The best ways of pricing academic papers (new vs. established clients)

I am new to this site, though I have been writing academic papers on a full-time basis since 2010. I am a bit overwhelmed by the scope of this site, and will have to spend more time traversing the various topics and threads to get a better sense of how it can be useful to me (and hopefully how I can be useful as well).

With that in mind, this post caught my eye and prompted me to make my inaugural comment. My experience re: the price/quality issue has been more or less right down the middle; I get clients whose sole interest is in getting great papers, and others whose sole interest is in getting serviceable papers at a good price ("good" being a relative term, of course).

I don't know how other writers set their prices (though I hope to learn more about that sort of thing by participating in this community). I tend to stick to a fairly standard price, but will negotiate when appropriate. My standard price for most individual clients is a bit lower than the essay sites for which I write, but not significantly less; my reasoning is that a slightly-lower standard price may encourage new clients to roll the dice and hire me instead of going to an essay service, while also underpinning good word-of-mouth references.

I am interested to learn what other writers do in terms of setting prices, and I also welcome any and all advice about how to navigate this site, how to find reputable companies to write for, and how to develop a stronger client base. If any of these issues are more appropriately raised in other areas (or are inappropriate to raise here) please let me know. Hopefully it will not take me too long sort out the standards and etiquette of this community.

Thanks,

Christopher aka lovecraft

That sounds like the most reasonable approach :). Btw- how do you treat your "new" vs. "established / returning" clients - do you give any instant discounts to your old clients?

I approach price from the point of view that everything is negotiable. Many of my clients have been very amenable to haggling.

A few companies have a bidding process that will let you experiment with pricing while competing with other writers for the same jobs.

Doing some steady work for various companies will give you a sense of what prices the market will tolerate. Some niche and higher-level academic work will command a premium, while some standard undergraduate topics can be had for rock bottom prices. Even as a freelancer, I still rely on companies for relatively more "steady" work, albeit at a lower price point.

I found it extremely useful to do a survey of company's websites and make a list what they charge and for what kinds of work.

Repeat customers nearly always get a break, although that can be hard to quantify because the level/quality of work can vary with the same client.

I do think of my prices in terms of time. This is absolutely necessary because, depending on where you live in the world, a lot of the academic ghostwriting work can very quickly become something that is not worth your time.

If this was my only source of income, then I might think about pricing in an entirely different way.

I get the feeling that you could charge a lot more as an individual writer than with a company, because I find that most companies want their lion's share. Most of the private work I've done has been just for friends, so I've charged them the same rate as I've gotten with various companies, or sometimes a little less. But I get the feeling I could have charged 50% more and still would have beaten some of the mills on price.

I've found that the bigger hurry a customer is in, the more they are willing to shell out.

You can get a good idea of what kind of company you're working for by its administrative and customer service extensions. Like anywhere freelance, it's a minefield with a lot of duds, of course... but that metaphor doesn't do it justice. Mines don't suddenly appear one day where they weren't before, rob you, and skip town.

I have only worked for two companies. I do not really know where to begin looking for more companies to write for, as there are so many out there. I only write for one company now, and have been with them since 2010. I have written about 600 papers for them, and get a lot of positive feedback from clients (and therefore a steady stream of work). But I have also applied for work with a number of other companies -using the same resume, samples, etc.- and been ignored. There is nothing on the surface that I can see which would distinguish the company I work for from the companies that have ignored my applications, other than the fact that one responded to me and the rest did not.

I don't mind the lower pay from the essay services; I balance that against the time I'm not spending on administrative tasks (dealing with clients, taking orders, advertising, and so on) and the relatively steady stream of orders. Don't get me wrong: I do have a fair amount of personal clients, and I do make more per page from them; I just don't mind balancing that with clients from essay services.

I would just like to find a few more services to write for to further shore up my work schedule.

btw, how did my comment become a thread? I thought I was responding to a comment in a different thread? Is there an admin who selects some comments for threads? Is there a primer for this site somewhere?

In most cases I give discounts to returning clients. I have several clients that I shepherded through their entire four years (as well as a few who are now grad students and one who is a med student). I have been fortunate that most of these clients are fairly bright, and our work together has been largely collaborative.

I generally encourage my clients to bring me a referral as a predicate for offering them a lower standard price, though I'm not pushy about that. If they're comfortable passing my info along to someone they trust, great; if they're not, I get it. Pretty much any client who is happy with my work and keeps coming back for more will get at least some sort of discount.

You'll pick up companies to apply for if you stay with the board for a while. Lots of them come and go. Whether they are legit or not is ultimately up to you to find out through trial and error. This place can provide some clues, but experience is your best guide.

