How should I bring up a pay raise with this person?

Are you comfortable with lying? I do it all the time where I say I am booked but if they want to up their rate they can jump the queue.

@johnpowell

I already emailed her. I basically just said, upfront, what I’d like to be paid and then explained why I thought my suggestion was reasonable. I told her that my rate was below the market rate for this type of work. I also compared my rate to what she would be charged by a professional custom writing service, and showed her how I calculated the price difference. I think I presented my argument well.

She responded. She is fine with the payment increase for this assignment, but wants to pay me a rate that I am not interested in for future assignments. She framed it as an affordability issue.

New question!

How do I tell her that I’m not interested in the pay rate she wants to pay me?

“I’m very sorry, but that rate will not work for me. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Please think of me if your circumstances or needs change.”

I would go with what Seek said.

This is capitalism. If you don’t want to do it you don’t have to. But it is always good to be polite and keep the door open. Perhaps a thing in the future will pop up and she will be willing to pay what your time is worth.

@Seek that is wonderfully professional and direct response. I am going to copy and save it somewhere in my computer.

Well, since I don’t want to shut her down right as I’m accepting this work from her, I told her that I appreciated her flexibility and would try to be flexible too, but don’t want to agree to anything prematurely. I suggested we leave discussions about future pay to when future work is agreed upon. And left it at that.

You’re a writer (of the English language, one presumes, perhaps incorrectly) who actually thinks that “payed” is a word to use in writing?

You’re a freelancer who works without contracts of any kind? Someone just “sort of suggests” some serious – paying – work that they want done two weeks in advance, and you put it off until the last day, and put off talking about payment? Are you embarrassed to ask for what you think your work is worth, or do you really not think it’s worth too much to begin with? That’s aside from how seriously you take the work in the first place, when you put it off like a high school sophomore with an unwanted book report due the next day.

“Thank you for your previous commissions and for your confidence in my work. I believe the quality of my writing speaks for itself. I understand that you have budget needs to meet – and so do I. Therefore, I must regretfully decline your proposed payment scale for my future services. I hope that we can do business again, but I have given you my best rate.”

And good luck. I suggest that you not use that odd verb form for the past tense of ‘pay’ in writing any more.

@CWOTUS wow, you’re right. That’s egregious. And now I can’t change it!

I usually work through a third-party agency, actually.

Nice recovery with ‘egregious.

I tend to over-rely on the spellcheck function, and it seems that “payed” is a real word, but has a completely different meaning. It means to seal with pitch or tar, as in the hull of a ship.

Uh oh. She wrote back and seems pretty fussy about my suggestion that we leave it open to discussion. Darn it. This is what I was apprehensive about. I don’t want conflict with this woman!

You can’t very well agree on a bid for work that hasn’t been requested for an unknown date, with unknown parameters.

Her tone has changed and now she’s being kind of bossy. She wrote back “I am in agreement to pay this for this piece of the paper.” Uuuurgh okay.

It’s not enjoyable work anyway. I think this is the last favor I pull for her.

Do you want the work? Is this your business? You need to value your time and product. I would thank her for the offer and tell her the rate for that task is $$$. If she doesn’t want to pay that, let her go. Otherwise, you will find yourself working at a cheap rate and too busy to take better paid work. You need to calculate a rate for different types of writing and different deadlines. People who don’t value your work aren’t good clients. You have to make it clear that you value your work.

If she says the other job was cheaper, say you underestimated the complexity of the task, but honoured your quote, however future work would not be completed so cheaply and especially to short deadlines.

And auto-correct and spellcheckers are so dangerous when it comes to accuracy.

@Earthbound_Misfit “say you underestimated the complexity of the task, but honoured your quote, however future work would not be completed so cheaply and especially to short deadlines” This is another example of excellent phrasing that I think I will save for my future self.

Yes, spellcheck is not a substitute for actual proofreading, which I didn’t do before I submitted my question. Now this slip-up has me questioning my own competence.