Dear WordCount:

A client is asking if I can produce 500-word articles they would post under their name for a trade association. Another client asked me to write and produce a four-page, monthly newsletter.

I’ve done straight up production work in years past and those costs are more definable for me.  I have also written mostly analysis and technical books in the past that had fixed prices or were incorporated into a freelance contract. I am finding it challenging to price a la carte articles and newsletter work. I have done searches and found that, like many things, the answers depend on who you ask. The clients haven’t been helpful with establishing a baseline. I am reaching out to better inform my thought process and establish a point of reference. My thought is to charge $200 for a 500-word article, and for the newsletter, $1000 to setup the template and $300 to collect client material and edit each issue.

What do you think?

Anonymous Copywriter

Dear Anonymous:

Great questions. For client #1 that wants you to ghostwrite 500-word articles they’d submit to a trade association: $200 for a 500-word article seems low, especially if you frequently write about their field. If you have accumulated industry expertise and are an experienced writer, you should be able to charge more. I don’t do a lot of marketing writing per se, but I have written for trade magaziness for years and know that the pay can range from .30 to $1.25 or higher per word.

My suggestion: have a bottom price in mind – something that jives with your hourly rate or your normal project rate. Then ask for about 50 percent more so you leave yourself room to negotiate. You didn’t say whether the client wants one article, five, 10 or one a month for the foreseeable future. If this job could turn into an ongoing gig, you might consider charging less – after all, ongoing work means less marketing for you and that’s worth at least a small discount.

While you’re negotiating, ask for a contract, and make sure it includes how many revisions you’ll do for the fee. $1 a word for ghostwriting a trade association magazine article sounds great until you’re on your fourth revision because they can’t make up their mind what they want the article to say. In my experience, one revision is standard. In a contract, spell out who will review your work and the turnaround time, so you’re not getting edited by committee and waiting weeks instead of days for them to get back to you (it happens).

For client #2 who wants the newsletter: $1,000 to set up a template sounds reasonable. But $300 per issue to research and write subsequent issues could be low. It really depends on the subjects to be covered, how much it would take to collect and write the material, if there will be standing columns or features (which I’d highly recommend to make it easier on yourself to write), etc.

If you could do all needed data collection and writing in a couple hours, $300 per issue ends up being pretty good. Do factor reviews and revisions into your production time, as well as any other PITA (pain in the a**) factors. Add 25 to 30 percent to that for unforeseen circumstances. Then multiply that amount by your standard hourly rate – and give them a discount for being an existing client if you want – and you should come up with a price that works. Again, you might want to bump it up slightly to leave yourself some wiggle room during negotiations.

Got a freelancing question? Send it to Dear WordCount at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

To find out how, tune to today’s WordCount Last Wednesday writer’s chat, when we’ll discuss how to supercharge your freelance writing income.

The chat takes place at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

Questions for the chat

For the 60-minute chat, we’ll start with introductions, move to some pre-set questions and leave time at the end for your questions.
Here are the pre-set questions:

• Q1: In 2011, was your freelance writing income higher, lower or the same as in 2010?
•  Q2: What are you doing in 2011 to boost your freelance income?
•  Q3: What freelance markets pay more – or less – than you realized?
•  Q4: What’s been your biggest obstacle to a higher freelance income?

Joining the #wclw chat

It’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, but you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account. You might want to alert followers that you’ll be tweeting more than usual during the chat, and suggest they use Muuter.com to temporarily mute you if they don’t want to tune into the conversation.

If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat in an upcoming post.

Photo by rachaelvoorhees/Flickr

Being a freelance writer doesn’t mean taking a vow of poverty.

If you know how to work the system – and just plain work – you can generate a more than comfortable income as a self-employed freelance writer.

I know  - I hit six figures in 2010 and 2011 when the economy was still hurting and the media industry was going through more changes than it’s seen in decades.

There are plenty of other writers out there like me. How is it possible, and more importantly, how can you do the same?

To find out, tune in Wednesday, Jan. 25, for the next WordCount Last Wednesday writer’s chat, when we’ll discuss how to supercharge your freelance writing income.

The subject of increasing your freelance writing income hit a nerve with WordCount readers when I wrote about it last week, so I’m using the #wclw chat to follow up.

The chat takes place at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

Questions for the #wclw chat

Flickr photo courtesy Images_of_Money

This week, I’m running a two-part series explaining what to takes to build a more lucrative writing business.

The basics are easy: make more and spend less. How to do that is the tricky part. Part one of the series looked at ways to boost your freelance writing income.

