Trying to find some solely freelance writers...who can actually make a living...

Depends on where you live. In a lot of places, $30K makes watery gravy.

 

If there's more than one Norm MacLean, I am quitting the business.

 

You want fries with that?

 

Techincally, I'm freelancing FT -- for a newspaper and a top 50 construction firm. And yeah, I dont have the same time I had four months ago.

 

Since we're on this subject, has anyone asked for a slight increase in pay based upon the spike in prices for so many common products? $30,000 a year has served me well, but I'm at the point where I need to keep up with inflation. The government claims it doesn't exist, but I'm paying through the nose for power, gas and groceries. Ten years ago, I could have filled my 12-gallon gas tank and bought two gallons of milk with a $20 bill. Now it's more like $47.

 

I heard The Hockey News just cut their correspondents from $100 per file to $75.

 

My wife left the business and moved to full-time freelance about 10 years ago. She grossed more than $60K last year and she's on my health benefit plan, so it works pretty well for us. She does very little newspaper work anymore, though, because newspapers typically can't afford her $125/hour rate. So it's mostly corporate stuff -- magazines, annual reports, speeches, op-ed, etc.

 

Do yourself a favor... if you are talking about approaching a big paper, learn to take photos, too. I mean take a class, invest in the right equipment.

Makes you ultra valuable to community news and high school sports pages.

 

Great advice. My lacking photography skills and cheap camera cost me a few thousand dollars of easy money every year.

But who's Chester Arthur? Sounds like a fullback.