By Paul Lima

I have been a freelance writer for 15 years and people often ask me if one can make a living freelancing for newspapers and magazines. They find me through my website, contact me through the PWAC Toronto website or though NetWords, the electronic newsletter of the Toronto Chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Toronto (PWAC).

So what do I say when people ask: "Can I earn a living as a freelance writer?"

“Define living.”

If you are the primary breadwinner of a family, and want to own a house and car and take vacations each year, you might find it difficult. If, on the other hand, you live a frugal life, freelancing for newspapers and magazines (periodicals) beats a job that has you saying, “Would you like fries with that?”

I know some writers who make a healthy living freelancing for newspapers and magazines. And I know others who could not afford to continue as freelancers. Financially successful writers take a business-like approach to freelancing. They develop numerous article ideas, pitch the right ideas to the right editors at the right publications, and follow-up. They spend a practical amount of time conducting interviews and writing, and invoice for their services. If payment does not arrive promptly, they follow up.

But even the most successful freelancers hit the financial ceiling – the limit to how much most writers can earn freelancing for periodicals.

Say, for instance, you write 50 articles in a year. That's one a week (with two weeks off for good behaviour). I actually wrote 100 articles one year, so 50 is manageable. Articles can range in length from 300 words to 2,500 words, so let’s take an average length of 1,000 words.

Now we do the math:


How much will you earn per word?

• Community papers pay anywhere from zero to 10- or 15-cents per word.
• Newspapers like the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and National Post pay anywhere from 35- to 50-cents per words. Occasionally they pay more for special supplements or glossy magazines they publish. And they sometimes pay more if they want a particular writer to cover on a particular topic, but that’s an exception.
• Industry trade magazines pay 25- to 50-cents per word; some high-end trades pay a dollar per word.
• Glossy consumer magazines that you find on newsstands pay 50-cents to one dollar per word. A few have cracked the one-dollar barrier.

So let’s say you average 50-cents per word. Lets do the math:


From that annual gross income you deduct taxes, CPP and RRSP contributions and business expenses. Does that add up to a living to you? Will it let you pay for rent, food, clothing, and entertainment?

Many writers earn more. They write more articles and longer articles and/or they write only for dollar-a-word publications. Other writers earn less.

Where you fit into the spectrum will depend on how many articles you can write each year, the average length of the articles and the per word rate of pay.

I wish periodicals paid more – much more – but freelancing for newspapers and magazines opened doors to many other opportunities for me. While I have made the transition from periodical to corporate work, I still write the occasional newspaper article. I guess it’s in the bones. Heck, even when I freelanced only for periodical, I felt that freelancing sure beat the heck out of most other day jobs.

All the best with your writing craft and your freelance business.

(Paul Lima is a freelance writer and media interview trainer. He is the author of The Six-Figure Freelancer: How to Find, Price, and Manage Corporate Writing Assignments and The Business of Freelance Writing: How Develop Article Ideas and Sell Them to Newspapers and Magazines.) 

Paul Lima
VP Communications
PWAC Toronto
www.pwactoronto.org
© 2003 Paul Lima 

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