Scientific writing rate

[Cyantist]

I have done scientific and technical writing as well as editing/proofreading as a large part of my work for 20 years but following a change in circumstance I’m now looking for jobs specifically doing this full time from home.

All the ones I’m applying for ask about my rate. I have no idea what is standard. I don’t think it’s likely I’ll be paid as much as my current job and that’s fine, but also don’t want to undersell myself.

Anyone have any idea what would be reasonable payment to expect/ask for a 2000 word article (that requires a lot of background reading and research)?

Don't know about your particular niche - sounds like it should be more since more expert, but here is some background on setting rates that I found useful. It's useful to have both a day rate and a rate per 1,000 words – know in your head what the relationship between them is (ie how long it is likely to take to write 1,000 words).

Better to go high and come down a bit than never know what you could have got... Plus it's quite hard to get rates up once you're working on a particular rate - so start as high as you can. Hope that's useful!

https://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/nov/21/national-freelance-day-charging

http://www.londonfreelance.org/rates/index.php?call=&work=Words,+per+1000&sect=online

Thanks so much, that is useful. I know a lot of the pricings in the first link are quite old but I am surprised by how much some of the going rates are.
What worried me suggesting a figure and them not even coming back to me as they think it's too high. I'd be happy to negotiate around my initial figure, but I can't afford to price myself out of everything at this stage.
I guess I need to be more confident in my skills and abilities. If they like my sample writing then they'll come back to me and either say great, or negotiate down a bit. If they don't like what I've produced then they won't be employing me regardless of how cheap I am so I've got nothing to lose by asking for a bit more.
I might start with a rate that roughly equates to my current salary

I’d suggest a minimum hourly rate of £40 and an estimated time outlay – including research, SEO, writing and edits/review.

I think you need to go higher than your salary – as for self-employed work it’s a service rate rather than a wage. There are no guaranteed hours, and you also need to pay yourself for all the hours behind the scenes marketing yourself, communicating with clients, putting proposals together, accounts, admin, invoicing, tax, etc. You also get no sick pay, no holiday pay, no training and no informal mentorship or support from a manager. Don’t use your salary as a benchmark! This is why contractors are always paid higher.

@Stratusinium You make really good points - thank you so much.
Any suggestions on how much more than an hourly rate is needed to cover all those things?

You should account for all that in your hourly service rate – I wouldn’t go lower than £40 per hour.

For the 2000-word article you mention which requires a lot of research I would expect this to take at least 2 days and this is what I would quote in my estimate.

So you’d be looking at £640+ for the article. It sounds like you have plenty of experience so there’s absolutely no reason why you should pitch or do the work for less than the going rate.

Be aware: some companies will reject normal rates, however it doesn’t mean you should lower them. There will always be unserious clients who wants to pay a tenner for several days’ work, however these aren’t the people you want to work for.

Do you have a portfolio? And/or a writer’s CV with details of projects worked on? Registering a profile on writers directories and getting a basic website set up will be useful too.

Also take a look at ProCopywriters and seek out online communities – these can be so useful, particularly for this sort of thing where you’re not sure where to pitch your services or are lacking confidence – feedback and advice from other writers and contractors is invaluable.

https://www.procopywriters.co.uk/help-advice/freelancing/suggested-rates-for-hiring-copywriters/

£40 is roughly my current hourly rate (officially). Though that’s based on me working my contracted hours, which is never the case (I do a lot of overtime and it's all unpaid as paid overtime doesn't exist where I work).

I worked out it would probably take me 2 days or just over to complete a 2000 word article. I was wondering if ~600 would be too much but it seems like it wouldn’t be.

The problem is everything I have done so far has just been as part of a normal job, so although the writing I have done is very relevant and quite varied I assume I’d be competing with people who have been doing this type of freelance work for a lot longer and therefore be seen as a better bet. I was hoping to get a few smaller writing jobs now before I finish in my current job, then build up my cv a bit more and maybe think about setting up a website etc.

I’m currently avoiding doing my current paid job and am looking through the procopywriters website. It looks like such a useful resource!

I wouldn’t underestimate the relevance of your current job – I think clients are actually likely to see a lot of value in the fact you’ve done this in an employed capacity, it demonstrates credibility and verifiable expertise and experience. It’s definitely a plus.

Re: your hourly rate, I would treat £40 as a minimum rate – this is the lower end and many charge more. I would look out for opportunities to write pieces that you can use in your portfolio and for examples from your current work that you can use.

A website can be really quick and easy to do – also check out ‘the free website guys’ if you just need something to get going with (they just ask you to use their preferred host, which is a cost you’d have to pay anyway, so nothing extra).

Also look at setting up a profile on medium and publishing some thought pieces in your area of expertise.

Is there a particular technical area you currently write about?

If £40 is your salaried hourly rate, your employer would charge much more - typically double. I'd suggest starting at around £70 an hour, but chargeable on a minimum half day per job so £250 per half day or £500 a day. Longer jobs, maybe £2000 a week by negotiation.

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Don't forget you will have business overheads, tax, NI & pension to build into your rate.

I heard a podcast recently that said that your hourly rate is any figure you can confidently say without making it sound like a question.

It also said that your rate should increase with every job you do as you've gained experience.

Charging a rate which is too low will make clients think that you lack confidence or are not very good.

Use your rate to attract your dream clients, do you really want to work for people who don't recognise quality work?

Maybe seek out some mindset training to help you with this and maybe some sales training to learn to how to sell yourself and your rate like it's a no brainer for the client.

Good luck.