The Weird Inequalities Of Freelancing

A lot of freelance writers have probably come across this: Certain magazine outlets have a different per-word rate for “freelancers” and “regular contributors” (who are also, by definition, freelance, because the magazine hasn’t given them a W-2 and a salary). Usually the “freelance” rate is lower than the “regular contributor” rate. Presumably this is to discourage one-off pitches, though why you would want to do that is beyond us. It could also be a mythical carrot to dangle in front of writers who think the “freelance” rate is low: “But if you write more for us we might make you a regular contributor! Ooooh!”

But this is something we’ve never seen before, from Police Fleet Manager magazine:

Police Fleet Manager pays by the word: $0.10 per word to officers; $0.15 per word to freelance journalists; and $0.25 per word to regular contributors.

What, are officers not freelancers? Are you saying cops can’t write?
We wrote to the EIC of the magazine, but didn’t hear back; our line of questioning was probably too weird.

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