Shaming Writing Job Posts

I’m doing it.

There are SO MANY writing and editing jobs posted online every day. I’d know, I look through them at least a couple times a week, searching for new prospective clients and seeing what’s out there.

My main sources are ProBlogger, Craigslist, LinkedIn (not a great one for remote freelancing work), and Writing Axis.

Now and then I’ll come across other aggregator sites (ProBlogger and Writing Axis are both aggregators, LinkedIn and Craigslist are source listings) and check those, too.

Some of the jobs on these sites are awesome and I definitely have responded and found clients from the postings.

The issues and the ones I’m shaming are the problematic ones.

• They’re “unpaid” or for “potential royalties” or “for fun”
• They’re for slave wages
• The ones that don’t list any payment or compensation at all
• The ones that require FREE trial articles (scam)
• The ones that require you to take hour-long assessments before finishing the application process (this is the least problematic type, but still annoying)

Here’s the fun fact everyone needs to remember:

FREELANCING IS NOT FREE.

Pricing & Value

When it comes to pricing yourself as a freelance writer, it is extremely important to know your worth and value and price yourself fairly.

You are your own best advocate. Clients certainly won’t offer you MORE than what you ask for if it’s too low. No, they are far more likely to try to negotiate you even further down. And the ones that do may be the clients you should avoid.

Your time and skills are worth money and you deserve to get paid for it.

So, when ads are posting looking for unpaid or low wage writers, DON’T RESPOND TO THEM.

If no one applied for the super low-paying jobs, companies would be forced to either try to do it themselves or raise the pay.

Job Ad Shaming

This is a fantastic example. Let’s assume this is 350 book pages (approximately 250–300 words per page and not MS Word pages). That’s a minimum of an 87,500-word manuscript (250 words times 350 pages). This ad poster wants full developmental edit AND copyedit, plus a line by line proofreading.

(Side note: they say it’s “fully edited” but ask for dev editing. Typically if something is actually fully edited by a professional, then they only look for copyediting or proofreading. This means they self-edited and was not sent to a pro.)

I charge 9 cents per word for dev editing and 6 cents per word for copyediting (and I am about average in my professional editing prices). If a client wants both, I often will discount it to 10 cents per word for the dev and copyedit bundle. My timeline would be around 4 weeks.

My price: $8,750

Their offer: $800

They are offering LESS THAN ONE CENT PER WORD and want full suite of manuscript editing services.

You know the old saying “you get what you pay for”? Well they aren’t going to get anything good here…

Here’s a great (terrible) example. They want someone who will commit to writing 3 articles per week at only 3 cents per word (low for blogging/article writers) AND ask you to write a FREE short article with keywords before they’ll even look at your experience and consider you. This is a great way for them to get a bunch of free posts from people and bad for you.

This one will give you a whole .9 cents more after you write 20 articles! Wooo.

This whole ad doesn’t give any compensation information at all, except in the sidebar saying it’s “great” and doesn’t even ask that you send your pricing requirements with your application.

Yep.

This is the entire ad. This is it. In “compensation” area it says “for writing and also a percentage.”

First of all, this ad does not mention the genre of book, any examples of writing style they are looking for, and misspells “publisher.” That does not bode well for their writing abilities. But they’re looking for a ghostwriter, so they don’t need to be a great writer, so okay. I don’t think they understand that ghostwriters aren’t publishers.

And on top of all that, ghostwriting is expensive. If you aren’t even willing to take the time to explain a little about what you’re trying to write and a general timeframe, you are very unlikely to want to pay ghostwriting prices.

As to “percentage” — don’t do it. Just don’t. If they are self-publishing, you have NO WAY to track royalties and make sure you get your cut. Also, most self-published books don’t make much money. Get an upfront fee ALWAYS and do not fall for “potential royalties” or percentages. POTENTIAL being the key here.

Straight up scam. This is clearly a student who is looking for someone to take a class for them. No matter the pay, never do this. Very unethical and not worth your time.

Well. You could earn a gigantic $10–15 per hour here. My main issue with this is both the low pay and the fact that they are an “established computer consulting firm in Midtown West.” If they’re successful, why are they paying so low?

Want to spend time creating, perfecting, photographing, and writing out new recipes for $4?

Conclusion

Be wary of crappy jobs and clients and ow pay. You are worth more!