How much to charge for freelance technical writing?
Asked by
cazzie (
24516
)
May 27th, 2012
I have been propositioned. On and off for years, I have done writing for magazines and translated/edited papers for publication for one-off jobs with agreed upon prices.
I have been approached by a small but international company to be their technical writer, but on a freelance basis. He said that they would accept invoices based on an hourly rate and I would simply bill for hours worked. I like working on a per-page or word count basis, but he insists it be hourly.
I have a registered entity I bill jobs through, so I don’t have to set up anything legal and costly, but how much is having a technical writer at your beck and call, (but not an employee) worth?
Is there any extra value in that the language the documents are to be published is my native language and not the language where the company is based?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
4 Answers
Response moderated (Unhelpful)
“The range of hourly rates for independent contractor technical writers is between $15/hour to $60/hour, depending on experience, expertise, and area of the country.
The average hourly pay for an independent is $41/hour, which equates to $84,000 per year for full-time work for 50 weeks a year.”
School for Champions
I would say that $41/hr probably sets a fair estimate for the value of your work. But it sounds pretty hefty, especially in this day and age.
I would make an hourly rate based on your typical method of billing (which, page/word count is a good convention among writing freelancers, and it’s crappy that the employer won’t work with you on that, but I also understand the billable hours thing).
Anyway, using your base rate of per word or page, figure an average of time it takes you to compose as much. Take the total rate for a typical project from page/word count method, and divide the total by the number of hours it takes you. Pretty simple…. then tack on a few bucks since it’s an hourly billing system.
Oh, well. It sounded too good to be true and so it was. Job fell through. The guy turned out to be a flake. Oh well. Back to begging.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
