The $100,000 academic writer - can be done?

Do you think it could be done? Under any circumstances, could an essay writer crack six figures? What would it take?

There are books out there supposedly teaching writers how to make that amount, primarily through copywriting. How about academic writing? Does anyone set their sights this high?

Before or after taxes?

How about before?

I'll let you know this time next year :)

if you guys are even able to approach that figure i give you much respect. it gives me hope.

The closest I've come is $80,000 and that's with three writers working for me part-time. Too much work for the bucks, but that was 10 years ago. Today, the sky is the limit -- no project is too large -- no fee is too large.

Before, absolutely. After is possible, I'm sure, but I can't tell you from experience.

entirely solo, with no writers working for you, how much do you think is possible in a year?

"Possible" is probably different for everyone, but Professor Verb's $80,000 ought to be in reach for a solo venture, I would say.

Beats workin', I guess.

It takes work, but I like it better than I would like many other jobs.

I haven't come anywhere close to making that amount in the two years I've been at it. But if it's possible, I'd be interested in hearing how.

1. If you don't have access to EBSCO, subscribe to Questia. This service pays for itself every time I use it.

2. Try to write at least 360 days a year.

3. Find a steady source of clientele.

4. Take the high road but be practical. In dealings with clients, chose your battles -- try to accommodate minor changes for free but charge for major additions or changes that are not your fault.

5. If you retain the copyright to your work product, you can sell these on services such as AcaDemon (I don't know if I can say that or not so we'll see).

6. Be dependable (this is probably the most important thing).

Those are just off the top of my head, but it's like anything else -- you gotta work at it.

that's an important lesson to learn. i used to stress about revisions, but in 9/10 cases they don't take any longer than 10 minutes, so it's not worth getting upset about.

It can certainly be done, but you need writers working under you. I'm making about 35k after taxes and work about 10-15 hours a week.

If I really wanted to ramp this up to a full-time gig then I could probably make 50-60k per year by myself.

aleph, where are the majority of your clients from? sites, freelance, etc

Easier said than done. Unless of course you can write on any topic.

The university in my town.

Also, if you can read through wikipedia articles and do google searches, you can write about any topic. I'm speaking from personal experience here. I have written on topics from fashion design to engineering batteries.

F!*K OFF.
Wikipedia as a source is loathed by many universities throughout the world.
Of course you 'can write about any topic' if your aim is to defraud students- your severe lack of writing skills notwithstanding.

queen sheba

You don't directly cite Wiki. You use the sources used in the wiki article for the citations.

Wikipedia is more or less a big library of research papers.

Also, get medicated or talk to me when you're off the PMS.

I've always felt that if you can read about it, you can write about it.

This is my general approach, as well. If other people can learn about it, I don't see why I can't learn about it, too. Obviously there are still some things beyond my capabilities--advanced physics and chemistry are beyond my expertise, and I can't help with anyone's calculus--but almost any type of research paper is well within my reach.

That is true. But you have to consider not only whether you theoretically could do it, but also whether the time you'd spend researching, reading, and learning would justify the money you'd make. There are a lot of topics that I could do if I had to, but that I turn down because I know they will be too much hassle -- especially when I have easier assignments waiting. If it's the dead of summer and work is scarcer, I may be less choosy. Naturally, people who have been in the business longer will be comfortable with more topics, since they've likely encountered them before. Guys like freelancewriter and Professor Verb seem to know a little bit about everything, and I'm sure you do, too, John's Mom.

Thanks, but in my opinion, this description below never really changes even when you're pretty experienced at this; you just get better at recognizing which projects to avoid even if you could do them if you had to:


This last month was very heavy and I turned down or referred away a lot of work that I'd have taken on during slower times. Also, it always depends on the level and length of the assignment, because there may be countless subjects you'd be able to do 5 or 10 undergraduate pages on that you could never do 100+ post-grad pages on. Same goes for differences in academic standards in different countries: I routinely decline UK work for some topics on which my clients have been very happy with my work in the US. And even when you're experienced at this, there are always projects you might wish you hadn't taken once you get into them and other that you second guess yourself about having referred away.

