how can people afford to write for so little?

Some money is better than no money? I don't know how people afford to work for minimum wage, either, but it's better than nothing coming in.

Not everyone who gets paid to write makes their living from writing. I imagine that a great many writers have other forms of income.

Some people aren't bothered about making any money at all - they write just for fun. For many, seeing their work in print or on the web is all the reward they want.

There are even people who are willing to pay out to have their work appear in print!

Many companies want quantity over quality, and some writers are good at throwing together stuff at fast speeds and doing a quick turn around to turn 10 bucks an article into a decent paycheck. Obviously, the work isn't quality work, but the people requesting articles for that amount of money aren't looking for quality.

Note: This is for work based on straight out fees. This isn't to be confused with fee structures where you get a straight out fee + profit per thousand page views -- those can by very lucrative if you stick with them for long enough to build up a good base.

I'm writing my second novel. I haven't sold the first one and may not ever do so. That's a lot of time that I haven't been paid for. I could afford to do that because I have a job and write in my spare time.

Most people who write books (fiction or non fiction) do it without being paid 'up-front' and without knowing if they'll ever sell the work. It takes up a lot of their time. I imagine they all work, have independent wealth, claim benefits or are supported by someone else.

Lots of people have hobbies that don't make money, or even cost them money. Writers who don't get well paid for writing afford it in the same way people afford to watch sports or go horse riding or take piano lessons.

I write because I can't afford not to.

Hi, All:

I, too, am amazed at the insulting fees people sometimes pay writers. I think a lot of the problem are sites like Associated Content and Demand Studios, both of which offer terrible rates. I know some writers argue that they can write stories for these sites quickly. But I can't see how you can write anything GOOD quickly enough to make money from either site.

In fact, I think sites such as Associated Content and Demand Studios have helped to flood the Internet with terrible writing, and with stories that all sound generic and bland.

I think freelancers are better off finding work the old-fashioned way: by pitching to magazine and newspaper editors. It may take more time, and involve loads more rejections, but the assignments writers do get will at least be worth their time. 'Course, these editors will require writers to interview actual people, something that seems to be lost when people are writing for Associated Content and others.

Dan
http://workfromhomecouple.today.com
http://indycomics.today.com

Writing for Money is a bad reason to be a Writer

I'm always thrilled to meet someone who can support themselves as a writer.

I'm even more surprised to find out they're not living in their mom's basement or eating peanut butter sandwiches all the time.

By now I shouldn't be surprised to see people grumbling about the piss poor pitiful wages writing usually pays. It's nice to see I'm not so jaded that I can't be surprised when I do.

Here's a quote to keep in mind:

[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+1]Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of income; only a few, exceptional writers reach the income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because we can make a modest living, or even supplement our day jobs, doing something about which we feel passionately. Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we're doing something that we genuinely love. There's no other reason to work this hard, except that love.

Melissa Scott
http://koti.mbnet.fi/pasenka/quotes/q-writ.htm#Writing and money
[/SIZE][/FONT]

nighttimer said:

I'm always thrilled to meet someone who can support themselves as a writer.

I'm even more surprised to find out they're not living in their mom's basement or eating peanut butter sandwiches all the time.

By now I shouldn't be surprised to see people grumbling about the piss poor pitiful wages writing usually pays. It's nice to see I'm not so jaded that I can't be surprised when I do.

Here's a quote to keep in mind:

[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+1]Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of income; only a few, exceptional writers reach the income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because we can make a modest living, or even supplement our day jobs, doing something about which we feel passionately. Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we're doing something that we genuinely love. There's no other reason to work this hard, except that love.

Melissa Scott
http://koti.mbnet.fi/pasenka/quotes/q-writ.htm#Writing and money
[/SIZE][/FONT]

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Without knowing Melissa Scott, I'd offer the opinion that she's talking out of her arse. There IS another reason to work that hard, besides love. It's called "food on the table and a roof over your head". I don't live in my mum's basement, but in a 3 bedroom house, and I have a healthy diet, thank you very much - and I support this lifestyle by writing articles. The "love of writing" is really just a tiny part of it, and anyone entering freelancing ought to treat it as a business, not as a hobby.

Manderley said:

anyone entering freelancing ought to treat it as a business, not as a hobby.

Click to expand...

Unless they wish to do this as a hobby?

I have no intention of writing for nothing, or almost nothing, but if other people want to, that's up to them.

