Freelance writing can certainly be a lucrative field, but the real question is: how much can you actually make? The writing rates in 2023 vary across the styles of freelance writing, but one thing is for sure: if you get into the correct area of freelance writing, you can make excellent money as a freelance writer. Looking to other writers across various freelance writing platforms, you can determine what the low, average, and high-end rates look like before deciding how much you’ll charge for your services.
It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but we’ll walk you through the general freelance writing rates, what they are at the start of your career, and who is doing freelance writing successfully.
How much do freelance writers make?
The amount varies depending on experience and ratings.
The interesting thing about freelance writing, as with most other areas of freelance work, is that the payment is mainly reliant on the amount of experience you have and your ratings. This means that if you don’t have any ratings or testimonials yet, you’re at risk of being passed over for someone who does.
Unfortunately, this generally means that when you’re getting started, you’ll have to begin asking for a much lower rate than what your writing is worth. Once you’ve built up a following and have established yourself as a writer who provides quality work, you can raise your rates regularly until you have reached what you think your writing is worth.
Rates vary based on the site you use, your level of experience, and the type of freelance writing you’re doing. Here are some rates for various styles of writing across a few freelance platforms.
How much do writers make on Upwork?
Here are some examples of the types of writing and pricing you might find on Upwork.
A job might be like this intermediate romance writer needed to write 50,000-100,000 words for a fixed rate of $3,000.
Another job in social media writing offers to pay a range of $1,000-$4,000 per month for regular collaborative work, depending on the experience level.
On the less-long-term side of the writing jobs, you could write an email template for a business for a fixed rate of $30.
These are just a few examples of the countless jobs available on this particular platform. You’ll notice that the rates are determined by the length of the project and the level of expertise necessary to complete them.
What do writers on Fiverr make?
Another well-known freelance platform, Fiverr, works a little bit differently. Rather than have their writers search their job boards for jobs they can then apply to, Fiverr has their writers set up profiles with set gigs, with a specific price attached to a certain word count.
Writers do, however, have the option to create a custom order with whatever length and price they agree upon with the clients.
Fiverr generally works in smaller bits, so for example, a writer might charge $20 for the first 500 words of a novel or over $100 for the first 3,000 words.
Other, more established writers might charge $1,200 for 10,000 words. Most writers charge around $15-40 for projects in the 1000–1800-word range for shorter-term projects.
What should you charge?
Determining what you should charge is a tricky task. You’ll want to look at other freelance writers who are writing the same types of projects, for the same number of words, with the same general background.
For example, if you have a master’s in English and taught writing courses for ten years, you might be able to start out at a higher rate. Look at other writers who also graduated with an English master’s and taught writing courses, see what they’re charging and how long they’ve been writing.
You can set that as your goal or get started at that rate right off the bat.
Suppose you have less experience (maybe only an undergraduate degree in a different field and no specific writing experience). In that case, you’ll have to start at that lower rate, as previously mentioned, in order to build your credibility in other ways.
Once you have a slew of stellar reviews and ratings, it won’t matter that you don’t have the same background as someone else; your professional track record will speak for itself.
Who’s doing it successfully?
The absolute best way to figure out what you could be earning in 2023 as a freelance writer is to look at people who are doing so successfully. Many freelance writers on YouTube or with blog posts explain how they’ve risen to their level of prosperity.
A simple search of ‘freelance writers’ on YouTube leads to a slew of people stating they’re making anywhere from $5,000 per month to six figures in a year.
Skim through the videos to find some that seem helpful in sharing their actual earnings and stay to listen to them share the secrets behind their success. Some will even show the actual payment statement from their official website, proving to you that it is absolutely possible to make great money as a freelance writer if you have the background knowledge and proper guidance as you get started.
The rates for freelance writing are obviously dependent on multiple factors; however, there’s no doubt that there’s money to be made, especially in 2023 as businesses begin to flourish again and the need for quality remote writing is higher than ever.
