About a year ago, I posted something apparently so controversial on LinkedIn that I was reminded the “professional” platform was no better than Twitter in appealing to our emotional, impulsive monkey brains.

A year later, I’m here to tell you that $1/word is still… not the rate that freelance writers should dream of.

Yesterday, I caught up with a coaching client who has been doing more enterprise and investigative journalism and quickly became aware of how quickly unsustainable it was to write for that amount—an amount that was once heralded as something to attain for.

Another investigative reporter I know was surprised how, even at $1/word, she would be paid grossly less for the same type of work she was doing as a staff reporter. (This investigative reporter negotiates project fees to encompass the complexity of a project)

Yet another freelancer I know is getting paid $3,000 for an investigation in the 2,500-3,500 word range. She told me she stopped tracking hours on the project since last November, when she had already sunk north of 50 hours into it, making her effective hourly rate around $50.

Freelance journalists and content marketers agree that $1/word can work for pieces that are more contained: an explainer, a profile, anything that requires like four interviews maximum, or executing on a story idea that’s brought to them by a publisher. But we have to stop talking about how $1/word is, blanket, a good rate. For a lot of work, it’s not that great.

I stopped writing for $1/word around four years ago. The last piece I did for that amount that required multiple interviews paid around $1100. I spent an entire day in the field (in a city that I don’t live in) and conducted four interviews, at least 15 minutes each, to report the piece. More time was spent writing and reporting the piece, of course.

It’s worth mentioning that my effective hourly rate (EHR) is at least $120/hour. When presented with any new project, be it writing, content marketing, consulting, or fact-checking, I quickly estimate how much time I’ll need to complete it to the required editorial standards, and decide if it will work for me. (Don’t know how to calculate an effectively hourly rate? Work it through with a business plan!)

More recently, I accepted a writing project from a repeat nonprofit client that pays $2/word, which is what I tend to accept and/or negotiate towards for all writing projects these days. Assigned at 2,400 words, and with the client already telling me two of the four sources to profile, I ended up spending 13 hours total on this project (3 hours researching/admin/getting my head wrapped around the project, 3.75 hours conducting interviews and re-reading transcripts, 5 hours writing and annotating the draft for fact-checking, 1.25 hours editing). You can do the math yourself on how the EHR shakes out, which is actually extremely favorably. Obviously, I could have also accepted this project at $1/word, because I know how quickly I work to make my EHR. (And yes, this is nonprofit writing, but my last journalism feature also paid $2/word to make it a five-figure project, which is worthwhile enough for me to spend all told, about a month on.)

How efficiently you work depends on uh… a lot???? I have the privilege of not living with a chronic illness, young children, and perhaps being the right type of neurodivergent for the work that I do. But nevertheless, a few years back, I shared a few tips on how to report journalism projects more efficiently; if that sounds interesting, you can find the recording here.

The advice I continue to give to writers, after all these years, remains the same: ignore what other say what is a ‘good’ rate and determine the rate you need to earn, yourself. Define the projects that you typically get paid to perform, those scopes of work, and figure out what you need financially to make them worth it to you, and look for clients who can pay that— or even better, more!

A reminder that you set the terms and expectations of your freelance business, always.

Some notes/announcements/miscellany:

• TWC Slack is shutting down, after five years at the end of this month (May 31). I know it’s been a great place for community members, but the finances no longer make sense for me to continue a paid-for, moderated space. To Patreon members, I will be sending alternative places for you to find community.

• If you’ll be at the Association of Health Care Journalists conference this weekend, come say hello. I’ll be talking Saturday at a panel on actually useful and ethical ways to use generative AI.

• If you’re in the greater Seattle area, I’ll be moderating a book talk with Arianna Rebolini to discuss her memoir, BETTER: A memoir about wanting to die on Tuesday, June 3, 7pm at Seattle Public Library, Central Branch. BETTER is perhaps the best book I’ve read about living with anxiety, depression, and suicidality. And that’s not hyperbole, and I’m not getting paid to say that. The event is free, but register here so they have a headcount.

That’s it! I’ll be back on this newsletter intermittently with business thoughts from time to time.