Ironically, one of the assignments I recently declined because I didn't think I could do it well enough was from a regular client who didn't take my advice about which alternate writers to try. It got done by someone else so badly (and much worse than if I'd done it) that the client sent it to me asking for help and all I could do was tell her she should have gone to one of the people I'd recommended. I contacted the writer she used and just explained why I thought it would be fair to issue a partial refund, which I believe he did. The client then paid one of the writers I'd originally recommended for the same work all over again and I'm sure he did it right. The lesson for inexperienced writers is that if you have a long-term approach to doing this and don't want to accumulate rightfully disappointed first-time/last-time clients, err on the safe side so you don't take on work that much better and more experienced writers would have known to decline. The lesson for clients is if you already found one writer who's trustworthy, take his or her advice about other writers instead of jumping back into the pool of unknowns.

that's a good point. one of the greatest challenges of this industry isn't the ability to write and research, but rather understanding your abilities and limitations in an endless array of scenarios.

"Also, if you can read through wikipedia articles and do google searches, you can write about any topic."
Are you sure that you can produce equally quality paper on different topics. How is it possible?

personally i've been into learning new subjects my entire life, so most non-technical/math topics are already in my memory bank. it then just takes a minimal amount of research to reacquaint myself with the topic. i suspect that most writer's who last in this industry are similar.

beat working times

You don't know until you try. You may be great!

i did notice that you can do spss :)

It cannot be done. Unless you perfect the art of pharaphrasing wikipedia/other non-academic sources, it takes time to produce a decent paper.
$100,000 translates to 5000 pages, assuming $20/pp. Further, 5000 pages translate to 104 pages per week or 30,000 words per week(assume you work 7 days per week). This further translates to 4,200 words per day. I have not included the time taken to conduct research, i have assumed that you'll work 365 days per year(which is impossible) and that the orders from customers will be evenly distributed across the 365 days(which is not possible).

If you want to make >$100,000 a year, sell coke. I am sure you won't even have to leave this forum before getting your first client. Based on some members' posts, i can bet my soul that the rage they display here is fueled by their incessant consumption of narcotics. I won't even name some of them.

For heaven's sake, if you want serious money, either start a serious online venture(start up costs are comparatively low) and you might even become a dollar billionaire OR go back to school and get a serious degree(not some dubious English degrees that some members flaunt here).

That way, you won't be visiting a sad forum like this one that is patronized by deranged and delirious psychopaths.

You sure do have a lot of inside information for somebody who claims to have "absolutely no commercial interests in the essay industry."


You're the only deranged and delirious psychopath in these parts.

I've been cranking out that many pages a year (and more) for the past 15 years. I've gone through so much paper in my career, the trees tremble when I walk through the forest.

As a full-time gig, I think $100K is achievable. If you are extremely good at what you do, people will pay for the peace of mind knowing that you'll do the right thing by them.

I know of a very young girl(23) (actually my cousin) that operates a very specialized European directory and the last time i checked, she was raking in $350k annually given that her directory covers the entire EU zone. I know because i designed her site and still help her with technical support.

Another former colleague designs and sells serious apps, selling them at $10-15 per download. About 1 month ago, the total downloads were 450,000 or thereabouts. You can do the dollar maths.

You don't have to kill yourself attempting $100k through academic writing. There are other better, ethical, 'easier' ventures that makes lots of money.
On the side, i also operate a fashion website that gives me about $6,000 monthly. Which is a decent figure given that i spend very few hours with the site as i am more into academics.

When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Nothing is as easy as you argue here. I know tons of very talented developers who are really struggling and cannot sell anything to even support themselves. But 100 K through academic writing is equally bullshat. People just BS-ing each other on this forum, pretending they are well-off while in reality everyone is barely making it.

No it isn't. No one that knows what they're talking about ever said it was easy, but it's doable.

Yes everything is "doable" on anonymous forum, it is not like anyone can check person's bank account to verify all these wild claims.

does extortion money from students who you're threatening to report to their schools count? if so, pheelyks may have the answer.