Freelance Writing Mini-Series - Part 2

How Much Do Freelance Writers Earn?

In the first part of this Freelance Writing mini-series, we explored the question, “What is freelance writing?” Now, in part two, we’ll take a look at one of the most frequent questions we hear, “How Much Do Freelance Writers Earn?”

What is the Earning Potential?

Your earning potential as a freelance writer is unlimited. 

While that is true, there are a number of factors that can influence your income such as how hard your work, the type of writing that you do, and where your clients are based.

Media Industry News Roundup

Now, here is a quick reality check… many freelance writers earn less income from their writing than they would earn if they worked in a regular job.

At the other end of the scale there are writers who earn six-figures and more, annually.

So how can you earn more? 

Let’s look at some of the different types of freelance writing and how much writers are paid for that work. Unless stated otherwise, I am referring to the rates paid in North America. 

Writing for Magazines

Let’s start with freelance writing for magazines. It’s not the most lucrative type of freelance writing, but it is an area where many freelance writers get their start as professional writers.

The rates that magazines pay to freelancers varies widely. Many magazines pay in the range of $0.15 to $0.35 per word which means you earn $150 to $350 for a 1,000-word article. Of course, many pay less.

You can generally expect rates to increase as you move up from local to regional to national publications.

At the upper end, some publications pay $1.00 per word and above.

Here are a few examples of pay rates from our list of Regional Writing Markets.

New Mexico
New Mexico Magazine

A monthly magazine covering the people, culture, arts, history outdoor recreation and landscape of New Mexico. Pays approximately $0.35 to $0.40 per word.

BritishColumbia
British Columbia Magazine

A quarterly, scenic, geographic and travel magazine that publishes well-researched articles about British Columbia. Pays approximately $0.50 per word.

Alaska Magazine
Alaska Magazine

A magazine about Alaska – from bears to moose, from biking to camping and mountain climbing. Pays $200 to $700 per article, plus more for photos. 

Okanagan Life Writer Guidelines
Okanagan Life Magazine

A regional magazine serving Okanagan residents from Salmon Arm in the north to Osoyoos in the south. Payment ranges from $0.20 to $0.25 per word.

Writing for Blogs

Media Industry News Roundup

There are more blogs than ever before and although many blogs prefer writers to ‘guest post’ for free, there are other blogs that pay their writers. Many of these blogs pay in the range of $25 to $100 per blog post.

We have compiled a market list containing 101 Blogs & Websites That Pay Writers For Posts.

Other Types of Freelance Writing

When it comes to other types of freelance writing, for example copywriting, ghostwriting and technical writing, writers tend to charge a flat project fee or bill their clients by the hour.

A 2012 freelance industry report by Ed Gandia surveyed 1,500 freelancers, including many freelance writers. 61% of the writers reported that they earn $50 or more per hour.

There is a limit to how high your income can climb if you only write magazine articles. You just need to do the mathematics. How many articles can you write in a month or in a year?

Many freelance writers start out writing for magazines and then go on to work as copywriters, bloggers, and even trainers.

Also, it is now easier than ever to self-publish a book or ebook. These days, authors may be self-published, traditionally-published, or a hybrid of these. A 2014 Digital Book World survey of 9,000 authors revealed that around 20% of hybrid authors earned over $15,000 per year, and 10% earned $60,000 or more.

Author Hugh Howey had this to say regarding the survey, “The simple fact is this: getting paid for your writing is not easy. But self-publishing is making it easier. How much easier? We don’t have sufficient data to know. But a conservative estimate would be that five to 10 times as many people are paying bills with their craft today as there was just a few years ago. And that should be celebrated.”

*Sources include Ed Gandia’s 2012 Freelance Industry Report and 2014 Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest Author Survey

The Pros & Cons of Freelance Writing

It’s not unusual to hear freelance writers talk about working at home in their pyjamas. It might sound like an easy life at first, but I can assure you that freelance writing is no holiday camp. Let’s take a look at the reality of being a freelance writer.

The pros of being a freelance writer include:

  • No Commute in Rush Hour Traffic
  • You Are Your Own Boss – the master of your destiny. You must be self-motivated, drive yourself, and it is you who is ultimately responsible for your success.
  • Choose Who You Work For – if you’ve ever worked for a boss you didn’t like, then you’ll love working for multiple clients as a freelancer. If a client treats you badly or is a jerk, then you can walk away.
  • You Have Flexible Hours – you’ll have to work hard but you can choose the hours that you work. Do work better at night? Do you work better at 5 a.m. in the morning? It’s up to you when you work.
  • Unlimited Earning Potential – Although writing for magazines is not particularly lucrative, it can lead towards a six-figure freelancing career. Once you establish your credentials as an expert on a particular topic, you will have the opportunity to publish a book, speak at seminars, and create training courses.

The cons of being a freelance writer include:

  • You Are Your Own Boss – if you don’t push and motivate yourself, you will most likely fail.
  • Financial Insecurity – as a self-employed, independent contractor, you have no guarantee of a certain amount of income each month.
  • Loss of Benefits – are you accustomed to receiving benefits as an employee such as medical and dental insurance, paid annual leave, and paid sick days? As a freelance writer, you will need to make your own arrangements.
  • Blurring of Work and Home Life – when you work at an office, the commute often helps to create a clear distinction between your work and home life. When you work at home, however, you’re always at the office. Work and home life may be harder to separate and may interfere with one another.
  • Loneliness – The solitary nature of freelance writing can be challenging if you have enjoyed working as part of a team of people. This is not so much of an issue now that you can connect with other writers and industry personnel through the Internet and social media.

These are some important issues to consider, and you need to weigh them up against the ‘pros’ above in order to work out if a freelance writing career is for you.

The Key to a Successful Freelance Writing Career

The secret to having a successful career in freelance writing lies in being able to balance the two most important elements of the job:

Writing – You have to spend a large amount of time writing. Clients are paying you for your words.

Marketing – You need to spend time actively looking for, and pitching for, your next opportunities and assignments.

If you spend too much of your time on one of these activities, at the expense of the other, then you will struggle to be successful as a freelance writer.

Media Industry News Roundup

We’ll look deeper into writing and marketing later in this mini-series.

How We Can Help You to Succeed

At WorldwideFreelance.com, we’ve been helping freelance writers for more than 20 years.

We know that you are very busy, and so we’ve honed in on the most useful way that we believe we can support and assist you. We cannot write your articles for you. And we don’t pitch queries to editors on your behalf.

But what we can do is save you valuable time by helping you to identify suitable markets for your writing and hopefully to uncover your next writing assignment.

Our Markets Plus database lists more than 2,000 writing markets. These listings are fully searchable by topic, location, and pay rates.

Although we do offer the free section with approximately 650 markets, the best opportunities are in our premium Markets Plus section. Can you guess what happens when we uncover a new, high-paying market? We add it immediately into Markets Plus for our premium members.

You can get access to Markets Plus for as low as $1.87 per month. We believe that’s excellent value considering the countless hours it can save you!

What's Next?

In the next part of this mini-series, we’ll look at how much writers get paid. Then, we’ll explore the process of writing for magazines in detail.

Watch out for an email with the next part soon.

Did You Miss The Previous Part?

If you missed the previous part of this mini-series, it’s here: 

About This Mini-Series

This module is part of a mini-series on Freelance Writing sent by email to our subscribers. If you’ve landed on this page from somewhere else, and would like to sign up for the entire mini-series, please click here.

Sincerely,

Gary McLaren Signature

WorldwideFreelance.com