I subscribe to far too many e-mail newsletters. I keep unsubscribing but every month new ones that I’d forgotten about pop up in my mailbox and make me wonder “When the heck did I ever sign up for Parrot Fancier’s Monthly Digest?”
One newsletter that appeared after a very long silence is the WriterFind News. As I mentioned last week, I drop in there from time to time to sniff for leads but I completely forgot that they had a newsletter. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that their mysterious mailings actually contained something useful: a price guide for freelance writers.
Andrew brought up the cold hard fact that the pay rates on 90% of the writing jobs listed on online job boards just aren’t financially viable once you factor in the time it takes to interview, research and write. This is very true and why online job boards are a very small part of my writing marketing work.
The Writer’s Market Rate Guide brings this fact home and it should be kept handy at all times.
The rate guide is on the Writer’s Market website and it lists every conceivable writing job with the going professional rate. The list seems fairly recent and I’m assuming it’s in US dollars. I remember seeing this list in the 2004 Writer’s Market book and I’m very happy to see it online.
You can check out the Writer’s Market Freelance Rates Guide here. Bookmark it, pass it around and make sure you send it to the next editor that tries to low-ball you.