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FREELANCE WRITERS' EARNINGS SURVEYS
by Nicole Bishop

Below are the results of a survey conducted on the Writerfind.com site in July 2000, along with some links to surveys that have been conducted by others.

 
------- The Writerfind Survey --------

This survey was intended to get an idea of the average earnings of self-employed freelance writers, both in New Zealand and worldwide.

Survey participants (70 in total) came from a range of countries, including Australia, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Romania, UK, Canada, South Africa US and NZ. However, the majority come from NZers and Americans, and we did not really obtain enough responses to go on from the other countries that participated.  Accordingly, we took the NZ and US contributions only when collating the results.

The majority of the NZ participants were highly experienced, most having over 10 years' experience in professional writing. The US participants, on the other hand, had a much wider range of experience levels, ranging from under 2 years to over 10 years.

Many also listed themselves as 'generalists' in regard to the type of writing work they did, with many participants covering the spectrum of writing-related work—including editing, journalism, corporate communications and technical writing.  This did make it difficult to break down the pay rates by work type and to compare, for instance, the average technical writer's pay with the average freelance journalist's pay. On the other hand, we did get an overall picture of how much the writer earns on average.

Here are the results in brief, for both US and NZ writers, organised by both hourly rates and word rates:
(The full details, in tabulated form, can also be viewed at http://www.writerfind.com/surveyresults.htm)


New Zealand: Hourly Rates
Sample Number: 31
Most Frequent Hourly Rates: $41-50 (5) and $61-70 (5)
The full details, in tabulated form, can be viewed at http://www.writerfind.com/surveyresults.htm#nzhourly

New Zealand: Word Rates
Sample Number: 26
Most Frequent Word Rate: 21-30 cents (10)
The full details, in tabulated form, can be viewed at http://www.writerfind.com/surveyresults.htm#nzword


US Hourly Rates
Sample Number: 23
Most Frequent Hourly Rate: $41-50 (5)
The full details, in tabulated form, can be viewed at http://www.writerfind.com/surveyresults.htm#ushourly


US Word Rates
(Note: This sample was very small and probably not sufficient for drawing any good conclusions)
Sample Number: 11
Most Frequent Word Rates: 21-30 (2), 36-40 (2), 100+ (2)

The full details, in tabulated form, can be viewed at http://www.writerfind.com/surveyresults.htm#usword

And here are some of the most noteworthy comments that came along with the survey:

Comment 1 (New Zealander)
"The freelance and writing work is a small component of our work—but it is very enjoyable and the area I would personally like to do a lot more. A few years ago I was earning four times this amount on a part time basis, purely freelancing. Those times have changed and now the bulk of the work is more commercial, e.g. corporate communications."

Comment 2 (New Zealander)
"Having been an Editor for two sporting publications in the last 10 years, I can offer this:  NZ is a small country, which makes for small domestic markets, one of which is publishing. This creates two problems:  limited readership & limited advertising revenue—the former tending to further affect the latter. Furthermore, as is natural for a small country, NZers are great consumers of all things foreign, especially American, and particularly so in regard to publishing. All this creates a trickle down effect to freelance journalists / photographers such as myself ...making it tough for all but the very best to survive in a full-time capacity..."

Comment 3 (New Zealander)
"I do think it is wise to specialise—particularly in the business/medical/ or information technology areas: they have the higher earning readerships and thus there is more work, even in a very small market like NZ. Just get used to writing many of the same stories year in, year out as features such as 'how to buy a computer' and 'how to choose an ISP'!"


-------Other Writers' Pay Surveys-------

Surveys and tips taken from other sources on the net, mainly US and Canadian.

National Writer's Union (US)—1999
Covers all types of writing.
http://www.nwu.org/hotline/hotsurv.htm

Periodical Writers' Association (Canada)
Freelance rates for such jobs as advertising, business writing, editing, ghostwriting, magazine writing, technical writing, translation, etc.
http://www.writers.ca/whattopay.htm

EFA (Editorial Freelancers' Association): Some Common Rates for Editorial Services
Includes copyediting, proofreading, desktop publishing, translating, and writing.
http://www.the-efa.org/services/jobfees.htm 


'Realrates.com' Author Surveys 
A forum which surveys authors of books and articles in 'real time'.
http://www.realrates.com/authors/ 

'How Much Should I Charge?'
A report of fees paid to professional writers for their work, based on input from surveys conduced in 2003 and 2004.
http://www.writersmarket.com/content/hm_charge.asp 

'Freelance Commercial writers—an introduction' (David Raitt—Writer & Consultant)
An excellent general overview of the business of commercial freelance writing—explains what commercial writing involves, the reasons for hiring a writer, how commercial writers typically work, and what to look for when hiring one.
http://www.davidraitt.com/commwriter/articles/FCWIntro.htm 


Last updated 8 Nov 2004 NZST