The first place I applied to, years ago, lined me up with some work almost immediately. I did a few short assignments to prove my mettle, and before long I was fairly busy just with the stream of work from them. I have been with them ever since, and have written 608 papers for them so far (I just checked my count earlier today). In my naivete I assumed I would have similar experiences if I applied to other companies; as it turns out, I was wrong.

I only stumbled across this forum a few days ago, and I sent an application/samples/resume to one of the companies I've seen mentioned here. No response yet, but it's only been 24 hours so I'm not discouraged yet.

It's the slow season and many of us are off wasting time on discussion boards.

I'm genuinely curious and have no intention of attacking you: What are your qualifications other than the 608 papers (good job by the way)? Do you have any advanced degrees or writing in other venues? Do you offer some examples of writing in these applications? Are you an ESL writer (nothing inherently wrong with this, but it does scare people off)? I'm just trying to understand why someone who can produce as you do would be ignored. Maybe a better question to ask is why do you think that you are being ignored?

I think I was ignored because I applied to the wrong companies. I haven't exactly beaten the bushes; I have only applied to a handful of places, and the last was probably two years ago (until yesterday, when I sent an application to a site I saw mentioned on this forum). In each instance I have followed the specifics of the application process (resume, writing samples, and typically an essay prompt). I generally have enough work, though several of my long-term clients either recently graduated or are nearing graduation. I don't need a lot more work; I would just like to have more options/security/etc. With the current summer lull in full swing I figured I should do some research so as to target any future applications more effectively, and that research brought me to this forum.

I am a native English speaker from Pennsylvania (I now reside in Florida) with a B.A. and an M.A. I originally intended to enter the field of education but life had other plans. I did some writing on the side throughout my college years and when my wife was in grad school I did some writing for her; it was then that I first realized I could probably make some money writing academic papers. I got laid off from a sales job when the recession hit in 2006 (it hit Florida's real estate and residential construction industries much earlier than the rest of the nation), and from 2007-2010 I did some writing for local clients. In 2010 I started working for an essay service, and I currently balance my workload between their clients and my clients.

I realized fairly quickly that I have a knack for this work (not just because of my writing skills; I have the personality type as well: only child, can function independently, able to spend hours alone, etc.), though I am certainly much better at this now than I was four or five years ago. I have written over a thousand papers, though I have never taken a complete inventory count; I just have the running tally on the essay-service site and the hundreds of papers on my hard drive I have done for my own clients).

The "over a thousand papers" thing is a bit misleading, or at least non-specific, since the length of these papers varies so widely. As is probably the case for anyone who has done this for any length of time, I have written papers for everyone from freshmen to grad students, and from very easy projects to projects of significant scope and scale. I have taken online classes for students, polished articles for submission to peer-reviewed journals, etc. I won't bore you with a long list, as your experience is probably similar to mine. I don't have very strong math skills, so I avoid projects related to math/hard sciences and stick with Humanities/Liberal Arts/Education/Social Sciences and the like. I generally get positive feedback from my clients, and the essay service I write for is very good about assigning orders to me when I apply for them.

Thanks for sharing your story - that's awesome! Much appreciated. I'm pretty sure that post will get you some clients when the students start poking around in the Fall semester.

Have you ever considered setting up your own website and going into business for yourself?

My pleasure; thanks for asking. In my limited time on this site I have seen a fair amount of sniping among posters here (mostly predicated on accusations of one form or another of shilling), so I was unsure how I would be received. I am grateful for the response I've gotten so far. I am equally interested in reading what other writers have to say about their experiences.

I have considered setting up a website, though I have never made any concerted effort to do so. I built my current client base almost entirely through word of mouth. after getting a few clients via a craigslist post several years ago. I probably should make the effort to develop a site, though to be frank I don't know much about it (which I suppose is an ironic statement coming fro someone who spends his days researching all manner of topics).

I am hoping to move in that direction, and figured that participating in this forum would be a good first step.

Yeah, I think its just a matter of time before the wordsmiths of prey descend upon this thread and rip us to shreds. I think it would be fascinating if more people posted a little on how they wandered into this shadowy world. It could disarm some of the snipers and maybe sooth some of the savage ESL debating beasts.

The short of the long for me: I'm a PhD attempting to transition out of academe. I realized much too late that life as a professor was not going to work out for me. Thus the goal now is to monetize my skills, some of which are esoteric and highly specialized. What I have found through trying various kinds of freelance work is that I enjoy academic ghostwriting the most - I think that it gives me what I had naively imagined was stored in the ivory tower. I love, love, love delving into an interesting topic for which I had no time in the past. So I am here on this discussion board specifically to 1) learn more about the academic ghostwriting business and 2) possibly drum up some business for myself.

