Specifically if I wanted to hire a amateur writer to write a story consisting of 10,000 words, how much would it cost?
I've once paid an artist $20 dollars to write 2000 words for me, but I'm just wondering how much 10,000 words would cost
And even at that, how much would a tapas writer or deviantart writer charge me for 10,000 words?
Jun '23
Jun '23
It would really be up to the writer. Some writers charge by the word, so 10K could cost anywhere between 100-500 or more dollars. And more if you wanted revisions.
1 cent per word is usually the lowest rate you can get for writing, which is what you got last time (2k x $0.01 = $20). Rarely, you'll find someone offering maybe half a cent per word, but from what I can tell, this is pretty rare, especially since the global inflation. And 1 cent per word is on the low end of what freelancers on Fiverr offer, for instance. For now, let's call 1 cent per word the lowest amount possible.
Depending on the writer's rates (usually influenced by the amount of experience they have), this amount can go up by a lot. I think it would not be unusual for some more experienced writers to charge 15 cents per word, and someone even more experienced might charge more than that. 7 cents per word is usually accepted as the minimum amount on some freelancing places, such as r/hireawriter on Reddit. (It used to be 5 cents per word but has gone up since the inflation.)
It also depends on what kind of content you are requesting. If you're asking for plotting notes / an outline, 10k words of that would usually cost more than 10k words of regular story. I'd say about double the regular amount, usually. If you're asking for a script, that's usually the same rate as a regular story.
It also depends on whether you need the story for commercial use. Some will charge more for commercial use (usually the markup is about 2x the total amount), but some don't charge extra for it. It depends on the writer.
I asked on Tapas forums maybe a year or two ish ago, and there were offers ranging from 2 cents per word to about 15 cents per word, iirc. There might have been someone offering 1 cent per word too, but I honestly don't remember.
(Just putting this out there for reference: I do freelance custom poetry commissions, and my rates are roughly in the 25 to 35 cent per word ballpark due to 1) it being poetry, 2) my experience, and 3) the skill required for the style I frequently write in.)
I'd say you can find a good writer at the 1 cent per word rate, but you may have to look carefully at the portfolio pieces of the people offering. Luckily, the writer I found at 2 cents per word back then was an amazing writer. They're still accepting commissions, I believe, but they told me they're increasing their rates soon.
tldr; For 10k words, it could cost anywhere from around $100 to more than $1k, I think.
Hope this was helpful.
Yup like @cherrystark mentioned it depends on the writer. In my case I would charge around $240 give or take. It can be less or more depending on the genre. Some genres are more complicated to write about. Some require investigation which can take lots of hours.
Why $240? Simple I assume you want the best quality meaning I would need to check everything multiple times. It would take around 20 hours to finish 10k words. Charging 12 USD per hour.
If you want something more complex it will take more hours thus increasing the price. If you want just 10k words with no actual thought behind them. Without revising anything then I can probably do it in 7 hours. But again I would give you something with many typo, grammar mistakes, and a horrible plot story. That's basically giving you a rough draft.
That would be the equivalent of paying an artist only for a sketch and not the finished product.
Will it be cheaper? Sure a hell lot more. Will it be worth it? Hell no. Why would anyone pay to just get 10,000 words thrown together without any actual thought being put behind it.
If you don't want a rough draft scenario then $100 should not be enough to hire a good writer for 10,000 words since it doesn't even cover minimum wage. Unless the writer comes from wyoming or Georgia. Where I live minimum wage is around $10 USD so yeah... there's that.
I have learned that charging per words does not reflect what you actually work on a project so instead I charge per hour. Hope my input helps.
P.S. A healthy budget to save I would say is around $500 but you will most likely only use $300 USD for a 10k story. And you can always find someone cheaper that much is true. But I wouldn't trust anyone under $200 tbh. But that is just me. When you are on a budget beggars can't be choosers. So if you can only afford $100 USD for 10k words then look for that writer.
It's free if you can leverage an A.I. to do it for you... Kind of worried that would put me out of the job once I feel like I'm an established writer though.
Not just "how much would it cost to hire a writer?", but "how good the writer is?". You also need to find a writer with a lot of experience. and able to use English words very well.
Yeah using AI to make that stuff for you violates copyright, its the same with AI generated art, i would not recommend for something you take seriously
A text of more than 2k characters or more would cost around 200(41 dollars) to 300(63 dollars) reais here, but I don't know how would it be if was on English
