finding the editors or pub's who really understand that hiring someone with a lot of high-level experience and paying a premium for their skills can (can, not will) save them time and energy they might otherwise spend guiding and rewriting cheap newbies. There are thousands of people who call themselves freelance writers; I feel sorry for editors sifting through stacks and stacks of clips, emails and resumes trying to find the ones worth working with. |
| DHernandez | Posted – 4/17/2008 5:16:47 PM | show profile The word "experience" is somewhat misleading. A person can sell reams of mediocre stories to low-bar publications and say they have years of "experience" because they've put in the time. But their "experience" won't win them a better rate, because they can't deliver the goods that a higher rate demands. Better to consider what you need to bring to the table in terms of skill and expertise to get that higher rate -- what you actually do or know or have achieved that makes a good bargaining chip. Maybe it's only a couple of outstanding stories you've done for that publication, but they're enough to give you a leg to stand on when you make your request. |