But what good is making more money if you’re spending a lot to do it? For a higher income to show up on the bottom line, you have to minimize what you’re spending to generate that income.

Here are 10 suggestions for cutting freelance expenses:

1. Do as little marketing as possible. This is where I break ranks with freelancers who write for dozens of publications each year and spend at least a little time every week – or even every day – marketing. By marketing I mean writing letters of introduction, sending out queries to new-to-you publications, researching new markets, etc. Since early in my freelance business, I’ve chosen a different approach. I specialize in a few subjects and write for a handful of publications who give me steady work. Last year I worked for five publications; this year I expect the number to be close to that. I’d rather do that than pitch new publications all the time. My bylines haven’t shown up in as many publications as some freelancers. But I haven’t had to put up with a lot of headaches that dealing with dozens of clients can lead to:  in the past four years, for example, I haven’t had to chase down a single client to get paid. Limiting marketing time means I devote more time to producing stories, and that’s good for my bottom line.

2. Go paperless. A few years ago, I made a conscious decision to cut paper out of my freelance writing business. I don’t print out notes. I also send invoices electronically and pay bills online. Not only has it been good for the environment, it saves me money on printer supplies.

3. Drop your landline. I’ve yet to take this step but I know other freelancers who have. You could save $30 or more a month by discontinuing your landline and using your cell phone, Skype or Google Voice for everything.

4. Use free software. I’m still a Microsoft Office girl. But I use plenty of other software that doesn’t cost anything. For example, I use CutePDF to turn documents into .pdf files and Jing to create screenshots of web pages or other images I need for blog posts or other work. More recently I’ve become a big fan of Google Docs and Yammer, web-based software that companies can use to set up private social networks, great for collaborating with far-flung work groups.

5. Cut out unnecessary subscriptions. I keep getting invitations to re-subscribe to the Wall Street Journal but so far I’ve resisted. I love the Journal and use it in my research and reporting. But that’s just it – I’m able to use it online for what I need, so why should I subscribe? And I’m afraid if I got it, I’d be reading it when I was supposed to be working.

6. Transcribe your own notes. I know many freelancers, especially feature writers, who pay a service to transcribe recorded interview notes. This makes sense in some respects. If you make $50 an hour writing and pay someone $20 or $25 an hour to transcribe an interview, your time is better spent writing than transcribing. However, I do most of my interviews by phone and type answers as I go. I use my own form of shorthand, and go over my rough notes after the fact to fill in words and clean up the spelling. As I do, I highlight quotes that I might want to use, and make other notes. It’s such an integrated process I couldn’t see shipping an interview recording off to a service and waiting for the notes to come back to do all of that. Plus, a lot of the writing I do is on deadline, so there’s no time to wait for a service. In the end, it’s cheaper for me to do it myself.

7. Eliminate other non-essentials. I normally take at least one trip per year to visit editors; last year I saw editors in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Those trips paid off in enough work to keep me busy through most of 2012, so I don’t expect to go on more than one such trip this year. As boring as it sounds, I rarely do work-related lunches – or even coffees – unless I’m meeting a source or editor. I do pay to belong to a half-dozen professional organizations, but I consider those good investments because it helps me keep up with what’s happening in the industry and connect with colleagues and publishers who might want to hire me. Organizations I recommend: the Online News Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, American Society of Business Publication Editors, Society of American Business Editors and Writers and Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS).

8. Wait as long as possible to upgrade office equipment. I just upgraded to a new computer and Microsoft Office 2010. My previous computer was so old that someone who saw a picture of it that I posted here called it “a relic.” Yes, it was – as I was carting the old monitor out of my office I noticed the label on the back said it was manufactured in 1997! But all that equipment was bought and paid for long ago, which means that for several my office/computer equipment costs have been nominal – well, if you don’t count the Android smartphone and iPad I bought in the interim. As long as I could get the job done I was OK with not having the latest technology. And when my outdated equipment started to hinder how I worked, it was time to upgrade.

9. Fund a SEP-IRA. Taxes are a big expense for freelancers, so anything you can (legally) do to pay less is a good thing – and funding a SEP-IRA accomplishes that and helps you save for retirement, which you should be doing anyway. Any money you stash into a SEP-IRA retirement savings account comes straight off your gross income and doesn’t have to be included as income on your 2012 tax return. The IRS allows you to put up to 25 percent of your gross income in a SEP-IRA, up to a maximum of $49,000 for the 2011 tax year (which you have until April 15 to fund) and $50,000 for the 2012 tax year. So if, for example, the total amount of your 2012 freelance income is $50,000, you could put $12,500 into a SEP-IRA and you’d end up paying taxes on $37,500 minus deductions.

