Tuesday, June 30, 2009
JUST WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH?
I signed up recently to a newly-launched service called People Per Hour.com. Supposedly it brings freelance service providers and potential clients together. You get emails telling you about jobs relevant to your skills and services and then you can bid for the projects they feature.
The problem is, there are a lot of people out there who think it's possible to dash off lengthy articles in volume, in no time at all and for practically nothing.
Here's an example: Someone wants lots of 500-word articles written for his/her website, for which they are prepared to pay... wait for it.... £5 per article!
It takes an entire day to write 1,000 words well, including client changes etc. So this person thinks a freelance writer can live on £10 a day. Not very realistic, is it?
In fact, the freelance journalism rate has been £300/1,000 words for years and really it should be higher than that by now, but people don't place enough value on good writing, especially if they have to pay for it!
I suspect that many people go looking for help with writing just because they are either too busy or can't be bothered to do it themselves. Some people know they don't have the talent for it and recognise that writing well is a special skill that must be valued and paid for commensurately - they are usually the people who become my clients.
If you're considering looking for help via People Per Hour, please - be sensible. Would you be willing to work for £10 a day? Didn't think so.
I signed up recently to a newly-launched service called People Per Hour.com. Supposedly it brings freelance service providers and potential clients together. You get emails telling you about jobs relevant to your skills and services and then you can bid for the projects they feature.
The problem is, there are a lot of people out there who think it's possible to dash off lengthy articles in volume, in no time at all and for practically nothing.
Here's an example: Someone wants lots of 500-word articles written for his/her website, for which they are prepared to pay... wait for it.... £5 per article!
It takes an entire day to write 1,000 words well, including client changes etc. So this person thinks a freelance writer can live on £10 a day. Not very realistic, is it?
In fact, the freelance journalism rate has been £300/1,000 words for years and really it should be higher than that by now, but people don't place enough value on good writing, especially if they have to pay for it!
I suspect that many people go looking for help with writing just because they are either too busy or can't be bothered to do it themselves. Some people know they don't have the talent for it and recognise that writing well is a special skill that must be valued and paid for commensurately - they are usually the people who become my clients.
If you're considering looking for help via People Per Hour, please - be sensible. Would you be willing to work for £10 a day? Didn't think so.
Labels: freelance writer, People Per Hour, writing rates
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
THOSE WHO LIE IN UNVISITED GRAVES
I love visiting churches, especially here in Norfolk, which has more ruined mediaeval churches than any other county, apparently. I like looking at the memorials in the church and the gravestones outside and trying to imagine the lives those named might have led, especially if they seem to have been cut short.
You quite often see memorials to young women, many of whom must have died in or after childbirth, as well as poignant dedications to children. What carried them off? Fever? Poverty? Falling off a horse? I feel quite connected to these sad testimonials and speculate about the times in which those who lie beneath lived.
In a church near us, there's what I consider to be a remarkable memorial to a young woman, apparently of a very good and prominent local family, who died at the age of 25 in 1841. The wording on the memorial doesn't speak of her family's grief at losing her so young, but rather suggests that she may have been a thoroughly bad girl! Either that, or she was so virtuous or self-effacing, that she asked for such dismissive words to be left as her memorial.
This is what it says:
I believe this young woman was related to the rector of the parish. Was he some stern Victorian who was shamed by his daughter's louche behaviour - perhaps she became pregnant out of wedlock and died in childbirth at 25? Was the wording on the memorial a warning to other parishioners not to follow his daughter's path?
Maybe I'll get to the bottom of it in time - we've only lived in the area a few weeks - but in the meantime I can't help wondering about that young woman and what she did to deserve such a
damning postscript to her short life.
I love visiting churches, especially here in Norfolk, which has more ruined mediaeval churches than any other county, apparently. I like looking at the memorials in the church and the gravestones outside and trying to imagine the lives those named might have led, especially if they seem to have been cut short.
You quite often see memorials to young women, many of whom must have died in or after childbirth, as well as poignant dedications to children. What carried them off? Fever? Poverty? Falling off a horse? I feel quite connected to these sad testimonials and speculate about the times in which those who lie beneath lived.
In a church near us, there's what I consider to be a remarkable memorial to a young woman, apparently of a very good and prominent local family, who died at the age of 25 in 1841. The wording on the memorial doesn't speak of her family's grief at losing her so young, but rather suggests that she may have been a thoroughly bad girl! Either that, or she was so virtuous or self-effacing, that she asked for such dismissive words to be left as her memorial.
This is what it says:
Here's my claim and here alone,
None a saviour more can need,
Deeds of righteousness I've none,
No not one good work to plead,
Not a glimpse of hope for me,
Only in Gethsemane.
None a saviour more can need,
Deeds of righteousness I've none,
No not one good work to plead,
Not a glimpse of hope for me,
Only in Gethsemane.
I believe this young woman was related to the rector of the parish. Was he some stern Victorian who was shamed by his daughter's louche behaviour - perhaps she became pregnant out of wedlock and died in childbirth at 25? Was the wording on the memorial a warning to other parishioners not to follow his daughter's path?
Maybe I'll get to the bottom of it in time - we've only lived in the area a few weeks - but in the meantime I can't help wondering about that young woman and what she did to deserve such a
damning postscript to her short life.
