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smartmarv
Community Member

Minimum Pricing

Please my fellow ebook writers, let's agree on a minimum price per 100 words.. it's really frustrating and annoying watching people accept $1 per 100 words in this period. Who agrees? Whats your opinion?

4 REPLIES 4
hardorff
Community Member

You can almost never compete on the price, there will almost always be someone who is willing to do the job for almost nothing.
Choose to compete on other parameters like doing an awesome work every single time, delivering the finished product within 24 hours if you've promised to do it within 48 hours, by being honest and trustworthy and by doing that little extra when the client needs it. Maybe they'll contact you at night asking you if you can have something finished within a few hours - you know what? I never say no.

The price is the last thing you should try and get the job on.

michael_skaggs
Community Member


Marvin G wrote:

Please my fellow ebook writers, let's agree on a minimum price per 100 words.. it's really frustrating and annoying watching people accept $1 per 100 words in this period. Who agrees? Whats your opinion?


I wouldn't worry too much about the lowball people. Focus on being better than them, and that will go a lot further than trying to compete on price. Research your field and your location to come up with a fair and reasonable price that you can live with. Stick with that, and forget about what others charge.

 

Always remember:

  1. Good
  2. Fast
  3. Cheap

Depsite what clients think, they'll only ever get two of those at a time. But if you deliver 1 and 2, then 3 rarely matters. And if they want all three, they're probably not a client you want to work for. Those clients and the lowballers can have each other, and make each other miserable. And on rare occasions, a client will see their mistake, and come begging to have someone do it right, and not care about the fact that it costs more.

 

You can be the one they come crawling to after they've missed their deadline by hiring the cheapest bidder who either couldn't deliver or took too long. In the meantime, you can occupy your schedule with work from clients who know what you're worth and are happy to pay you for it, because you provide value instead of just a low price.

 

That's the goal, anyway.

"And on rare occasions, a client will see their mistake, and come begging to have someone do it right, and not care about the fact that it costs more."

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Agreed. It's frustrating to see so many people willing to write for $0.01 cent per word or edit for $0.001 per word. Every once in a while I'll luck out when a client realizes that the work they paid pennies for was subpar and they have to pay more to get it done correctly. I don't do much on Upwork anymore because it can be hard to get clients willing to pay a fair wage. Editing and writing are skills; you can't pull someone off the street and have them do this successfully. I won't take a job I'm not earning substantially more than the unskilled labor at the supermarket who say, "Paper or plastic?" 

lysis10
Community Member

Why focus on minimum when excess and maximum is so much funner?