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How do freelance technical writers deal with the thorny issue of payment?
Subject:How do freelance technical writers deal with the thorny issue of payment? From:ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com, cohenpippa -at- googlemail -dot- com Date:Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:03:16 +0000 (GMT)
From: geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
Subject: How do freelance technical writers deal with the thorny issue of payment?
Date: August 9, 2007 10:06:15 AM EDT (CA)
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com, cohenpippa -at- googlemail -dot- com
Pippa Cohen wondered: <<I am about to embark on a freelancing career.>>
Congrats! I love it, and would never willingly go back to wage slavery. <g>
<<How do you decide whether to quote a fixed price, or a daily rate for projects?>>
Often, the client has no interest in letting you decide and dictates their terms -- which you either accept or
move on. I have some clients like that. Mostly, though, I offer my clients a "pay me what the job really costs"
rate; a fixed-price rate; or a combination (hourly rate, but with a maximum). Most clients choose the latter,
which I can afford to do because I have a decade worth of productivity data on my work.
<<For a large project that could span two or three months, is it reasonable to ask for a percentage of the final
payment 'up front' ?>>
Definitely. Except with one long-term government client I trust implicitly, I ask for a small initial payment (ca.
10%), then prorate the rest of the money: total remaining divided by number of months in the contract. For the
government client, payment is based on the number of words I edited each month divided by the total number
of words specified in the contract.
Never accept a deal that only pays at the end of the job. If you're forced to do so (i.e., you have to pay the
rent, and there's no other work), nail down the contract terms, and build X months of interest into your price.
For a good starter contract you can modify to meet your needs (then take to a lawyer to polish it so it's legal
in your jurisdiction): http://www.geoff-hart.com/resources/Standard%20contract.pdf
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-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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