This time I'm going to share with you a mistake that I made. Repeatedly. At least five or six times when I first started writing professionally. Five or six times in a row, I might add. And the mistake? Quoting a price for a project that is far too low for the work involved.
This mistake can kill a writer just as surely as any of the others. If you accept a project thinking that it will take you only 8 hours and it winds up taking you 24, well, you're not making much money (or at least not as much as you should). There's really only one way to avoid this mistake. You have to read everything about a project, and read it carefully.
Before you read anything, determine what your hourly rate is. I charge a minimum of $60/hour of work in most cases. I'll work for cheaper in the cases of charities or other worthy causes, but I won't work for free (see the second mistake). That $60/hour (or more, depending on the project) includes research, a draft version that is approved by the client, revisions, editing, and the production of a final polished version. When I just started out, I charged less. As I gained experience, my price went up (just as the time it takes me to complete a given project went down, so clients ended up paying the same anyway).
Once you know what you charge per hour, figure out how many hours the project in question will take you. This requries a little experience and you'll probably get it wrong a few times, so get to know yourself and your ability to complete a project. I can complete a 1000-word article, start to finish, in about 1 hour, if the subject matter is at least a litle familiar to me. Subjects I'm not versed in may take 2 hours. If I'm ghostwriting an entire book ... well, that takes more than just a few hours. My price always reflects how much time has to go into a project.
When your quoting a price to a client, know exactly what you're promising. Work out exactly how much work you'll be doing and have it specified in a contract signed by both you and the client. You'll probably make a mistake once in a while and have to just eat the cost yourself. But a contract helps you to see how much work you're committing to. It also serves as a barrier for when a client tries to pile on more work without providing you with additional compensation. This will happen, so learn to stick to your contracts.
I was wandering around the Internet the other day (since I have nothing else do while my brain organizes my next plot) and I came upon what must be the third mistake of professional writing. I saw at least three sites out there asking for entire chapters of an e-book as a sort of "test" for writers, promising that if these writers meet their standards, the writers will each get a contract to write an e-book. Paid and everything.
This sounded odd to me, as a professional writer. So, I decided to enlist the aid of a couple of online writing pals to investigate one of them. We each signed up and received a description of the potential e-book and were told which chapter would be our "sample" chapter. Interesting fact: all three of us were assigned different chapters in the same e-book. If this book had 14 chapters (which it appeared to), and the site managed to get 14 people to write "sample" chapters, then they get an entire e-book without ever having to "hire" any of the writers. Sneaky, sneaky.
The lesson here: a "sample" should not be an entire chapter or article. A "sample" would usually consist of a very short work, just enough to show your abilities as a writer (and a researcher, as most writing requires some research). Don't put your faith in false promises and hand over more of your work than necessary. Best case: use something already published as a writing "sample." At least you've already been paid for it.
Well, I've had a week to think carefully about the question, and I think I've come up with what I believe is the second mistake professional writers make. It's very tempting for an aspiring writer to just want to get his or her name out there, regardless of pay. Writing for free is a mistake that many aspiring professional writers simply don't recover from.
This mistake can take two different forms. The first is simply submitting written work in the form of articles and stories to various websites for no pay at all. There are many websites out there that will allow you to post your own work and make a little money. Even if that money is small, it's better than nothing.
The other trap aspiring writers fall into is the promise of pay at a later date. There are dozens of companies out there who will tell you that they can't afford to pay writers right now, but they'll get to it in the future. This is never true. NEVER. Even well-meaning companies don't follow through. Why pay for something you can get for free? If you volunteer your services, even once, don't expect that company to ever pay you. It simply doesn't make good business sense.
If you really want to be a professional writer, you have to treat yourself as a professional. Write for a fee, not for free. True, there may be instances where you want to donate your time, such as editing the newletter for a charitable organization, but these should be few and far between.
I received an e-mail this morning asking what mistakes a professional writer might make and how to avoid them. The list is long and confusing and ranges from what to avoid in a computer to what kind of clients you might seek out. However, I managed to shorten the list to five disastrous mistakes. The first of these is quite simple: don’t bite off more than you can chew.
I’ve met many aspiring professional writers who leap in with both feet and taken every job that comes along regardless of pay or who the particular client is. These writers seem to forget that while there are 24 hours in a day, no one can write 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If you take on every job that comes along, you run the risk of burning out and being unable to meet deadlines. Getting a reputation for missing deadlines is the kiss of death in the professional writing world.
Meeting deadlines is important, but there’s more to this first rule than that. Think of the beginning of your writing career as a résumé-building opportunity. Each project you finish, especially if that project is for a well-respected client, is another notch on your belt, figuratively speaking. As your experience grows and you gain a reputation for quality work, you can charge more money. You may be able to earn $60 or more per hour. However, this will not happen if you’ve committed yourself to 100 projects that pay $10 an hour.
Most professional writers are searching for the jobs that pay well. You won’t find these if you’re bogged down with all those little projects you should never have accepted in the first place. Pace yourself, know when to say “no,” and always be on the lookout for a job that you really shouldn’t turn down.
