Pricing Question [Writer]

[Ettica]

I am currently working for an indie developer, writing the dialogue script for a visual novel at a rate of 1 cent per word. This was not their specified rate, it was what I offered to do the job at to prove that I could work within deadlines, complete the project, and provide a quality script for the game. I wanted a way to break into the industry and get a published script under my belt. The project is going very well thus far, thus they have indicated they want me to write the scripts on future games for them. They've offered me a large, upcoming project that could span 300,000 to 350,000 words or more.

Writers, what would your asking rate be for a project of this size? I'm interested in this company and know I can find reliable work and pay with them. However, writing is my primary income, and I cannot live on 1 cent per word, even when churning out 2,000 words or more per day. Keep in mind the developer did not consider the cent-per-word rate when offering the job, so I am not necessarily locked into a "per word" mindset. That was simply me doing the math to figure out my current rate.

I hope this was the right forum to post this question in! Thank you for your time.

[SundownKid]

I'd say a skilled writer should be able to ask for at least 3 cents per word. Writers usually charge in cents-per-word but 1 is a bit low, at least for a commercial project.

[xelestial]

I used to work in journalism for $0.05 a word. I'm not sure what a good industry standard would be around here, but I've been curious actually.

Don't underestimate your work. You are the work horse that pulls 80% of the game along.

[Hazel-Bun]

$0.06 is professional rates (from some research I've done, I can provide links), which would land you around $18,000-$21,000. At about $0.03 $9,000-$10,500. Assuming you live by yourself and in the USA, $11,670 is the poverty level threshold. Now, I'm not sure how much money this company has, but requesting at least $0.03 a word is reasonable. Exposure doesn't feed you, and if this is your only means of income, you'd be pumping out the equivalent of a two novels or more for an extended period of time.

Ask for fair wages within what you need to survive/what is economically sustainable for you in the long run if you've never committed to that much writing before

[Noyemi K]

You should consider 4-6 cents per word—if you do 2,000 words/week that's $120 at 6 cents per word, though ideally I'd like to see you get at least $150/week off it.

Writers are quite a valuable core team asset and having worked with some very good ones, they're good folks that get taken for granted.

[Taleweaver]

You should consider 4-6 cents per word—if you do 2,000 words/week that's $120 at 6 cents per word, though ideally I'd like to see you get at least $150/week off it.

If you only manage to do 2,000 words per week, you're not a professional writer. Even 2,000 words per day is pitifully slow, even if you include the time to proofread.

Unless you can crank out reliably 4,000 words per day at the very least (of some quality, of course), don't become a full-time writer-for-hire. If you're doing this as a hobbyist, well, 3 cents per word are definitely a good guideline if the person employing your services allows you to work at your pace.

[Noyemi K]

Ah, I think I misread it—the OP said 2k per day, not per week. Whoopsie!

But yeah, that said, a 150k-word contract would be worth 4.5k at 3 cents/word, so that's a fair value if you can complete a contract in a month and a half or less. That's generally how I try to pace/price things, though each of my contracts is worth substantially less than that (I'm not a writer).