10. Take all allowable business deductions. Speaking of deductions – make sure you’re taking everything you’re allowed. Save receipts for every book, software program, printer cartridge, taxi cab ride, plane ticket, parking meter and any other expense you incurred running your freelance business so you can claim them as legitimate business deductions on your federal and state tax returns. Don’t forget to include mileage if you used your car to drive to an interview, meeting or work-related class. the Internal Revenue Service increased allowable reimbursement to 55.5 cents a mile for the 2011 tax year. The more deductions, the less you’ll pay in taxes and the more money that stays in your pocket. Freelancers have different systems for saving receipts. I use Quicken and my bank’s website to track income and expenses and come tax time double check those online statements with paper receipts I’ve accumulated over the year.

How do you squeeze costs out of your freelance business?

Flickr photo courtesy yomanimus

If you’ve made a resolution to make more money as a freelance writer this year, congratulations! You’ve taken the first step toward getting there – setting a goal.

There are two basic ways to accomplish that goal: earn more and spend less.

This week, I’m running a two-part series on running a more profitable freelance writing business. Today’s installment focuses on generating more income.

Here are 10 suggestions for making that happen:

1. Up your rates. If you’ve been writing for the same clients for a while ask for a raise. Explain why you think you deserve a higher fee – you’ve never missed a deadline, you consistently come up with pitches they like, you’ve graduated to writing for a higher tier of publications and they all pay more. Whatever it is, be prepared to be your own best advocate in negotiations.

2. Increase your productivity. If you normally take 10 hours to research and write a 1,000-word assignment, try finishing in 8 hours instead. Do that for four stories in one month and you’ll have enough time to take one additional assignment – at $1 a word that would be an extra $1,000. Do that 12 times and you’ll make $12,000 more this year. Read my suggestions for speeding up your work in this post on how to write fast. Find it hard not to get distracted by Facebook and Twitter? Use apps like StayFocusd or Leechblock to block yourself from online distractions. Find out more about apps to block distractions and increase productivity in this post I wrote for SecondAct.com: Software for Social Media Junkies.

3. Work longer hours. If you’re already working a 40+ hour work week, I don’t recommend piling on many more hours. I spent 2010 doing that and although it was financially my best year ever, I was always tired and didn’t have enough time off to recharge. But if you’re only freelancing part-time, consider adding some hours or days to your schedule. Maybe it’s time to go from 2 to 3 days a week. If you’re freelancing on top of a Monday-Friday job, could you switch to a 4-day work week to give yourself one weekday for freelancing? If you’re a SAHM and writing as a way to get back into the workforce, could you hire a babysitter a few mornings a week, or let your kids stay in after-school care a few afternoons a week to give yourself some more writing time? Since you’ll be adding child-care expenses make sure you’re bringing in enough work to cover it with plenty left over. Here’s more great advice on part-time freelancing in a WordCount guest post by Gretchen Roberts: 5 ways to earn full-time income from part-time freelancing.

4. Write for publications that pay more. If you’ve spent the last year or two writing for publications that pay 25 cents or 50 cents a word, it’s time to break into higher-paying markets. If you’re not sure where to find them, try Susan Johnston’s ebook, The Urban Muse Writer’s Guide to Online Writing Markets.

5. Sell reprints. If you retain rights to your work, resell them to other markets. Regional parenting magazines are a good place to start, as many buy reprints. Here’s a post on making money from reprints from the WM Freelance blog: Make Extra Money With Reprints.

6. Repurpose existing material in other ways. Reprints aren’t the only way to make money from existing material. You can repackage stories or blog posts into ebooks, or use them as the basis for paid speaking engagements. Here’s a WordCount post on ebooks: How to write and market an ebook.

7. Run ads on your blog. This assumes you have a blog; if you don’t have one, get one. Read about starting a blog here, here and here. Join an ad network like Google AdSense or BlogHer (disclaimer: I’m doing a freelance editing project for BlogHer right now, though it doesn’t have anything to do with their ad network). If you’re interested in learning more about BlogHer read this: Thinking of joining BlogHer ad network? Here’s what to know. Or solicit advertisers on your own.

