(Hi, folks! For the time being, some, most, or all of the fol­low­ing links will still revert back to the orig­i­nal Writ­ing About Writ­ing web­page over on Blog­ger. This is not a mis­take. It just takes a long time to move thou­sands of arti­cles. Thank you for your patience as we nav­i­gate this tran­si­tion.)

Question: Do I do freelance writing?/Will I do freelance writing/editing for you?

Short Answer

Yes, if you pay me enough. ($60+ USD/hr)

Longer Answer

You prob­a­bly don’t want me.

You want a pro­fes­sion­al free­lance writer or a pro­fes­sion­al edi­tor. Writ­ers have over­lap­ping skill sets but the places we are dif­fer­ent mat­ter great­ly. If you’re look­ing for some­one to write a snarky writ­ing advice lis­ti­cle, I can’t rec­om­mend me enough. Oth­er­wise, I’m prob­a­bly not the right tool for the right job. (I’m like using a cres­cent wrench to pound in screws.) If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I am the poster child for the dif­fer­ence between know­ing a gram­mat­i­cal rule and being able to spot the error in flow­ing text. And while I can write free­lance (and have), you’ll get bet­ter, faster results, that are prob­a­bly more like what you’re imag­in­ing, from some­one who does it every day.

The thing is, I still charge what I’m worth, even if you put me to work doing some­thing I’m not that good at. I start at $60/hour for friends or very easy jobs and I go up from there. I’ve billed out as high as $85/hour (a mis­er­able job doing the kind of writ­ing I nev­er want to have to do). So for a few dol­lars more (or maybe even less), you could get some­one who is a much bet­ter fit for the kind of writ­ing you want done.

The edit­ing that I am good at is at the devel­op­men­tal and line edit­ing lev­els. I will turn down copy edit­ing work. I’m just not good at it. 

I will not work for free expo­sure. Nev­er. Don’t even ask.

If you are a tiny blog/artist/company/something that real­ly can’t pay and you want to col­lab­o­rate for mutu­al expo­sure, I might be into that if you ask nice and don’t assume I’m a gullible suck­ah who you can Pied Piper into free labor with the promise of ground floor oppor­tu­ni­ties and the mag­nan­i­mous bless­ing of your approval and affec­tion­ate fee-fees. If you can’t pay me in mon­ey, I work for Tim Tams, art exchanges, iStore cred­it, and Star­ship Reunion Tour tick­ets, just to name a few, so throw your pitch if you’ve got one. (I even worked for an exclu­sive steamy pho­to shoot set once.) But if I can tell you’re just being cheap, there is no way. 

I may even write a blog entry about the breadth and scope of your suck­atude. And I’m not afraid to name names. (After screen­shot­ting for receipts, of course.)

I have writ­ten reg­u­lar­ly for two blogs besides my own. One has giv­en me a free t‑shirt. The oth­er, after fif­teen or so arti­cles, did­n’t even do that. (I got a coupon for $5 off a reg­u­lar­ly priced t‑shirt.) So I’ve got about all the “free expo­sure” I can han­dle afford. If I want to write for no mon­ey, I’ll do it for myself.

Ques­tions? Com­ments? Want a future arti­cle to go into more detail? Mail me through our con­tact form. Just be sure to pick the right top­ic from the drop down menu, and check the archives—particularly the F.A.Q.—to see if your ques­tion has been asked before.

If you’re enjoy­ing this blog, and would like to see more arti­cles like this one, the writer is a guy with rent and insur­ance to pay who would love to spend more time writ­ing. Please con­sid­er con­tribut­ing to my Patre­on. As lit­tle as $3/month (less-than-a-lat­te a month) will get you in on backchan­nel con­ver­sa­tions, patron-only polls, and my spe­cial ear when I ask for advice about future projects or blog changes.

Or if a one-time dona­tion (or some type of non-mon­e­tary dona­tion) is more your speed, I have a Tip Jar with all the ways to help.