Some people sing in Karaoke bars and others are professional singers, some play football (soccer) in the park on Sundays and some people make huge money as sports stars. We're all different and do the things we do for different reasons.

nighttimer said:

Here's a quote to keep in mind:

[FONT=Times New Roman,Times][SIZE=+1]Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of income; only a few, exceptional writers reach the income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because we can make a modest living, or even supplement our day jobs, doing something about which we feel passionately. Even at the worst of times, when nothing goes right, when the prose is clumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we're doing something that we genuinely love. There's no other reason to work this hard, except that love.

Melissa Scott
[/SIZE][/FONT]

Click to expand...

She's talking about fiction, isn't she?

As for the unlovable writing jobs that don't pay enough, don't take them. If you come across someone who does, beat him across the head.

As long as good writers refuse to work for pennies, people will either have to pay up or be satisfied with crap written by hobos.

I would rather write for next to nothing than work at McDonald's. That said, I'd work at McDonald's if I needed the money that badly.

Some people write for extra income. Some people write for love of writing. A lot of people don't value their writing or their time as highly as they should. Some people do it to break in (just as you did). Some of us take care of children full-time and need alternative work schedules.

You can't assume that everyone has the same needs and motivation. Some people spend hours and hours playing video games or watching TV or reading books, none of which pay you a dime. Not everyone measures out their lives in $/hour. If you love to read and don't need a full time income, reviewing books for a small amount is a great deal - free books and a check. Heck, sign me up! =}

I know you're probably just venting, but I'd say, turn down projects that don't make sense for you and don't worry whether someone else can afford to do them.

I agree with Morethanmommy. I love to write. Let me write that again. I LOVE TO WRITE!
If you love something, you'd do it for free. I have a day job and so writing is one of my side projects. I don't call it a hobby anymore because I've been working toward getting paid for it.
If something doesn't seem right to you let it go. If it does Go for it full-blast! Hope this helps.

ladyvincenza said:

The ed. liked my review and offered me a longer assignment: he wanted me to read between 6-8 books and write a review for $250. I knew that this could easily take all month. I told him, "that's a tall order!" I liked this guy, but knew that I couldn't afford a whole month's of work for $250.

Click to expand...

It would take you a whole month of doing nothing else to complete this assignment??

I think the way most people make money writing is with multiple projects.

I agree there are multiple reasons people do any job. In my regular job, I sometimes do the same service for less money because a) it helps the client, b) I love the work, and c) I have the time at the moment. Lower paying clients don't take priority when I'm busy with the regulars, but if I'm not busy, it's no skin off my nose to do a service for a little less money. It still pays something, the client gets something, and I get more business from word-of-mouth client satisfaction/referrals in the long run. So, the lower paying work also doubles as marketing without my having to pay for an ad somewhere.

As a writer, I understand the longing for an ideal world in which we are all paid what we are worth, but from a business standpoint, you have do little things to fill the gaps between the big things. It's all money in the till.

Good Writing Deserves a Good Wage...

Ladyvincenza,

I wholeheartedly agree with you, though I confess I'm a hypocrite. I've done work on Elance, a freelance job site which I've heard referred to as a "sweatshop for writers". I once wrote 20 articles in three weeks for only $200 for the whole lot. I did it because I thought it would be a quick and easy way to make a few bucks. I noticed other people were doing it and turning articles out by the dozens, apparently.

The problem is, I can't write like that. I ended up agonizing over each article, putting so much time into them because I couldn't bring myself to turn in poor work. Yes, I finished them in three weeks, but I was putting in almost 20 hours a day, getting no sleep, for three weeks straight. My hourly wage came out to about 47 cents an hour.

The client was thrilled with the work, and said it was the best she had received from anyone on Elance. That actually makes me feel worse; it would definitely be a better world for freelance writers if clients felt they got what they paid for--garbage wages mean garbage writing.

But anyways, maybe that answers your question, "who can write for so little?" I wish I could say no one would.

-Callie
www.frugaliciousseattle.blogspot.com

I wish I could say it was exploitation and that no one should stoop to the level of a penny a word or .5 cents a word, but I can't. I know that I do it out of desperation. I made $0 in the last two months. I will take anything at this point just to pay off my credit card debt. Yet, instead of getting a "real" job, I spend my day writing and applying for writing work. It's this stupid little niggling thing called pride that causes most of my woes. I refuse and turn down steady work doing something a normal person would do. I wish I could change it, but I can't. It's appalling and there should be better standards, but as long as people like me (sorry) take the work, it will continue to be offered.

