So, I seem to have, through some personal connections, attained the likelihood of a contract position doing some article writing/editing for an international news journal. It’s an academic-journalist style, synthesizing articles into longer pieces, etc. It’s an independent press. I am fairly excited, since I’ve been trying to break into doing this sort of thing for a while.
The only problem is that they’re treating me like I have some experience with the fee structure for this sort of position. They’ve basically told me that they’re very open as to billing- they’d pay me in advance per project/story with a 1/3 “kill fee” (which I take to mean if they realize they’re not going to use whatever they asked me for), or per word, or per hour.
I have no idea what to charge! I’ve done some editing for publishing houses before, but that’s all pay structure set by them, with taxes taken out, which wouldn’t be the case here. I’m a relative newcomer to the field but I do a lot of academic writing and I’ve been told I can bill slightly higher for that. Is it best to go by word or by hour or by project? Is there a standard rate?
I’m so confused! I appreciate any input from dopers who may have done work like this in the past!