Pay Rates: Raising the Bar in 2009
I am not posting this in the Paying Markets forum because of the prohibition about discussing pay rates. However, this post is inspired by a job listing in that forum that offers $2.00 for 500 words. The mod in Paying Markets mentioned that there was concern about the pay rate and whether writers would get paid as the site is currently under construction. The OP in reference to the rate concern responded, “We suggest you to check getafreelancer, scriptlance, guru etc. They are offering as low as $0.5 per 500 words.”
From this response, it appears that the OP looked at other sites and decided that he/she was offering a fair rate. I’m not trying to belittle the OP or get into a discussion of the merits or demerits of this particular job offer. What I am asking is what can we, as a group of writers who want our work to be respected, do to change this mind set in 2009.
One thing is to take a hard look at what you believe your writing is worth and make a New Years resolution not to accept work that is below your personal rate standard. My thought is that even the most inexperienced writer should never accept less than $0.1 per word for nonfiction and the rate should rise rapidly with experience. My own resolution is not to write for less than $0.5 per word for material that requires little or no research and $0.15 per word for material that requires research.
Not responding to low paying jobs is about the only thing I can think of to do on an individual level, but I’m also looking for ideas on how we can discourage job sites (NOT AW, which I think handles the pay situation well) from posting rates such as $0.5 per 500 words because when people offering jobs see these rates, whether they ultimately successfully attract writers or not, it gives the job posters a false sense of what writers expect to make for their work. Any ideas we can put into place either as individuals or as a group to discourage low-ball postings and educate job posters about more realistic professional rates?