As a budding freelance writer, you are probably looking for guidance on how to determine your flat rate for writing projects.

It’s pretty common for writers to be uncomfortable with numbers, but knowing the basics of adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing is essential. Maybe you’re dragging your feet when it comes to determining the value of your work, but don’t really know how to figure that out. Maybe you think that you aren’t that great with numbers, and don’t trust yourself to “do the math”. Well, my friend, the time has come. To motivate you to do the math, think about this. If you overcharge, you'll miss a lot of jobs. If you undercharge, you'll soon be hating life - it’s that important!

For writers, words come easy. Most of us don't tend to place a lot of value on things that come easy - we figure anyone could do it! It’s important to realize that if you can put words together, you're the exception - not the rule. You have a talent - and talent put to good use is valuable.

The first step is determining your hourly rate. If you've been working in an office, you're probably earning anywhere from $15-$40 per hour. (Even though you are what’s referred to as a salaried employee, you can figure out your hourly rate with a little number crunching.) If you've been in retail or hospitality, the numbers will probably be a little lower. It might be shocking to know that writers are quoting rates of $50 - $200 per hour.

Take a look at other professionals to get the idea. If you think about attorneys, you'd probably assume the $500/hour guy is better than the $100/hour guy. So do clients who are looking to hire writers.

Keep track of how long it takes you to do things by using a timer. How many minutes does it take to write an article? How long to do research? How long on the phone with clients? How fast do you write 500 words or 1000 words? How long to proofread?

Now that you’ve got all that figured out, here comes the backwards part! For example, let’s assume that it takes you 15 minutes to write a 500 word article. Your hourly rate is $60, so you need to charge $15 per article to get your hourly rate. Be careful, however, when you see article projects listed on job boards and the employer wants them for $5 each - run!

What if a client wants a quote for a 100 page ebook? A general rule is that a page is roughly 500 words (I've seen other writers say it's about 300-350 words, but I go with 500). So, essentially, you'd be looking at 100 pages x $15 = $1500. Right? Nope! There's a big difference between writing 100 one page articles and one 100 page ebook. There's continuity, there's making sure it's not redundant, there's more research, more planning, more EVERYTHING! I did my first ebook, 100 pages, for $500. Torture, but it sure gave me a great lesson about pricing!

So, work with what you can figure out easily, and go from there. Don't be afraid of making mistakes - just learn from them. There's no scarcity of projects. If you don’t get the assignment because your quote is too high, you'll have another chance on another project. Just remember that if you price it too low, you'll work like a dog.