I see many jobs on Craiglist and other sources that I would never do because the wages are insanely low. I love to write, but it also has to be worth my while. I work with magazines that pay a good price, so I would see it as a waste of time to work for pennies.

However, I did just sign up for Demand Studios even tho' they only pay $15 an article. The articles are short and on topics I know well, so I can knock one out in 20 mins. (and a pretty decent quality too...I wouldn't want schlock with my name on it plastered all over the web). That means $45 an hour for something I can do in between other assignments. It's still lower than I make from magazines, but it's enough of an income supplement to make it worth my time.

Like anything, each person has their own standards and goals when it comes to writing. My wife is a full time freelance writer. She takes some jobs that pay a lot, she takes some jobs that pay a little. Like a company she has monthly goals and sets out to achieve them. If could be knocking out dozens of little paying projects that take the same time as one large high paying article. The bottomline is that if you want to be a full time writer you keep all of your options open and your happy they are on the table because you do not know when one of your wells will dry up and need to fall back on a difference source.

Never burn bridges and check ego at the door. Writing is a business and no one forces you to take a job so don't get offended by low paying positions, simply don't apply.

I write for Demand Studios. Actually, if you write at your max level, you can clear nice chunk of change per month. However, I do it with other jobs. I'm not confident enough yet to start querying articles, although I sent out a novella already (ha!). I can write good stuff in about a half hour to 45 mins, so DS pays me about $25 an hour. Not too shabby, I'd say.

However, like I said, I have other work.

I don't get people that write for ad rev sites. Sure, you can get paid nicely after posting about 100 articles, I suppose. But, geez, that's a lot of work for potentially nothing. I don't know about that. Plus, ad rev sites seem to attract low quality writing. Could be because people are just trying to accumulate articles for more hits. I don't know.

$15 per article? Wow, I'd be perfectly happy with that. I made about $20k a year at my last job so my standards are not sky high. I would just like to make enough to clear car payments and rent every month.

I'm Different, in a good way

I may be a bit different than any other writers out there in my work but I have fallen into writing and been doing very well for myself over the last two years.

I started out here and got the idea of how to go about starting a book and writing it several years ago. After a couple of years I finished my first book and started on my second with the subsequent query letters and trying to get an agent at the same time. I took the suggestion of a few here to start writing and getting my name out there by going to Associated Content as well as a gaming website and write what I know and am passionate about for little or no money.

At this time I did not have a job and little prospect at a decent paying one due to a health issue and a long absence from work, the health issue was the self induced kind of over drinking and having to leave the military. That is all behind me and I have started over with writing and such so don't worry about my past, I look ahead and not behind.

I started my freelance writing by working at a gaming website writing reviews for computer games and at Associated Content writing anything I could think of to get words onto a page and in print, so to speak, Internet words are in print as well. I wrote almost a hundred articles on Associated Content before I came up for air and fell into writing for myself and receiving products from companies.

I was asked by a company if I would review a game for publishing on Associated Content and jumped at the chance and thought, why wouldn't anyone else do the same. I got in touch with an editor at Associated Content and made sure he would back me up in publishing reviews on Associated Content for companies' products.

Over 400 articles later and two years now and I have been so busy with all the things to do. I have over 1.4 million, yes five zero's behind that, page views on my reviews and articles. Associated Content now pays per page view so the count is accurate as that is how they pay us.

I receive products and games directly from manufacturers and have a waiting list of about 10 to 20 products at any one time. I get stuff from Microsoft, NBC Universal, Canon, Adobe and a whole bunch of others; computer hardware, software, movies, games, consumer electronics, you name it. I have branched out from computers and stuff like that to movies and household items like faucets and vacuums, now I'm heavily into camera stuff.

I received Dreamweaver from Adobe, a website building software package, and created my own website that I have been posting my articles and reviews on as well as at Associated Content. To make a long story short you can make money if you work at it, and have a little luck and a lot of stubborn persiverance.

I receive the products and get to keep about eigthy percent of what I get to review. Computer parts, software, movies, games, vacuum cleaners, kitchen and bathroom faucets and a lot more stuff that I either keep, give to relatives as gifts or sell on ebay. I get paid per article, about $6.20 currently, as well as page view which amounts to about $120 right now per month. That's pretty good money for right now and I'm getting the experience, my name on the internet as well as marketing circles of these companies and having a ton of fun.

You can make money at teh little writing if you work at it and treat it as a business, I always treat my work as work. Regular business hours and stay at it all the time, I probably work about 60 to 80 hours a week at my freelance writing.