Market Rates

An anonymous Craig’s Lister posted this guide to standard market rates. I guess he or she was also tired of applying to jobs, and wasting time exchanging emails to find out that “the going rate” is 25 cents per blog post. Sure, you can get content for that price… if you want to outsource to Asia or get a copy-pasted article.

Standard Market Writing Rates for Professional WritersFor those of you who are unsure of what to offer a writer for pay … here is a current standard market writing rate schedule. Of course, all rates can be negotiable to a certain degree, but this should provide you with a strong point of reference. Good luck!

Advertising Material
Copy/Scripts/News Releases
$350 to $500 per page
$750 to $1,000 per project for brochures
$75 to $150 per hour

Articles
$0.40 to $2 per word
$100 to $3,000 per article
$40 to $100 per hour

Corporate/Business Writing
Reports/ Marketing Plans/ Technical Writing
$1 to $2 per word
$300 to $12,000 per project
$50 to $125 per hour

Editing
Varies according to publication/project
$30 to $60 per hour
$500 to $20,000 per project

Ghost Writing
Articles or Books (no credit to writer)
Generally 2-3 times the usual article rate

Books (credit to writer)
$10,000 to $50,000 flat fee
Entire advance + 50% of royalties

Press
News Releases/Studies/Reports
$1 to $3 per word
$500 to $100,000 per project
$50 to $125 per hour

Newsletters
Writing only; layout extra
$0.30 to $1.50 per word
$400 to $6,000 per issue
$50 to $80 per hour

Newspaper Writing
Large Daily Newspapers
$0.30 to $1.00 per word
$250 to $2,500 per article
$330 to $1,250 per column

Smaller Community Newspapers
$0.10 to $0.50 per word
$75 to $1,000 per article
$75 to $500 per column

Online/Web Site Writing
Varies widely; “business” sites pay higher
$1 to $3 per word
$60 to $100 per hour

Periodical Writing
General Interest/Consumer Magazines
$1.00 to $2 per word
$500 to $10,000 per article
$400 to $1,500 per column

Trade/Special Interest Magazines
$0.30 to $2 per word
$500 to $4,000 per article
$300 to $1,000 per column

Scripts
Radio (highly variable)
$40 to $80 per minute of script

Television (highly variable)
$60 to $130 per minute of script

Speech Writing
$500 to $8,000 per speech
$60 to $130 per hour

Teaching/Instruction
$25 to $80 per hour
$200 to $800 per day

Translation/Adaptation
Literary
$0.10 to $0.20 per word

Other
$0.25 to $0.60 per word
$40 to $80 per hour

Via Valuable Information for Writers and Posters.