Knowing Your Worth – Setting Prices as a Freelancer

There is something inherently empowering about knowing your own worth. A concept applicable in every aspect of our life, it plays a particularly crucial role in our professions… Especially if you’re a freelancer and you’re trying to break into the market. So today I’m going to talk about what you’re worth. And what I’m worth. And how to ensure we’re not being undervalued to help you safeguard your time and energy from being wasted.

Now to someone just starting out as a freelancer, the buzzword appears to be ‘experience’. Everyone is familiar with the painful paradox that faces many school- and university-leavers. You need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. And to put this into context, I’m going to share a recent exchange I had regarding my own capabilities when it came to completing a job.

A Ghostwriting Opportunity

As I mentioned in my earlier post about SEO, I started an AirTasker account late in 2017 on a suggestion from a friend. I started looking for freelance work I could do from the US, and had some initial successes of varying sizes. And despite the recent study avalanche that has descended upon me, I still log onto AirTasker every now and then to browse for prospective tasks. About a week ago, I decided to bid on a ghostwriting job. The stated budget was about $300, and when you’re not earning a regular salary, that’s an appealing figure! So I put in a bid. I was open about the fact that I’ve never completed a ghostwriting task before, but noted that I have a lot of writing experience and have done some previous paid copywriting and editing work.

So far, so good. But then I started to think a little more about the task itself. The poster stipulated a book of 120 pages minimum, for a project which they expected to take 6-8 months. For $300? That’s a hefty investment of time and energy for a relatively low return. Imagine if I worked on that project for just ten hours a month—a conservative number, considering the work that goes into producing high quality content. I’d be earning $5 an hour, which is $2 under even Oklahoma’s ridiculously-low minimum wage. It’s a third of Australia’s minimum wage ($18.30). Even if the total project only took me 17 hours, I would barely scrape through above minimum wage… And I’d hazard a guess that putting that project together would take a hell of a lot longer than a measly seventeen hours.

What’s it worth: how much ‘should’ ghostwriters earn?

With that in mind, I decided to poke around the internet and see what some reasonable rates might be. Some seemed ridiculously high, as much as $8000 for 100-page book, but others seemed more realistic. Lynn Wasnack’s incredibly helpful guide notes that a low wage for a ghostwriter (who won’t be getting any credit at all) is around $30 an hour, or $5000 per project. Now I’m not sure that I’d feel comfortable commanding $5000 dollars to write a 120-page book, but it does provide some idea of what the market looks like. To my mind, it also provides a hint of insight into just how much work a ghostwriter might expect to do on such a project. For a book of 120 pages (minimum), I’d hazard even if the content was supplied, the workload would probably look something around a conservative rate of two hours per page. That’s just to reach a point where the manuscript is complete and ready to be edited, and I’m not a slow worker. But I am thorough.

So what do I quote, & what do I accept?

The week progressed. The poster, prodded by another bidder to provide a little more direction, quoted that he could agree to pay $35 for one section. His section would be ‘of no more than 20 pages’. That’s not even $2 a page (by this stage, I’d already decided working for that kind of money just wasn’t worth it). So when asked if I could make a cheaper offer, I told him I wouldn’t go lower than $35 for a 20-page section. That I, in fact, would have quoted significantly more. His answer was succinct: “I wouldn’t entertain paying $2000 for someone new to ghostwriting.”

That is his prerogative. But it’s also my prerogative to decide if I want to accept that limitation, or whether I believe my time is better spent on other projects. I would rather earn nothing while working on projects that I’m heavily invested in and that will one day feasibly have a significant return than work for $5 an hour. That is how I value my time and my effort. I know that were I to complete this task, I’d do a stellar job, and that my work would be worth a lot more than $300. So why undersell myself? Because I’m ‘inexperienced?’

What IS ‘inexperienced’?

What exactly does our idea of ‘inexperience’ encompass? When self-evaluating to determine what our time is worth—and for freelancers, to set a price point—we need to be discerning about what ‘experience’ entails. Have I ever done ghostwriting before? No. But, have I done a lot of writing across a wide slew of genres, both professionally and personally? Yes.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that because you’re relatively new to paid work, that your time is worth nothing. Even if that tag of ‘inexperienced’ merely means that you haven’t completed a task with that particular title before. Have I done any ghostwriting? No. But, have I done myriad other tasks that require the exact same, or at least highly similar, skills? Yes.

It’s vital to remain aware of task parameters, and what you’ll have to do to fulfil them. $300 looks appealing for a broke university student, until you calculate the hourly rate. Until you realise that the time and energy expended mean working for a pittance… and for a document your name won’t even appear on. I’d be better off seeking out other work with a higher return.

So what ARE you worth?

This brings us back full circle to the question at hand. How much should you charge? Do my points above mean you should charge as much as someone who’s been in the industry  for decades? Of course not. But it does mean that you need to remain aware of what your time and effort is worth. Decide on the monetary value of your time, and don’t compromise on it! If that’s $20 an hour, it’s $20 an hour. If you’re worth $30 or $40 or $50 an hour, then charge that. (Remember to keep a splash of realism in there amongst the big dreams).

As Wasnak incisively notes, “if you believe in your skills and act on your belief” you’ll accomplish far more than you thought possible.

—Ana.