National Union of Journalists<\/a> has a database of rates their members have been paid, along with their recommended minimums that writers should work for.<\/p>\nOften though, the best way to find out the situation is to ask other writers. Most publications work with a multitude of staffers and freelancers, so exploring their website and identifying the freelance contributors is easy enough. Once you\u2019ve found them, social media makes it easy to get in touch and start a conversation\u2014though I wouldn\u2019t recommend doing so publicly.<\/p>\n
There comes a point, sometimes early on or sometimes a little way into a freelancing career, when you\u2019re asked the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s your rate?\u201d And the first time it happens, it\u2019s terrifying. Try not to panic. Most freelancers have no idea how to respond to this question initially either.<\/p>\n
Think about what you\u2019re being asked to write. Is it a first-person opinion column? If your pitch was strong enough to get commissioned for op-ed, you already know a lot about the subject. That means you can likely write, refine and edit it in a matter of hours, and the price you quote should reflect this. If it\u2019s something more in-depth like a feature or original report, you\u2019ll need to do background research, track down experts and conduct interviews. The pay rate should compensate you for this extra time and effort.<\/p>\n
From here, move on to thinking or asking about how soon the editor wants you to file copy. If you\u2019re being commissioned for breaking news or a column based on something that has just happened, there\u2019ll be an expectation that you\u2019re available to write it quickly. As a result, you might need to prioritise it above other work you have going on. This is another factor in determining the appropriate rate for a job.<\/p>\n
Finally, think about similar work you\u2019ve done in the past, and what you were paid for it. This calculation, combined with the points above, should leave you with a ballpark rate to charge. Once you have that number, it can be a good idea to quote marginally higher than you\u2019d actually expect to receive, allowing you a little flexibility if the editor tries to push you down on price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you start out as as freelance writer, there\u2019s one area that is especially notorious in terms of understanding the landscape: how to price yourself. Let\u2019s take a look at researching publications\u2019 budgets and the factors to consider in setting your own freelance rates. There are a number of ways to find out whether a …<\/p>\n
How To Price Yourself As A Freelancer<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freelance-writing","tag-freelance","tag-getting-paid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clippings.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}