The Stupidity of Writer’s Wages

Recently being laid off from my job, I made the long overdue decision to turn my writing into a full time career. Instead of writing when I could, I jumped in with both feet working to complete a few of my fiction novels, a great opportunity with Triond, and some freelance writing jobs.

If you do a simple Google search for freelance writing jobs, you come up with numerous possibilities. During on of my searches, I came across Odesk.com. They are one of the few companies which stands up for their writers. I have attempted to write for a few companies where you are hired through the company by students mostly to write their essays. These companies, in my experience, do little for their writers. If anything is dislike about what you have produced, whether true or not, you are not only stripped of what you are earned, but penalized as well.

On the other hand, Odesk provides free software which tracks how much time you spend on a project as well as a screen shot to show what you are doing. This not only assures the buyers, but the writers of their time and work. I think it’s a great system which provides us as writers a guarantee for our work.

The stupidity of writers wages comes when begin looking at the jobs which are offered and the value they place on the work we do. As many of you, I place a value on the work I do. Of course I factor in work experience, education, and other factors. Yet finding this value takes work.

Many of the buyer’s barely off any compensation for your work. One offer was looking for 20 articles to be written for only $1.00 an hour. I seen a personal assistant job request someone to assume all sorts of responsibilities. They requested some who could devote all their attention to this assignment for the full 40 hours and demanded they not be involved in anything else. They paid $2 an hour. There are several more of this quality, yet there are also a few which offer fairly good compensation for the writing.

To avoid the stupidity of writers wages, you want to place a proper price tag on the work your producing before working with a buyer in this situation. I like pricing my work based on the way some magazines base their’s, which is by the word. Some pay .01 per word to $1.00 per word. Taking into consideration your experience, education, and any other factor you find necessary. I begin with how much per hour I would like to earn in comparison to what minimum wage is. Personally, about $10.00 an hour sounds like a good price. So I figure at .01 per word for a typical 500 word article would total $5.00. Figuring I produced two articles per hour, I would have reached my goal of $10.00 an hour. If you have more experience, you might figure your rate a little higher. Say $20.00 an hour, then you want to place your rate at about .02 per article. If you are able to produce your article in less time then a half an hour then you are earning more then your goal.

The price many people place on the jobs the are asking a writer to perform can be extremely low, but getting an idea of how much your writing is worth before applying for the job gives you not just a bargaining chip, but a standard to follow as well.