lisa rabey writes stuff issue #18 frank talk about content writing
Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice-of-life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.
Dear Internet,
Before I got my day job, I styled myself as a content writer.
What is a content writer?
Content writing is, well, writing content across websites for products, advertising, and whatever companies want. It is everything from bios to product descriptions.
But it’s not really a lucrative full-time job. You’re hustling with other writers to make a few cents per word. One client wanted a 750-1000 word article on tax law for $25 bucks or roughly 3¢ a word. The average rate should be at least 8-11¢ a word and that article, without research, should have priced out between $60 and $80, not $30.
I turned the client down.
When I say, “without research,” I mean literally that. You are expected to take what the client gave you as well as research competitors to get a feel for what they were producing. Your $25 is sounding worse as it goes on.
Another thing about content writing is being hip to SEO or search engine optimization. If you’re writing about a Ford Bronco, the words “Ford Bronco” would need to be in the URL, title, and in the article's body.
But it’s never just “Ford Bronco,” it is always more than just one keyword or phrase.
Frankly, it’s exhausting and not worth the effort.
The other thing you could do is sell your services on Fiverr. The idea behind Fiverr is it’s a network of freelancers who are selling their wares. This sounds like a great idea, but there is a fuck ton of competition. Somehow you must market yourself on Fiverr, difficult, to get clients. It was a lot of work setting up my “brand” with no payoff, so I dropped that.
There is always the old-fashioned pitch and submit method. For example, I pitched an article to TalkSpace about when anger rules your emotions. The word count was 750 – 1000 words (I came out at around 800). I was paid $50.
Now granted it’s a personal essay but I still need to write and edit. The upside is I write fast but the downside is that editing still takes a lot of time. (The site did not do editing other than grammar and spellcheck).
Was $50 enough?
It comes out to 6¢ a word which is slightly below average. At the time when I was making no money, $50 seemed like a beacon in the world of not getting paid.
Now content writing is different from freelancing writing. I would quantify freelance writing as writers who write for The Atlantic, The Paris Review, local and national newspapers, news websites, etc. Those websites pay a helluva lot more and provide professional writing. A lot of journalists and writers have paying Substacks to provide an income. Some also have Patreons as well. Cat Valente is a good example. She’s a writer (she’s written a fuck ton of books) who uses Patreon and Substack to supplement her income. (She’s won a fuck ton of awards across her field but that still does not mean she’s making it rain.)
As for me, I’ll never (well, I shouldn’t say never as you never know) have a paid subscription to my newsletters. My writing has been free for decades and I don’t have the time or energy to create exclusive content for paid subscriptions. Right now, in addition to my regular 40 hour a week job, I write two newsletters which clock in from 1000 – 2000 words each, diary writing, and my fiction writing. This does not include submissions and editing.
Yeah, this is a lot of work, but it brings me joy.
Speaking of fiction writing, I’m taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo this year! Camp runs from July 1 – 31. Its premise is to give you time to start new projects (which you can carry over in November), research, outline, and anything else writing related. Many people use the time to plan out their work or set days they want to write. You can follow me here. (I’ll also plan on updating in this newsletter if you’re not a fan of clicking hyperlinks.)
What am I doing? First, I gave myself a goal to write 20,000 words for Aubrey. Damn, I am ambitious. I also set up a goal, not tied to Camp NaNoWriMo, to write 10,000 words for the Maeve Fletcher book until the end of October. Maeve Fletcher is a latent witch who comes into her powers because of a series of paranormal events. I’ve got a vague idea of where I want to go with her, less so than what I have with Aubrey. However, I am researching stuff for Maeve so there is work being done just not actual writing.
In talking with my local Wrimo group, I think I’m going to change my Aubrey work to planning how many days a week I’m writing rather than a total word count.
The rest of this week and next week are going to be tight for writing. We have plans every day except for Sunday morning. Tuesday is a holiday, family is coming to visit, and we’re taking a mini-break. Not a good start for the writing month especially one where I need to track! This Sunday morning I’m heading into the city to a coffee shop to write for a few hours. I went this past Sunday and really enjoyed it. I did not enjoy the fact I had a total of six espresso shots over two drinks. I was wired all day and had a hard time falling asleep that night. Lesson learned!
More rejections are trickling in and I really need to allocate time to edit that work!
Media
Submission update
45 submissions, including 35 rejections, 2 acceptances, and 1 withdrawal.
Publication
51 Stories in 51 Weeks: Week Three
chapbook: commercial breaks
Snippet
This snippet is from wait, part one which is something (dunno what!) that I wrote years ago. This is an example of where I write around sex. This is also an example of something I like but it really needs more work.
We woke in tangled sheets, sunlight stretching and warming across visible skin. You murmured into my hair in a tongue I did not understand, the timbre of your voice lulling me back into the dream world of our own making. When I woke again, you had gone, the only reminder of your presence was the dried semen on my body and the indent in the pillow from your head.
lisa x
(Fuck fascists and Nazis!)
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