This ^ is a headline from the freelancer.com site, that if you accidentally sign up for, will DELUGE you with dozens of e-mails a day, just packed with similar offers. Now, I confess a weakness for bitter irony-- comedy that really pushes at the boundaries, but even I find this too much-- one third of a cent/per word? Is someone pulling my leg? "Long term," you are going to live on, what, pencil shavings?
It smells of a scam to me, but actually that sort of payscale isn't unheard of in itself. I've seen (and sold to) fiction markets that pay $0.25 per word. It's known as "token" payment, and is more often found in the small presses. But this is in respect of fiction. I'm not sure about non-fiction.
Well, I've done the thing where you steal the thousand island dressing packets at the convenience store to garnish a bowl of rice with... Twenty five cents/word, I thought that was great, that's what I got when I was writing for EQ magazine. Twenty five cents for 75 words? Ummm... And the other thoroughly twisted aspect they got going... "search engine optimization": pepper your text with words that will snag a search engine's attention... in other words, not only put the cart before the horse, put the dust from the cart's wake before anything.
Sorry, I meant .25 cents. Combination brain freeze and unfamiliar currency. 25 cents per word would absolutely be great.
I think you mean $0.025, one quarter cent per word. Please let me know which markets pay 25 cents a word.
