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The Writers Dilemma

by alashton
7 replies
Skilled writers are akin to any tradesman but you don't expect to pay 6-10£/$ an hour or even half an hour for the services of an electrician,plumber,painter, decorator etc yet we do for writer.

Sign of the times I guess, living in the western hemisphere makes it very difficult to compete with suppliers from places like Asia and the Phillipines so I reckon internet writers are better off working in a bar.

One ray of hope or defiance - the UK equivalent of Elance is People Per Hour. If somebody requests a 500 word article for £10 they do of course get bidders but they also get a whole host of emails telling them where to stick it.
#dilemma #writers
  • Profile picture of the author Justin Jordan
    The problem with writing is that everyone can do it, which leads people to think that everyone can do it well. People generally don't open up the hood of the car and assume they can fix it (okay, many dudes do, but it doesn't last long), but since we all read and write everyday, the skill involved gets short shrift.

    It doesn't help that a lot of people don't actually know the difference between good writing and bad. I see posts in here fairly regularly where people say they've tried five dollar writers and twenty dollar writers and the quality was the same, and a lot of the time the grammar and structure in the post is bad enough that I suspect they wouldn't know the difference.

    Honestly, in regards to article writing and marketing, if you can't make back twenty bucks, a fairly minimal cost for a good article, you should probably be in some other business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lindsay Brynn
    I agree with this. A few months back I decided to add ghostwriting to my schedule because I enjoy writing. I was told my prices were too high time and time again - but really they are not. They are still cheap compared to many other quality writers. If you want to make it your career, you just have to keep trying. If you are good eventually you will be discovered by people that will pay what you are worth.
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  • Profile picture of the author megaresp
    I know 2 copy writers here in London that charge their corporate clients £120/hour, and lower fees for less well-heeled clients (down to £60).

    I have only one hourly rate, and it's considerably more than £10/hour (though sadly also a lot less than £120). My area is very specialised, and currently in great demand, which helps a lot.

    Perhaps it comes down to the way you're promoting your business, and who you end up talking to? Have you looked at offline business networking? It's a very good way to get yourself in front of people who are serious about business and prepared to pay.
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    • Profile picture of the author alashton
      Originally Posted by megaresp View Post

      I know 2 copy writers here in London that charge their corporate clients £120/hour, and lower fees for less well-heeled clients (down to £60).

      I have only one hourly rate, and it's considerably more than £10/hour (though sadly also a lot less than £120). My area is very specialised, and currently in great demand, which helps a lot.

      Perhaps it comes down to the way you're promoting your business, and who you end up talking to? Have you looked at offline business networking? It's a very good way to get yourself in front of people who are serious about business and prepared to pay.
      I should perhaps of made it clear that I have been a writer for 25 years and currently write for a couple of online mags that pay anywhere from $100 - $200 an article and yes I did have to work damn hard to get those gigs, but not by selling myself cheap.

      The post was just a a comment on the way web writers are treated, which I personally find insulting.

      The outlawed sweat shops would have appeared to have moved from clothing to writing.

      Justin is so right about people not knowing or even caring about the value of a good writer and as long as that theory holds, the writer's lot on the web will be a sorry one. The offline thing, like you said, could well be a new dawn for writers- let's hope so.
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  • Profile picture of the author melhudson
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    • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
      In freelancing you'll generally have to find new clients when
      your raise your rates substantially.

      Getting paid decently for writing is more a matter of your
      own skill at marketing your services to businesses with the
      ability to invest in quality writing - which eliminates many
      of the unprofitable startups trying to build businesses with
      article traffic.

      In short - if you want to make money stop working with clients
      who don't have much of it themselves. Those clients are
      usually easy to identify because they are most concerned
      about the work done as cheaply as possible.

      In any industry there will be a lot of consumers who "want
      something for nothing". It's usually a matter of values with
      these people - so the promises of more lucrative work,
      referrals to better-paying work, and so forth are generally
      hot air.

      Clients who want a competent ghostwriter or copywriter have
      something to lose: their reputation as an intelligent, articulate
      person. The secret to getting paid well for your writing skills
      is (in addition to being good at what you do) to locate the
      clients who have something to lose in working with crappy
      writers.
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