How to Choose the Right Pricing Model for Your Freelance Writing Business

If you’re a writer-for-hire, you know that client pricing is remarkably opaque. Unless you know other freelance writers or do a lot of research, it’s hard to know how much to charge clients — especially if you’re just getting started.

Ernest Hemingway was paid $1 per word by a magazine in 1936, the equivalent of a whopping $22 per word in today’s dollars. Other than top authors commanding multi-million-dollar advances, I don’t know anyone being paid $22 per word today.

But what’s equally intriguing about Hemingway’s rate is the pricing structure: per word. When I first became a freelance writer a few years ago, more experienced writers urged me to charge per project. I also know writers who charge per hour and have seen job postings that list the same.

So what’s the best pricing structure? Per word, per project, or per hour? I’ve experimented with different pricing as a freelance content marketer and journalist and found that the most advantageous pricing comes down to how you work.

Charging per hour

I think charging by the hour is the least appealing for several reasons. It punishes fast writers: you’re paid less for the same work as someone who writes more slowly. And a writer’s speed often has nothing to do with the quality of work.

If I were to charge hourly, it doesn’t reflect my expertise. I can write fast about financial technology (my niche) because I’ve been in the industry for more than 15 years. Therefore, I don’t need to do as much research for each article compared to someone with less experience. An hourly rate diminishes the knowledge I’ve accumulated in my head.

On the flip side, if you write more slowly, clients may question why it takes so long. Overall, it’s also hard to keep track of the time you spend. Do you include your “thinking time”? Because I often stare at my computer screen for 15 minutes, trying to figure out how to word a specific sentence. Would a client be billed for that?

A very notable exception to my resistance to per-hour pricing is editing work. Most editors I know charge per hour. They have no way of predicting how much editing an article will need—even with two articles of identical length from the same writer.

If a client insists that you charge per hour, you have a few options.

1) You can fudge your hours. I’ve done this before — and expressly told the client I was doing so. The client required a per-hour rate because of their accounting system. I let the client know that I would be submitting hours that reflected the amount I wanted to be paid, not the number of hours I actually worked. The client was fine with it.

2) You can charge “up to” hourly pricing. For example, you charge $X dollars for up to Y hours. Essentially, the per-hour rate becomes a flat rate per project. If you end up getting faster over time because you’re more familiar with the work, you’re still earning the same. But if a project takes you longer than expected, you can bill for the additional work above Y hours.

Charging per project

When you charge per project, you’re being paid for the value you provide, not the time you put in. You should still do some math, since you don’t want to quote a per-project rate that equates to a really low hourly rate. It’s also really easy for clients to understand and budget for a per-project rate, since it ends up being a fixed cost.

When you charge per project, you need to watch out for scope creep. If clients ask you to do more, you’re not getting paid anything additional. You should make sure that your contract clearly outlines what you’ll do for that per-project rate — and what you won’t do. If there are some frequent “add-on” requests, you can include those in your contract, so that you don’t need to sign a new agreement or negotiate pricing with a client when you’re mid-project.

I charged per project for a long time, but eventually, I ran into some drawbacks. My per-project pricing was based on a word count range. For example, 800–1200 words would be one price, and 1200–1500 words would be a lower price. If a client wanted 1200 words, then what? Is that the lower price or the higher price? Or what if a client wanted 1000–1500 words, something that wasn’t on my pre-set pricing menu? I was customizing proposals all the time, which wasn’t a good use of my time.

It was also hard to answer a prospective client’s questions about pricing on a call, and pricing would inevitably come up. I’d have to say, “Well, it depends on the length of the deliverable…” I’d end up sending per-project pricing after the call, and hope that the prospective client would read it.

I wanted pricing that was easy to understand, easy to include on proposals, and easy to track.

Charging per word

Some people say that per-word pricing doesn’t reflect a writer’s value. And I understand this argument. If a client asks you to cut a single sentence, they pay you less. Your incentive is to write more, and the client’s incentive is for you to write less.

I have per-word pricing — but I avoid relying on individual words to get paid. I don’t want to haggle over every word. Instead, I tell clients that my per-word pricing is based on target word count, not actual word count. If the client tells me to target 800 words, then I charge for 800 words — even if I come in at 782 or 811. If the client provides me with a range, such as 1,000–1,200 words, I’ll charge for 1,100 words (unless I come in at the clear end of one side of the range).

The important factor here is that the client provides a target word count. They’re setting the parameters for the deliverable, not me. For the most part, I come very close to the requested word count. I know that if I go over, I’m donating additional time and energy to the client. I have a stipulation in my agreement that if requests for revisions cause me to go above the initial target, I’ll charge more. That way, if a client asks me to expand on a specific section, I’m not bound by the initial word count.

I don’t have to think about how my per-word rate breaks down into an hourly rate, because I’m comfortable that the rate covers my time. If, for some unforeseen reason, a deliverable takes longer than expected, I don’t worry about it. More than likely, another deliverable took less time than expected. It all balances out.

Different pricing for different clients

Even though my pricing is per word, I have three different sets of pricing. I’ll quote different rates based on the type of client. Some clients rely on my financial technology expertise, so I quote my highest rate since it’s very specialized knowledge. I also write for tech companies in general, so most are at my middle rate. And then I write for marketing agencies and PR firms, where I’m basically a subcontractor and don’t have any direct client communications. I charge less because these projects are less work on my part.

Think through the differentiators between types of clients or types of projects. These should be reflected in your pricing, no matter if you’re charging per hour, per project, or per word. You always want your pricing to reflect the value you provide, and some projects are worth more than others.

Freelance pricing is incredibly opaque, but I’ve created a free resource for fellow writers. It outlines my rates, how I think about pricing, and how my pricing has evolved over time.