Re: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?

Subject: Re: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?
From: "Michael L. Wyland" <michael -at- sumptionandwyland -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:44:38 -0500

To all:

Follow-up thoughts about setting prices and what the market will bear:

1) Not long after starting my consulting business, I learned that there was a wide spread in quoted prices for work performed by print shops. The wide spread was due, in part, to the print shops' respective work loads and capacities; the more capacity, the lower the price.

2) Urgency is one factor that moves prices upwards. When a client is casual about a job, they can and often will hold out for a low price. On the other hand, when the job us urgent, they will seek the most reliable producer and pay for the privilege of having high expectations met.

3) One market where pay is moving downward rapidly is in higher education. The explosion in use of "adjunct faculty" by all kinds of colleges and universities has become so prevalent that the percentage of US faculty either tenured or in "tenure track" positions has been reduced by 50% in the last 25 years. "Adjunct faculty" teach a course or two a semester for about a third the salary of a full-time instructor and receive no fringe benefits.

I was reminded of the last point specifically when thinking of Mark's original question. He's leaving employment and being asked to quote a freelance rate should his soon-to-be former employer wish to retain him as a contractor. However, a rate sufficient to match his employment salary and benefits package is seen by the employer as excessive compensation for a contractor.

Of course, the employer probably doesn't understand that their employee costs are probably twice the base salary paid; they make a false comparison between base employment salary and gross contractor rate.

Sometimes, a client can be made aware of some of these facts and, sometimes, their awareness may influence contracts positively. Even when it doesn't help a particular situation, the conversation is between two businesspeople and not between an employer and an employee, or , God forbid, between a benefactor and a supplicant.


Michael L. Wyland
Sumption & Wyland
818 South Hawthorne Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-4537
(605) 336-0244
(605) 336-0275 (FAX)
(888) 4-SUMPTION (toll-free)
michael -at- sumptionandwyland -dot- com

Since 1990
Strategic Planning * Executive Coaching * Training & Facilitation

-- NEW Web site: http://www.sumptionandwyland.com
-- LinkedIn Profile -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwyland





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References:
What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Mark Filiatreau
RE: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Dan Goldstein
RE: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Dan Goldstein
Re: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Robert Lauriston
RE: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Dan Goldstein
Re: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: Karen Zorn
Re: What's a good freelance rate for technical writers?: From: William Sherman

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