• Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact
HEN HOUSE PUBLISHING
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact

Hens Lay Eggs

food for thought

Dealing with the unreasonable

7/14/2016

 
With blood pressure soaring and temper fraying, I'm using this little forum to vent my frustrations. It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to.

Today's rant focuses on the unreasonable expectations of people who want to hire freelance writers and editors. Hey, I know budgets are tight, but that doesn't mean we write or edit for free. People who write/edit for free are called volunteers. Following are some solicitations I came across this morning. Egad.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Each of these--trust me, I didn't have to look hard to find them--expects a great deal of work and skill. But let's break 'em down.
  1. 28,000-word manuscript: This one will require at least 56 hours to write the rough draft. Then there's editing, formatting, and a cover blurb. So, let's add in six (6) more hours for editing and another hour for the cover blurb. We're up to 63 hours of work to be provided for the measly and insulting payment of $100 or $0.63 an hour. And the buyer wants all this completed within three days.
  2. Edit 22 pages: If we assume a count of 300 words per page, that's 6,600 words. At a low editing rate of $5 per 1,000 or partial thousand words, the fee for this job would be $35 with an approximate time expenditure of about two hours. The buyer is offering $10, or $5 per hour.
  3. Pre-teen trilogy: Each book in this trilogy is supposed to be 20,000 words, which will require a minimum of 40 solid hours of writing just to crank out the rough draft in seven days. Since no rough draft is worthy of publication, the writer will have to edit and, probably, format the document, which will take another four (4) hours. Formatting isn't mentioned, so why offer it? The buyer is offering $50 for each of the books in the trilogy, which translates to $0.88 per hour. That's a better offer than project #1.
  4. Digital product e-book: The buyer left the budget open, which indicates he's looking for the lowest bid offer. He wants up to 80 pages of content researched and written and ready for publication within a week. If we assume standard manuscript page format with a maximum average count of 300 words per page, we come up with 24,000 words of content, which will take 48 hours of work. Let's add another five (5) hours for thorough research and another five (5) hours for editing. We're up to 58 hours to be performed on a "low budget" and he wants all this done in seven (7) days.
I'ts my guess that none of these buyers would work for those rates, yet they expect freelancers to leap at their offensive and insulting offers.

And people wonder why I'm cranky.

Comments are closed.

    Share!

    Picture

    Author

    Hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, and sunny side up: eggs are the musings of Holly Bargo, the pseudonym for the author.

    Follow
    Karen (Holly)

    Blog Swaps
    View Guest Author Posts
    Looking for a place to swap blogs? Holly Bargo at Hen House Publishing is happy to reciprocate Blog Swaps in 2019.
    For more information: 
    Email Us

    Get Your Copy of
    Hen House Publishing Blog via Email:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Categories

    All
    Books By Holly Bargo
    Egg Reviews
    Events
    Guest Author
    Interviews
    Mfrw
    Mfrwauthor
    #MFRWHooks
    Reviews
    #SpringfieldOHBookFair
    Status
    #WinterBookFair

    Share

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

HOME | ABOUT US | SERVICES | PORTFOLIO | TESTIMONIALS | BOOK CATALOG | FREE READS | BLOG | EVENTS | CONTACT
Copyright © 2015 - 2023
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact