4 ms·

Paying people per word is just silly. Can we please not carry over this hackish way of valuing a writer's contribution? If we wanted a metric of the value of

by bobz 16y ago

Paying people per word is just silly. Can we please not carry over this hackish way of valuing a writer's contribution? If we wanted a metric of the value of the post, I would think up-votes would be a better metric. But personally, I agree with the others here saying that monetary compensation is not a good idea. Or, if you feel the desire to give back to the community financially for financial success you are having,perhaps a donation to PG or YC for maintaining this site. (Yes, I know he doesn't need it, and I know he gets value from the site. Saying thank you is still a good idea, both because he does good things with money, and because it [the gesture, more than the money] will keep him interested and involved, even as his success and demands for his time continue to grow.)

jonnathanson 16y ago
I think you have a slight misunderstanding about what "pay per word" means in the writing business. Publications don't just tell writers they're getting $.05 per word and then let them run off and produce as many words as they want. Rather, they tend to have word limits and expectations per article: 500, 1000, etc. The reasons they pay "per word," and not necessarily a flate rate per piece, are several: a) They want to reserve the right to edit the final piece and/or change word count expectations on the fly. b) There might be additional work added to the work order, such as sidebars or supplementary appendices. Rather than draw up an entirely new contract or fee structure, they'll just add these to word count. All in, pay-per-word usually ends up underpaying writers for their contributions to typical publications or advertisements. Pay-per-word doesn't take into account hours per article, which can be highly variable depending on the nature of the assignment. An in-depth research project yielding a 1,000 word essay is obviously harder to produce than a 1,000 word opinion piece about men's fashion.

by bobz 16y ago

jonnathanson 16y ago

I think you have a slight misunderstanding about what "pay per word" means in the writing business. Publications don't just tell writers they're getting $.05 per word and then let them run off and produce as many words as they want. Rather, they tend to have word limits and expectations per article: 500, 1000, etc. The reasons they pay "per word," and not necessarily a flate rate per piece, are several: a) They want to reserve the right to edit the final piece and/or change word count expectations on the fly. b) There might be additional work added to the work order, such as sidebars or supplementary appendices. Rather than draw up an entirely new contract or fee structure, they'll just add these to word count. All in, pay-per-word usually ends up underpaying writers for their contributions to typical publications or advertisements. Pay-per-word doesn't take into account hours per article, which can be highly variable depending on the nature of the assignment. An in-depth research project yielding a 1,000 word essay is obviously harder to produce than a 1,000 word opinion piece about men's fashion.