Summary

Jessica Schwartz outlines the benefits of transitioning from one-off writing projects to monthly client retainers for a more stable income and diverse workload.

Abstract

Jessica Schwartz shares her journey as a writer transitioning from sporadic, individual projects to a business model centered on monthly client retainers. Initially, she priced her services based on average per-word rates, often undervaluing her work. The turning point came when a client suggested a monthly retainer, leading her to a more predictable income and the ability to foster long-term client relationships. Schwartz highlights the advantages of this model, including steady pay, varied work, and the joy of engaging in more significant projects like ghostwriting books. She emphasizes the importance of valuing one's work and time correctly, which allowed her to scale up her pricing and grow her business through referrals. The article also serves as a subtle marketing tool for Schwartz's writing services, her books on writing and anxiety management, and her mailing list for writing and freelancing tips.

Opinions

The author values the stability and predictability of a monthly retainer over one-off projects.
Schwartz believes that monthly retainers allow for stronger, more meaningful client relationships.
She suggests that a retainer model can lead to a more diverse range of writing tasks, keeping the work engaging and fresh.
The author underscores the importance of understanding one's worth, which is reflected in her decision to stop mentioning per-word pricing.
Schwartz sees the retainer model as a way to escape the trap of undervaluing creative work.
She advocates for the retainer model as a means to scale up one's business and pricing, aligning with the actual value and demand for quality writing.
The author promotes the idea that professional growth and income increase can naturally occur through client referrals and a strong portfolio of work.
Schwartz's positive experience with the retainer model is presented as a recommendation for other writers and freelancers.

How to Make More Money Writing

By focusing on Monthly Clients vs. Projects

When I first started taking on clients and making money as a paid writer, I took on whatever projects came my way. They were mostly smaller, more specific projects, like homepage copy, a press release, or an individual blog post.

I was pricing myself at the top of the bell curve for average per-word pricing, or making it up as I went along, often undervaluing myself.

One of my earliest clients actually asked if I was interested in possibly setting up a monthly fee, and continuing to work together.

I confidently answered, “Of course. Let me send you a proposal.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, I started to do some math.

OK, if I am doing 4 blogs per month, and each blog takes me 3 hours to come up with a topic, research, write, edit, and post, then that is 12 hours per month. If I charge $300, then that is $25 per hour. Respectable, but I am currently making more than that per hour. Well, they also mentioned possibly needing editing for website copy, so I should build in some padding. OK, $400 feels good.”

And that’s how I got to $400 per month for my first monthly retainer. In the end, I was undervaluing my time, as well as underestimating the time commitment, but it was a great learning experience.

It was clear that using a monthly retainer was a much more stable way to make an income and accounted for the fact that I hate to track hours. I immediately offered that as an option for all clients.

As soon as I started working with a couple of monthly clients, it was obvious that was the direction I needed to go. I loved having regular, specific and diverse work, building longer and stronger relationships with my clients, the steady pay, and more.

As I continued to build my business, I got referrals, and marketed myself, and made new contacts. I soon got up to 9 monthly clients!

I was busy, I had a reliable income, and was able to working on longer-term projects. It was far more gratifying than writing a single blog post or article for random different clients.

I still like to have a project, such as ghostwriting or editing a book, outside of my monthly clients, because I love doing those things. Those bigger projects make me happy, and I love being exposed to new books and being involved with them.

A couple of my monthly clients are weekly blogging, a couple are ghostwriting, a couple are editing, and more. I have so much variety, and I love every moment of it.

The beauty of having monthly clients is that you have a reliable income coming in, but with so many different ones, I get to stay on my toes and have diversity in what I’m doing and with whom I’m working.

Now, when a prospective client comes to me and asks about pricing and working together, I tell them about my monthly fees, what that might include, and we discuss their specific needs. I no longer even mention per-word pricing; I discuss how I structure my monthly clients, my time, and what I can do for them.

I no longer market myself as doing one-off articles and blogs. In fact, I really don’t market myself at all anymore. My monthly clients and I have built great relationships, and they refer people to me and recommend me to people all the time. Almost all of my current clients came as referrals!

I was also able to scale up my pricing. This came as a byproduct of learning how much time different things really take me, and my overall compensation goals. As with many service-based entrepreneurs, it also came about from realizing the actual worth and value of my work. …if everyone could write well, no one would pay me to do it!

I love that this business model came to me from a client, and that I have been able to continue growing and expanding my business and my skills. I certainly make significantly more money than I did when I was taking on various singular articles and I love it!

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Check out my book Concept to Conclusion: How to Write a Book and learn how to conceptualize, outline, write, publish, and market a nonfiction book. Or check out my newest release, an anxiety journal: But…what if? A Journal For Anxious People.

You can also sign up for my mailing list for (rare) writing and freelancing news and information if you want.

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How to Make More Money Writing

By focusing on Monthly Clients vs. Projects

How to Get Monthly Retainer Clients

What are they, where are they, and how to set the prices

How to Pitch Yourself Effectively for Any Job

Including real pitch examples!

How to Expand Your Work With Existing Clients

With examples and templates.