Freelance writing: Is 27p a word too low?

[cornflakemum]

Am hoping that wise MNers can advise.

I work as a freelance consultant in a fairly narrow area, but also occasionally do some business writing about my specialist topics.

I've just been invited to write a series of web articles for a company I sometimes work with, for them to feature on their website.

They would need to be about 700 words long each, and I would probably need to research each one first.

They've offered me a rate of 27p per word (so about £190 per article).

Is that good/ average/ bad??

You can certainly be paid a lot worse than this, so while some unions would say it's not great, it's not terrible either. What really matters is how it works out time wise for you, eg if you can research write a 900-word piece in a morning it's going to work out pretty well, not so much if it takes you 2 or 3 days. I tend to work for range of different rates depending on how reliable the work source is, how much i enjoy the work and how easy it is. I do work for this kind of pay, sometimes more or less.

Oops 700 not 900...

Yes - I bet it takes me more than a day, so probably not fab HOWEVER I'm not exactly innundated at the moment, and it would be a way for me to semi-advertise myself I suppose.

I'm sure I've done work for them before at 30p/word - perhaps I'll go back and try to up it a bit!

I think it's low. I know times are hard, but it's annoying when rates are pushed down. I usually pay 35p and upwards.

Thanks - what sort of area do you work in Sykes?

This is for business-to-business sort of work.