Write me a 50 page eBook for $100!

I think that some people have a severely unrealistic idea of what quality content costs. I was filtering through some craigslist postings looking for writing jobs to post in the writing forums and I stumbled upon an ad, in the USA no less, asking for a writer to spit out 50 page eBook with single spacing for $100. I would shovel manure for free before I’d write some stranger a 50 page eBook for less than $500, and in normal circumstances I wouldn’t even touch that, my normal rate is $30 per page. I would have to be hurting bad to accept an eBook writing job for $10 per page.

I don’t know what the issue is, but this seems to be a common theme. Whether people are thinking that the outsourced rates are actually what the rates are for even decent content in more industrialized nations, or writers from these industrialized countries are undercutting & lowering their prices thinking it’ll make them more money that way.

The sad thing is, I am seeing more frequently that under-established writers are selling themselves short for pocket lint. They’re working for wages that can’t be considered pocket change; $5 for a 500 word article?! That’s ridiculous! It’s not that some of these writers don’t have talent; possibly some of them write better than I do (not that I consider myself a great writer. . .) but because they don’t know how to market themselves they settle for next to nothing and go on starving when they could in reality be making a lot more money, maybe even paying all their bills with online writing.

I guess the moral of the story is: don’t sell yourself short. There are a lot of people that are looking for writing work, and plenty of individuals and companies willing to give you a fair wage for your time and talent. Learn to market yourself and build a name for yourself; then the clients will be pouring in and you’ll actually have to turn some people away. It’s at that point that you can mandate what you deem a fair price and you’ll never again even consider writing a 50 page eBook for $100.