Freelance Writer

I have been working as a freelance writer for quite some time now, and it occurred to me today to take a closer look at my rates, as it has been quite some time since I adjusted them. One of the things that had begun to worry me was the increasing amount of time I have to spend on administrative tasks. I had not realised just how long I spend on things like writing quotes, creating invoices, chasing customers and keeping the books.

My girlfriend pointed out to me the fact that most morning I spend at least a couple of hours sitting at my laptop, drinking coffee and dealing with the day to day tasks associated with running a business. When I add this up it comes to a staggering 14 hours a week. This is 14 hours that I am not writing, 14 hours I am not getting paid for and 14 hours that need to be budgeted for in my rates.

So I’m going to spend a week keeping track of exactly how long I spend on the purely administrative tasks associated with being a freelance writer. Then I will work out new rates which take this dead time into consideration. One of the great things about being a freelance writer is the fact I can adjust my fees as I see fit.