Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Time vs. Money

OK, so we all talk about the $1-$2/word gigs, don't we? We whisper about them to each other, post about how to get them and then, one day, we get one. Was it as fabulous as you thought?

I was eager to do it. I loved it. But in retrospect, I realized it was a lot of work. I'm doing an assignment now that took a very long time to finish. It made me realize that my $200-250 assignments weren't bad gigs at all. They were quick and easy, and the check's in the mail in a week. (And if you don't know how great it is to get paid within a week, well, then bless you. I'm used to waiting a month while the water bill is waiting.)

So, I don't believe in the hard-and-fast rules of $1-$2/word being the be-all and end-all of freelance writing. Good luck!

1 comment:

Lisa Romeo said...

You speak the truth. And let's face it, often I just want to write about X and since that bug in my ear won't go away until I do in fact write about X, then I do write about X, but alas, the higher-paying markets are just not all that interested in X at the moment. But the paychecks do come in from the lesser-paying markets. This is one area in life where balance is, actually, desirable. Get enough high-paying gigs to support your "habit" of just writing what you feel like when you feel like it.
In other areas -- chocolate comes to mine -- balance is way over-rated.