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Every so often, I check to see what kinds of freelance writing jobs are available for remote writers. I check linkedin, upwork, indeed, and other sites. And frankly, I’m shocked by what some of these job listings pay content writers.<\/p>\n
Just the other day, I ran across a listing for a blog content writer that paid $5 for 1000 words. How much does this equal per word? Well, not much. Divide $5 by 1000 and you get .005. That’s one tenth of 5 cents! I don’t know any writer who would write for that pay.<\/p>\n
In the late 1980s, Rob and I started as freelance magazine writers. This meant sending out a number of queries each month\u00a0 to various publications (in the days before the Internet). Even back then, most of these magazines paid AT LEAST 5 cents a word, many paid 10 and 15 cents a word.\u00a0 Magazines like OMNI paid a buck a word.<\/p>\n
Writing anything isn’t just about putting one word after another onto a page. If it’s fiction, there are characters to consider, plot, motives, emotions, descriptions, conflict, you know, the stuff of\u00a0 ordinary life. If it’s non-fiction, what’s the hook? The purpose?<\/p>\n
Writers are like architects. But instead of brick and mortar,\u00a0 wood and nails, they build with words, sentences, paragraphs that convey ideas, emotions, experience, humanity in all its complexities.<\/p>\n
Stephen King, for his first book – Carrie<\/em>\u00a0 – was paid only $2,500. Not much in any era. Not enough for him to quit his job teaching. But up until them, it was the most he’d made from writing.<\/p>\n JK Rowling, for her first Harry Potter book, was paid about $2000- 1500 pounds, along with a grant of 8000 pounds from the Scottish Arts Council. With both her and King, passion for stories kept them writing. That’s true for the\u00a0 writers I know personally and it doesn’t matter if it’s fiction or non-fiction.<\/p>\n So, is that passion worth half a cent a word?<\/p>\n That depends on the writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every so often, I check to see what kinds of freelance writing jobs are available for remote writers. I check linkedin, upwork, indeed, and other sites. And frankly, I’m shocked by what some of these job listings pay content … Continue reading