Show me the money

By Cecile LeBlanc

The title of the session I covered might be a silent mantra for science writers, “Show me the money.”

The panel of freelance journalists included moderators Rose Eveleth and Rachel Nuwer, and Charles Choi, Virginia Hughes, and Melinda Wenner Moyer. Eveleth and Nuwer briefly reviewed results from a 2013 survey of science writers. Nuwer emphasized the survey was “not scientific” as it was advertised through social media and blogs. Answers from respondents who made below $15,000 were not included in the results as since it was assumed they had other sources of income, so a total of 142 people ended up being included in the survey results. The questions ranged from "Why do you freelance?" to "How much money do you make?" And the survey showed, drum roll please, you can make a living as a freelance science writer.

To start, here’s a question. What do you think freelancers make in a year? If you said $45,000 on average you would be with the rest of those surveyed in what they perceived to be the average income for freelancers. The good news is the actual average income is higher, at $52,000 per year.

The survey found five factors impacting the amount of money a freelancer made:

The strongest predictor was: The more you make the first year, the more you will make in coming years.
Pretty intuitively, the more you work the more money you make. At the lowest bracket, people who work 40 to 49 hours make $12,000 more than those who work less than 40 hours and it goes up from there.
And the longer you have been freelancing the more you will earn, with a jump of $15,000 to $19,000 at three to 15 years, and a bigger jump after 15 years.
Working on staff for six to 10 years seemed to be the most benefit.
Whether or not you are a book editor, it doesn’t help.

Here is a collection of wisdom from the question and answer session:

Remember you are a “business of one.” — Hughes
Use the two-out-of-three rule when deciding on an assignment. Don’t say “yes” to an assignment unless it meets two out of the following three criteria: money, career visibility, passion. — Hughes
Set yearly and monthly goals. — Hughes and Choi (Choi uses his goals to determine his approximate hourly rate.)
Have diverse clients so you have more visibility and also so that you can survive the tough times. — Moyer and Choi
Ask for a raise very directly and very concisely: “Can you do more?” — Hughes
Ask for more money when project turns out bigger than expected. — Nuwer
Track payments using Excel (Nuwer) or color-coded tabs (Choi) so you know when they are late and you need to follow up.
Eveleth recommends s book, Design Is a Job to help freelancers think of themselves as businesses.
Helpful resources, or how to find out about money: Who pays writers? Words Worth

Also see: Survey results on The Open Notebook.