Hiring An Ebook Writer. What You Can Expect To Pay

I have started to have some ebooks written, some in the hope of flipping as Clickbank ready products on Sitepoint.com and others to sell on the back of some niche blogs I am developing.

I’ll share briefly my experience in finding quality writers, how much I have had to pay and the mistakes I have made.

Just to be clear before I begin, I’m not talking about long detailed ebooks. The standard on Sitepoint for Clickbank ready products seems to be about 50 pages or 12,000 – 14,000 words approximately and it is ebooks of this length that ‘m referring to within this post.

I began my search on oDesk. I had used oDesk before with some success.  I decided to post my job as a 12,000 word writing project rather than specifically an ebook project and I figured the moment people hear ebook the price is immediately higher.  A 12,000 word project could be posted as 7 detailed articles and mean the difference between paying $150 and $450. Each article could be a chapter and  I think presenting the task this way makes a big difference to the writer pyschologically and to the price they charge.

I hired two writers from oDesk, an Indian company charging $83 for the project. Too good to be true? Yes, they took on the job and after an tonne of miscommunication, being tossed from one writer to another, they refunded my deposit a week later and told me they were booked and would contact me in the future!

I also hired a British writer, who charged $122 for the project. The quality was decent but the project was sent back 50% shorter than it should have been and had to be rewritten which extended it way beyond the 7 day turnaround I had specified.

So not much success on oDesk!

Since deciding to develop Information Products, I’m always on the watch for potentially good writers and while browsing the Digitalpoint forums, I came across a couple of people whose posts suggested they were quality writers.  I contacted both, one in the US and the other in the UK.

On initial contact with the US writer I asked for her price on a 12,000 word ebook and she came back with $450, way beyond my budget! On explaining a little futher that this wasn’t a ghost-writing project as such but rather a series of detailed articles combined into a mini-ebook, she agreed to my budget of $160 dollars. Perfect!

She has since delivered my first ebook, excellent standard, on time, well formatted and presented.

My Uk writer is also a gem, fast turnaround, excellent scope and range of interests and a great writer.

It is worth nothing that they are both graduates. This makes a huge difference to the quality of the work.

I have often seen it posted around that you will never find quality freelancers on Digitalpoint, that is full of scammers and people looking to make a quick buck! I think amidst all the chaff, there are some gems in there. You only need to be patient while searching for them. And treat them well once you find them. They are few and far between.

Tagged as: ebooks, freelancers, ghost writers, hiring a writer, information products