8. Branch out. As opportunities to write for newspapers, women’s magazines and other traditional freelance markets dry up, others are appearing. Specialty online-only news sites are everywhere and many use freelancers. Publishers who produce custom publications – in print or online – are booming, and some don’t have as many writers as they need. Not sure where or how to start? Writers’ conferences are a good place to pick up tips for branching out, and for meeting editors. Organizations such as the American Society of Journalists and Authors host annual conferences – I’m speaking at their Writing Boot Camp in April – but you don’t have to fly to New York to get this type of training. There are plenty of state and local conferences as well. See lists of writers conferences on Teen Writers Bloc and Thoughtful Reflections.

9. Specialize. I know a lot of freelancers who are self-avowed generalists, and some do quite well at it. I’ve taken a different tack and specialized in a handful of subject. The more you know about a subject, the more money you can command writing about it. Here’s more on how to be a niche writer.

10. Take editing work. If you’ve organized, work well with others, know the ins and outs of grammar, understand what goes into making a good story and can explain that to someone else, and have a handle on the content management systems (CMS) that most publications use today, you’ve got what it takes to be a freelance editor. Generally speaking, freelance editing work pays fairly well, and lots of publications farm out editing work. You can find out about editing gigs in the same places you find out about freelance writing work, in market guides, at writers conferences and online at sites such as Mediabistro, JournalismJobs, and Freelance Success ($99/yr).

It’s been a while since I’ve typed that. The holidays, kids home from college, catching up on work, yadda yadda. That’s all behind me, and I’ve actually had a chance to do some extracurricular reading.

Here’s the best stuff I came across this week:

A Narrowed Gaze (Columbia Journalism Review) – Former Wall Street Journal staffer Dean Starkman examines business journalism leading up to the financial crisis and asks – to paraphrase Jon Stewart of all people – “How could so many journalists covering a beat so closely miss something so big so completely?” Good question. Starkman is writing a book on the subject, The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: the Financial Crisis and the Financial Press, due out in fall 2012. Looking forward to it.

How One Bit of Stupidity Could Have Brought Down a Multi-million Dollar Media Company (Shankman.com) – Beware – or be aware of – airplane seatmates. On a plane ride from Florida to NYC, P.R. guy Peter Shankman sat next to a guy whose reading material for the flight was a prospectus for a well-known media company that’s apparently for sale. Shankman doesn’t say which one – but he got an eyeful, and even snapped photos of the prospectus, which he includes with the post (with incriminating material redacted). His lesson: when it comes to confidential information, don’t be stupid. My takeaway as a reporter: be aware of your surroundings, you never know when you might stumble onto the makings of a great scoop.

Unbroken - I’m finally getting around to reading Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of 1936 Olympic standout and World War II hero Louie Zamperini, her follow up to bestseller Seabiscuit. I’m about a third of the way through the book, which showcases the meticulous research and recreation of detail that has become Hillenbrand’s hallmark. Last night I left “Zamp” and two other men in shark-infested waters – can’t wait to see what happens next.

And some industry news:

Can newspapers be tech incubators? (GigaOm) – Why yes, they can, and are, Mathew Ingram writes. He cites the Philadelphia News Network, which just launched the Project Liberty incubator, and Digital First Media, which owns the Detroit News, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, which has created a venture capital arm to invest in media startups. Another example: the Oregonian announced today partnerships with 50 Oregon blogs, part of a year-old Oregon News Network community blog project. New bloggers run the gamut from birding to local economics.

NewsRight: a Game Changer for Online Journalism? (Mashable) - Associated Press, The New York Times Co., The Washington Post Co. and more than two dozen other news organizations have started a digital licensing service to “provide authorized access to the best original reporting and related analytics for convenient use across digital platforms.” According to Mashable’s report, the company’s technology will track “websites, blogs and other Internet aggregators to measure the spread of its participants’ content.” In other words, they’re making sure content aggregators, HuffPost and anybody else aren’t ripping off and using what isn’t theirs without paying for it (my analysis).

Tool of the week for journalists – ProPublica’s TimelineSetter (Journalism.co.uk) – A nifty tool for creating beautiful interactive timelines.

Yes, there will be a WordCount Blogathon in 2012. As in other years, it will take place in May.

If you’re not familiar with the blogathon, it’s a challenge to blog every day in May. In that respect, it’s similar to other community blogging challenges, such as NaBloPoMo (here’s a list of daily blogging challenges I compiled during the 2011 blogathon).

Bloggers – amateur, professional, whoever – who commit to blogging every day of the month are listed on the blogathon blog roll. If they make it the entire month, their names are entered in a drawing for writing and blogging-related prizes, which in years past have included books, tutoring, web design and other writing and blogging-related services.

