Getting Paid Per Word
It is a common expression to hear about writers being paid X amount per word. Is that per word written or per word published? Neither.
An example:
An editor at the Metropolis Daily News accepts a writer’s travel pitch and says, “Good idea. I want 800 words; make it 1,000 tops. Can you get it to me by Friday?”
The writer who expects to get paid per word likely says, “You bet I can.”
Then she smiles so big the editor can almost hear it through the telephone, and the writer thinks, “A thousand words it is. I’m getting paid, baby.”
Then she hears the editor say, “The fee is $200.”
The writer, flummoxed, wonders: “$200 for what? 800 words? 1,000?”
The fact is: One and the same.
When someone in the journalism world talks about pay per word, don’t think there’s an editorial intern who will sit in a cubicle the day after the latest issue of XYZ Magazine has reached racks, counting words and tallying money to see what to pay each freelancer.
Neither is the editor at the newspaper offering a $50 bonus to the writer who figured out that a 1,000-word piece is 25 percent longer than an 800-word story.
The editor already announced the job fee/payment; it won’t change after the fact. A writer can accept, attempt to negotiate, or refuse the amount.
Pay Per Word Is An Expression
While the phrase “pay per word” is used, it indicates a ballpark method for figuring what a publication will pay for stories of various approximate lengths.
Another example:
A typical American mid-sized lifestyle magazine's editor says he will pay $150 for a 350-word article that goes at the front of the magazine, and will pay $500 for a 2,000-word feature-length piece.
The math: The 350-word story pays about $0.43 U.S. for a story that is right at 350 words. The full feature-length work breaks out to just $0.25 per word.
The reality is editors have certain space in mind, and certain word count ranges that fit that space - and certain ballpark dollars in the budget for those stories.
The 350-word story is approximately what that magazine will expect of its front-of-book pieces every issue. And the feature stories will typically be in the area of that 2,000-word mark.
These are factors of planning and design that are made and reasonably adhered to from one issue of the magazine to the next.
In general, budgets remain similar. So space remains similar. So payments to freelance writers (and photographers, illustrators, etc.) remain similar from issue to issue.
Why Pay Per Word Doesn’t Work
The strictly defined meaning of the phrase cannot work because of the logistical underpinnings of journalism publications.
In terms of the numbers, imagine an editor is working with 10 different freelancers for the next edition of the newspaper. For simplicity’s sake, suppose all stories are to be in that 800-1,000-word range.
The editor has a budget of $2,000 to pay the freelancers ($200 per story multiplied by 10 writers).
If Writer #1 wrote the maximum length story, then demanded $250 for it, where can that money come from – Writer No. 2? Writer No. 2 would not be very happy about that.
Suppose all 10 writers maxed out the word count? Where will the extra page space come from to publish those words? How will the editor find an extra $500 to pay the freelancers?
And think about the flip-side of this concept: How many writers want to submit a 984-word story, expecting to be paid for precisely 984 words, only to have an editor trim it down to 722 and pay only for that many words?
So, the deal was $200 for an 800-1,000-word story. The editor takes comfort in being able to predict how he will fill page space appropriately, and the writer gets to know that even if the story wraps up tightly at 867 words, she will be paid the same as if she'd filled up to 1,000.
The bottom line: It's the writer’s responsibility to turn in a quality article wherever its word count may land within the requested word-count range.
Padding a story with excess words just to run up the payday a writer hopes to haul in doesn't work. Editors aren't about to encourage that sort of poor quality effort, and would only edit out the "dead wood," anyway – and then be frustrated with the writer and, perhaps, not offer any more assignments.
In short, pay per word is a loose phrase with limited actual purpose – and that is best for all concerned.
Related story: What Newspapers Pay Staff Writers
