As a freelance writer, there are a bunch of different ways that you can choose to charge clients. The three most popular ways are to charge by the word, by the hour, or a flat rate.

Should freelance writers charge by the word or the hour? Freelance writers should charge by the word. Charging by the hour is too abstract and has a lot of implicit intent by the client as to how much work you should be able to get done in that time. But word counts are concrete fact and not disputable.

In this article, I’ll explain why I think charging by the word is almost always the best choice for freelancers.

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Should Freelance Writers Charge By The Word, By The Hour, or A Flat Rate?

As a freelancer, you may have a preference about whether you charge for your work by the word, by the hour, or at a flat rate.

Most of the time, clients will have their own preference as to how they want to be billed. But if you can negotiate your own billing type or dictate how you bill, then you have to make a choice.

Personally, I always recommend freelance writers to charge by the word.

As a writer, you want to take the perspective that you’re getting paid for the end result that you produce, not how much time you spend.

It’s not like if you were working a retail job or somewhere that you get a flat rate just for showing up. As a freelancer, you’re a professional who delivers results to people, instead of just completing tasks.

Why I’m Not A Fan of Getting Paid By The Hour

In my opinion, getting paid hourly as a freelance writer actually penalizes you for working fast or efficiently.

Someone with five years of freelance writing experience will obviously be able to produce a better quality piece of writing in a much shorter time than it would take someone with one year of experience. That speed comes from experience. But a client who pays by the hour may effectively lump both into one pay structure.

It’s also just way too hard to track your hours when you’re billing hourly. I find that word count is very concrete. There’s no dispute about how many words you produced when the job is done.

Often when a client wants you to bill hourly, there’s an implicit understanding as to how much work you should be able to get done in an hour. This may be more or less reasonable than what you’re actually capable of.

So billing by the hour leads to all kinds of games that I’d rather just avoid. If you work fast, an unscrupulous freelancer may stretch their hours out to get paid a little extra. And if you’re a new writer that doesn’t feel like you’re living up to your client’s expectations, you may feel pressured to understate your hours.

Read my article Do Freelance Writers Need Contracts? to see what details you need to get in writing before beginning work for a client!

Why I Don’t Like Billing Flat Rates

I’ve personally run into the same issue with billing flat rates for pieces of work as I have with charging hourly rates.

It starts off innocent enough. A client says they’ll pay you a flat $100 for a 2,000 word blog post or article.

A few things can go wrong from here.

Maybe you’re writing an article that could really use an extra few hundred words to get all of the main points across and make it the best possible resource that it could be. Then you’re left with a dilemma. Do you cut the post short prematurely to stay within your word count, or do you end up potentially giving away an extra $15 – $20 of work for free on each article?

I’ve personally run into other issues with clients where suddenly they start adding on extra tasks included in your flat rate. It’s always gradual, but more stuff starts to creep in. Maybe they want you to start doing the keyword research for your own articles, or creating full outlines for them to approve before you start writing. Suddenly your flat rate has a lot of extra work included in it.

So those are a few reasons why I prefer not to charge flat rates. I like the flexibility of being able to go a couple hundred words over or under if needed, and a good client will understand that.

On the other hand, I also don’t take advantage of charging per word by artificially inflating my word counts. In fact, I usually end up rounding down to the nearest 100 words, because it doesn’t feel right to nickel and dime a client over an extra 23 words. But that bit of extra wiggle room that billing by the word provides is nice to have.

The Picasso Story – Know What Your Experience Is Worth!

I once heard a story about Picasso that I’m not sure is true, but it’s a good allegory for how I feel about billing by the word instead of by the hour.

Picasso was sitting in a coffee shop doodling on a napkin. When he finished his coffee, he went to throw the napkin away and a fan of his work sitting nearby asked if she could buy the napkin from him.

He said something along the lines of “Sure, that will be $100,000.”

The fan was taken aback and a bit offended, and said “But it took you two minutes to draw!”

To which Picasso replied “No, it took me 40 years.”

Often we focus too much on only what we can see right in front of us. In this way, it can be easy to see one hour of time as a standard unit no matter who is doing the work. But this doesn’t take into account that the person may have decades of experience and training that allows them to work their craft as masterfully as they do.

So put yourself in Picasso’s position. Would you sell a drawing that you trained for 40 years at a discount? Would you be willing to paint for an hourly rate? Or do you show your craft the respect that it deserves and value your paintings fairly?

If that analogy makes sense for paintings, then why doesn’t it apply to your writing?

Ready to go full-time? Be sure to read my article When Should You Quit Your Job To Become A Full-Time Freelancer or Entrepreneur? first!

Conclusion

I always tell other freelance writers that they should bill by the word instead of by the hour, or a flat rate.

Flat rates and hourly rates are too easy for clients to take advantage of, while your words written are concrete and indisputable.

Setting a reasonable per-word rate for your experience and talent level, and sticking to it, is the best way to guarantee that you’ll actually be getting paid what you deserve.