What should writers charge?

[RotGtIE]

Just like it says on the tin. How do you think writers should work out the price of their work if they're charging? What would you say is the going rate among writers for VNs in the event that they do get paid for it?

Also, how should a writer make a judgement as to how much they should be charging based on their skill? What kind of metrics could they use to assess the value of their work?

[Cruxador]

Well, the ultimate measure of what something is worth is what someone else will pay, right? So I think as a writer, the first thing to look out for how much you're charging is how much money your personal projects and previous employ have earned. If you have a book out, how many words is it and how much profit did it make in a given three-month period? Do division and that should be a good starting point. If you've been employed professionally, what did you make for your last job, or last couple jobs? Start slightly higher than that.

And for those who don't have anything, well, why not? Write a book. It's super easy to digitally self-publish through Amazon these days, so if you aspire to be a writer you don't really have any reason not to have a personal project or two making the rounds. And that's not including projects of alternate format such as serial novels, which are usually just published to a blog site and can make a living wage based on donations alone. Even lacking motivation isn't an excuse these days since you can do a serial novel format, with a deadline and eventually a fanbase to keep you honest, and then just edit and publish when it's complete.

[Kuiper]

First off, you need to consider what side of the application process you are on. Are people coming to you, asking you specifically to write for your project? If so, then it's helpful to have a classified saying "Here are my rates, and here is the kind of work I will accept." But if you're going to other people and submitting applications saying "I'd like to write for you," then you need to realize that in a lot of cases, those people have a fixed budget, and if you want that job, then you'll need to accept the rate that they're offering. (Some people may be more flexible, but you can't convince someone to pay you $1000 when they only have $500 to spend.) In that case, it's up to you to decide what jobs you are or aren't willing to accept.

Secondly, you may want to spend some time browsing through the recruitment forum here on LSF and see what rates other writers are charging, particularly those that provide samples of their work that you can compare to your own. The economic reality is that if there are lots people of around your skill level who are charging 2 cents per word, it's unlikely that you'll be able to convince people to pay you 5 cents per word.

Thirdly, consider who you are working for and take that into consideration when you are considering which jobs to take. Given the choice between an awesome client (pays on time, sets clear expectations, good communication) who pays a moderate amount, or a bad client who pays a higher amount, I'll take the easy client. This is true especially when you're not billing by the hour; bad clients that waste your time are not worth it in the long run. Note that "bad clients" aren't necessarily bad people (and conversely, nice people don't always make good clients). People with no experience tend to be bad clients, even if they're nice people who are trying their best, simply because they tend to have poor or underdeveloped project management skills and fail to anticipate the challenges that come with the project. It's up to you to decide how much of this you are willing to tolerate.


With that out of the way:

If you have any professional writing experience, I recommend that you list it, even if it's non-fiction writing. Back in college I wrote several articles for a local news publication, and I still sometimes refer to that experience when applying for story-writing gigs, because it demonstrates two things:

1. It shows a certain level of competence as a writer. The fact that I've had articles published in a newspaper doesn't necessarily mean that I'm good at crafting fiction, but it does mean that I at least possess the ability to string coherent sentences together well enough that someone was willing to pay me for it. It provides some assurance that if the person reading my application spends 5-10 minutes looking through my writing samples, that time won't be a complete waste.
2. It demonstrates that I'm a professional, that I have the ability to meet deadlines and treat writing like a job (which it is, if I'm getting paid for it). It shows that I have the ability to meet writing commitments, and that I'm not just going to sit around and wait for "inspiration" or whim to strike while deadlines pass by.

I typically don't disclose the amount I was paid for newspaper writing, because rates for news stories don't really match up that well against fiction (the article rate also has to take into consideration the research/investigation that went into the article as well as the time actually spent to type out the words). But if you've had any success selling your stories to magazines, you can use the rate you were paid as an anchor point when discussing your rates.

If you have any self-published works, you can list those as professional writing experience--though I'd personally advise against listing any self-published work that hasn't generated more than 1 cent per word in revenue, and depending on the job you're applying for, you may want to set the bar higher than that. That's not to say that self-published works can't be used as samples of your work that you can submit for consideration. But if you have a self-published novel that generated $50 in revenue, you're probably better off not mentioning the revenue at all, and just taking a piece from it and saying "here's a sample of my work."

What kind of metrics could they use to assess the value of their work?

I think that the best way to apply for a writing position is to submit samples of your work and ask to be evaluated based on that. If your writing samples come from works that were published commercially, all the better, but stories that you've written and never published can also work as writing samples. You should have at least two different samples, totaling over 7,000 words. Most of the jobs I apply for, I usually submit 3 samples totaling over 25,000 words (typically 2 short stories plus a slightly longer novella-length piece).

When selecting samples, realize that what matters is quality, not quantity. My personal recommendation is to have a curated personal writing portfolio of at least 5 different works, or at least 100,000 words, so that when submitting writing samples, you can pick out the samples that fit the job best depending on the style and genre your client wants. This also allows you to include a remark on your application like "additional samples available upon request."

If you don't yet have a writing portfolio of this size, it may be a sign that you should consider spending more time practicing before you start charging professional rates for your writing. A quote often attributed to Ray Bradbury says your first million words are the practice that gets you to the point of being a competent writer. This may be a little extreme, but the first several stories you write are certainly not going to be your best work, and should be written with the goal of self-improvement, not profit. If you are in that "practice" phase where you're writing for the purpose of getting better rather than actually writing as an occupation, then you may want to take any paying gig you can get, no matter how small. Most aspiring writers practice for free on their own time, so if someone is willing to pay you to practice, you're already ahead of the curve, even if you're getting paid a pittance. (I would qualify this by saying that you shouldn't accept jobs that you don't want to do, but that's advice I'd follow even in situations where you're being offered substantial compensation. "Don't take a job just for the money," as the saying goes.)