Find out what a client will pay
A freelance writer can test what a client will pay by quoting different prices rather than relying only on personal assumptions about an acceptable fee. A low offer also requires a decision about whether the immediate work is worth accepting in the writer’s circumstances.
Price testing
Different price points should be tested because a writer’s view of what is expensive can differ substantially from a prospective client’s. Clients may be willing to pay more than the writer’s own idea of the market rate suggests.
For example, a freelance who followed marketing advice to double the next quoted rate obtained a lucrative year-long contract without client resistance, despite the price seeming outrageous to the writer. The client renewed the following year and continued renewing for several years. Such a smooth result is not assured, and skilled negotiation may be needed to secure the highest possible fee without losing the deal.
A practitioner rule of thumb suggests expecting to lose around twenty percent of work because of price; never having a rate challenged can suggest pricing at the bottom of the market. A marketing coach’s related formulation is that about twenty percent of potential clients should decline on price, while winning every project pitched may indicate undervaluation.
Low offers
A conference audience poll considered a scientifically experienced writer entering freelancing who needed work and was offered four thousand dollars for a project expected to take one hundred hours, with a promise of better-paid future work if the writer proved capable. Nine percent would accept the offer as made and three percent would decline, while a majority supported continuing to negotiate.
Promised future work at a better rate may not materialise, and refusing a low rate may prompt higher offers from the same client later. The decision nevertheless depends on personal circumstances: a writer without enough work may benefit from accepting the job.