I'm currently doing contract work for several writing, editing, and publishing companies with an eye toward cutting out the middle man and developing my own company. I have no problem with companies and don't want to reignite the debate on here about whether to go with a freelancer or service company; both have their inherent pros and cons as discussed ad infinitum on this board.

I would also like to network a bit. I've hit all of my goals so far within in this industry. For example, I had set a couple monetary goals for a few given months and either hit or well exceeded them. I've also learned how to fill in the income gaps during the off season. So I think that I am primed to find a bit more success here. However, I have come to realize that I have been doing this all alone. I can see this will be a problem if my plans are fully realized: there will be a lot of jobs that I cannot handle and will need to either pass them along or partner up with somebody. I could definitely subcontract some work, but not everything. I just think it would be better to have access to a network of highly skilled writers to not only share work, expertise, and refer customers, but also to bounce ideas.

Right now, I can only serve a quasi-referral directed to other ghostwriters who I only know by pseudonym and through company controlled channels. In all cases I have no idea if the client found what was sought. So at least in some cases, there is not much of an incentive for me to do a referral. Yes, I am shamelessly digging for kickbacks here.

This is an industry of shadowy shadows, which at times is both exciting and frustrating.

As would I, though my ignorance about how this forum works means I am hesitant to reach out. After reading your previous post I decided to try to send you a message. After following the link, I saw this admonition: "Note: spamming, advertisements, or solicitations that may lead to a financial transaction is a violation of the forum rules."

I can only presume that sending you a message expressing my interest in your "network of writers" idea constitutes a "solicitation that may lead to a financial transaction." Then I considered your comment that my earlier post may "get (me) some clients," and I wondered how that would be possible if it is not appropriate to solicit other participants on this board. Can you clarify this for me? I'd hate to violate the rules of this place almost as soon as I arrived.

Your trepidation about reaching out is definitely warranted. I get the impression that we are simply tolerated here on this board. We should probably behave as such and definitely follow the rules. I don't know who runs this site, but I greatly appreciate what they have provided and, as such, do not want to bite a hand that may ultimately feed me. I do suspect that our activity here generates interest from potential clients toward the site owner(s).

I think that you just have to be very careful with your phrasing. You just keep the communication and discussion within the rules and use a bit of professional courtesy.

I have lurked about here, off and on, prior to creating my account. It seems that you can get into the most trouble from directly discussing certain details about how the companies work (DND list). This make sense because you don't want to pull work away from companies. My general opinion is that freelancers and companies are in a sort of symbiotic relationship, where the companies are obviously the host. Piss them off a bit too much and you quickly become a pest. I'm not a big fan of pesticides.

We are allowed to disclose personal information as per the terms of service. We just can't do any "blatant" advertising or soliciting.

I am a a student I have no idea about the ways pricing academic papers for new established clients. But after reading the above pots I got little bit idea on the pricing of academic papers.

You're not a student, but you should be. Try taking a couple of English lessons, so you don't look like such a dummy.

I have never done academic writing so actually, I am not having any idea regarding that. But have you searched on internet or asked your friends who are in this field. I think they can help you and can give you some advice.

How much can i charge a direct client per page?

As much as they may be able to afford - you can try to charge a lot, but it doesn't mean they'd be willing to pay ;)

It depends on how old they are ...

No, really, I also offer a 10% discount for repeat clients.

The best way to price any paper is to consider the manpower and other requirements used in the completion of the paper. Consider the cost of electricity, the monthly on the internet charges, wear and tear on the laptop or PC, among others and you should find yourself pricing the paper at a base cost of about $30 per page. Anything lower means the company is not really reliable. The price should always be the first red flag for a student. The cheaper you are charged by the writer, the more you should be suspicious of the final result.

Seriously? Why stop there? What about the cost of running my air conditioner and the snack I had while writing, and my cable TV bill if it was on, and a few hours of my rent...and the wear and tear on my clothes?

I do not see anything wrong with the information that has been given to consider as an addition to the price costing per page of an order. Since the writer works independently and works from a home set up, then yes, I too believe that the costing considerations cite provided are acceptable. If one were renting an office space, these factors would be worked into the client costing proposals, either in a specific listing or bundled into other service provisions.


These considerations could also be worked in but not the cost of your cable bill and others. Yes, work everything in that relates to your on the job function.

My earlier post (#22) was intended to be 100% sarcastic, which isn't evident when you chop it up like that to quote it.