The 2012 blogathon will include other features that have made past events so successful, including:

• A guest post exchange, a designated day for bloggers to swap posts with another blogger, preferably but not necessarily, another blogathon participant.
• Theme days, which aren’t mandatory but are helpful if you’re stuck for what to write about that day. Last year’s theme days included posts on favorite books and favorite places to write.
• Haiku days, also not mandatory, though the vast majority of bloggers who took part in previous blogathons did them because they’re short, easy to come up with and a week or two or daily blogging offer a much needed break!
• A members-only Google Group where bloggers can share links to their posts, get technical and other blogging questions answered.
• Live Twitter chats to kick off the blogathon, and to celebrate when it’s over.
• A weekly e-newsletter with blogathon updates.
• A blogathon badge to display on your blog.

Watch this space for registration, which will open some time in March.

Got a suggestion for how to make the 2012 blogathon even more wonderful? Leave it in a comment, or let me know at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.

If all goes well, this will be the last blog post I write – on my current office computer.

I’ve used this eMachines PC for more years than I care to remember; it’s been at least five, maybe closer to six. A new hard drive and a few other essential upgrades have kept her alive and kicking through hundreds of deadlines, dozens of Twitter chats and four blogathons.

Early in 2011 I started feeling like I was driving a horse and buggy after everyone else had moved on to a Model T. The old PC was slowing down (and yes, I know, that’s a sure sign of imminent hard drive failure). Some mornings I waited minutes – minutes! – for Outlook and Chrome to open. I resolved that before the year was over, I’d upgrade. Besides, I reasoned, how could I sample the software and apps I write about if my computer couldn’t handle them?

Then I got busy with deadlines or vacation or something I had to do for my kids and put it off.

Finally – finally – on Dec. 31, I made good on my promise. After some research, consulting with my in-house tech team (husband and son) and visiting several area computer stores, I bought a new computer and monitor. It’s shiny, super-fast set up I’ll say more about in another post.

Switching computers isn’t as easy as unplugging one machine and plugging in another, at least not for someone like me who hasn’t leaped entirely to using web-based software. Before I can use the new machine, I’ve got to upload Word and other programs I use regularly and transfer hundreds of megabytes worth of data files. But by this time tomorrow or Thursday, I should be all set.

Say what you want about New Year’s resolutions – it’s great to know that even though it took 365 days, I made my goal, and as a result, I’m starting off 2012 at a blistering pace.

Oh, and my resolution for 2012? Not to put things off to the last minute.

What are your resolutions for 2012?

We’ll be discussing what we achieved, where we messed up and what we hope to accomplish in 2012.

Use the hashtag #wclw to join the conversation.

For the 60-minute chat, we’ll start with introductions, move to some pre-set questions and leave lots of time at the end of discussion.

But there’s a right way and a wrong way to convey it, especially if you’re sending a letter of introduction to a publication or editor you’ve never worked with before.

Use a letter of introduction (LOI) to subtly entice an editor to work with you or buy your story, not bang them over the head with how great you are. Sing your own praises too strongly and you’ll come off as snobby instead of helpful,  arrogant instead of well-seasoned.

Here’s an example of how not to introduce yourself, sent to me by the editor of a popular consumer website.

The editor writes: “This one is a doozy.  An e-mail that a freelancer sent to an editor here — amazingly, someone he does not know. It could be the breezy nature of [industry] writing in general, or the tone that it takes on our [website name] that emboldens this guy. It could be the mutual acquaintance factor or the fact that [blog name] prides itself on being brash and iconoclastic. But still…

Here’s the LOI the editor is referring to, with some parts redacted to protect the privacy of all parties involved:

Subject: The World Famous [freelancer's name] From [blog name] wants to write a few articles for [website]

What? You don’t know me? Well [friend's name] has recommended I get in contact you. Which is why this email is occupying your time.

[Friend] thinks (along with yours truly) that my work would be valuable to [industry reference] buyers. Specifically the buying, selling, and general storytelling of the [industry] business.

Feel free to judge for yourself.

[link to writing sample]

I am an [relevant job title #1], [relevant job title #2], [relevant job title #3], and writer at [blog name] for a good five years.

Read my stuff. I also co-write a little article called [title] which seems to have become a favorite at [blog name]….

All the best!

According to my editor friend, the colleague in her office who received the LOI, told her:  “Well, there might be a worse way to introduce yourself to people you don’t know, but it doesn’t come to mind right now.”

Looking back at your own freelance writing business, what’s the worst LOI you ever sent, and did anything ever come of it? Please share in a comment: if I get enough good examples of bad LOIs, I’ll include them in a follow-up post.