Being in the business of medical writing, I think about what a writer is worth every day.
I don’t know about you, but I’m an obsessive bookkeeper.
I find that, by keeping a figure in my mind and being aware of my monthly target, I’m more motivated to drive my business forward.
This helps me to find new freelance clients – more so than if I don’t keep rates top of mind.
As any freelancer or solo business owner knows, we don’t pocket our hourly rate.
Rates are a complex formula incorporating allowances for tax, superannuation, expenses and many other bits and pieces.
But the client doesn’t care about any of this – they only care about the dollar figure we quote.
Quoting for medical content
My quotes are formulated from a combination of factors, including industry benchmarking.
Hourly rates for general writers can be anywhere from AUD$50-$250 per hour.
Medical content writers tend to be at the higher end of this scale – particularly if they are also qualified health professionals (namely doctors or PhDs).
Also, the more years of relevant health writing experience you have and the higher the quality of your previous client work, the more you can charge.
Ultimately, when you’re working out your rates, you need to be comfortable that the quality of the work you deliver is reflected in your prices.
So what happens when other writers claim that they can deliver the same quality of work as you for significantly less than your quote?
Medical content writing – the battle has begun
This is a very real scenario that many medical content writers are facing with the increasing popularity of outsourcing websites like Freelancer.
These outsourcing websites allow clients to find medical writers who complete projects very cheaply.
Local businesses that might ordinarily have found a local, skilled writer to complete a project can easily outsource work online at one tenth of the price we charge.
Outsourcing websites are transparent in the sense that a writer’s skill, previous work and client reviews are all available. This helps to make clients feel comfortable in a writer’s abilities – regardless of where they may be based in the world.
Don’t get me wrong. Freelancer is a hugely popular website where writers can bid on medical content projects advertised by individuals and organisations.
On the surface it sounds like a fantastic idea and, given the founder recently turned down a $430 million acquisition, I’d say they’re doing okay.
But when I look at it now, I just get depressed.
I see ads like this one (I actually copied it just today):
“Write 3000 word article on anticoagulation guidelines. Must have perfect English. Must be able to design 4 creative images. A medical background is an advantage. No plagiarism. Maximum 50 pounds.”
I see individuals requesting medical writers to ghost write PhDs, as well as theses and student papers – and I see writers accepting these jobs. This means these websites are playing a serious role in allowing people to gain PhD qualifications by paying writers.
But the million dollar question is this: Does the competitive outsourcing market mean we’ll all go out of business if we don’t start charging 50 pounds for one week’s work?
No.
Good clients are willing to pay going rates. So my advice is to find these clients, and if you can’t convince the others who are just looking for the cheapest option otherwise, then you’re better off without them – because they clearly only care about saving money, and their business won’t survive in the long run with this mantra.
Good clients do exist
Good clients tend to have the mindset that cheap offshore outsourcing is good for a one-off task, or a more menial task, like data entry. But not for something that would have serious ramifications if it wasn’t done properly.
In the health industry, medical content writers operate our businesses on the proviso that we have specialty skills, experience, knowledge and understanding that comes from years of training and experience in health and medicine.
This ensures that, among other things, we are less likely to make an error which would have dire consequences, ie accidentally influence a decision a reader made about their health in a fatal way.
Clients who think the same quality of work can be sourced by writers charging cheap hourly rates and churning out projects should consider why we charge what we do.
It’s not for the hell of it – our rates are based on our skill level. Yet unfortunately, we humans are conditioned to look for the best offer, the cheapest deal.
Who has the skills?
Am I saying that writers who bid for projects on Freelancer aren’t as skilled as the rest of us?
No – I’m sure some are just as skilled.
But I question why a writer would work for $10 per hour if he could charge $100 per hour.
Also, writers who charge less are often under pressure to complete projects in a hurry so they can start the next project, because churning through projects is the only way they’ll make any decent money.
Quality inevitably suffers in such circumstances.
Ethical medical content freelancing
There are many ethical issues that taint the practice of medical content outsourcing.
When you come across a medical writer with a five-star rating who has thirty projects on the go at once, it’s pretty clear that the writer is outsourcing his own work to who knows how many others.
I shudder to think what those poor souls are getting paid if the chief project rate is $10 per hour.
It’s a vicious cycle that clients need to take responsibility for and these fundamental issues are no different to those experienced in any other industry rife with cheap offshore labour.
That also includes the writer’s point of view, and understanding the “why” behind the cheap rate is another issue entirely.
We’re all probably losing out on some work to outsourcing websites – and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
But I do believe that if we can continue to work on our skills and experience, care about the quality of our medical content, and find those good clients, we shouldn’t feel threatened by the outsourcing movement.
I’ve also found that medical writers are willing to edit/ rewrite a document of 1500-2000 words for as little as $10 on Fiverr. Thinking of it, Fiverr is becoming popular these days.
I am a medical writer/medical copywriter currently experiencing a “work drought” (the reasons for which mystify me)–but until reading this post & the somewhat related one on LinkedIn in which Michelle commented (titled, “I contract out work into India, as do many start-up companies”), it never occurred to me that outsourcing could be part of the problem. Maybe it is, but IMO certain structural reasons work against it being a major part of the problem:
1. Most of the writing I’ve done for the past 13-14 years has been pharma-sponsored, Whether the writing was short-copy or long-form, branded or unbranded, print or digital, it existed to promote a branded pharmaceutical. As such, my work’s regulatory success/approval depended entirely on my hard-won experience & knowledge of US/FDA regulatory practices regarding on-label vs off-label claims, balance, and a host of other delicate issues. This knowledge would be difficult for someone living outside the US to acquire without having spent years worked extensively on US pharma-sponsored projects, as I have. Not impossible, but very unlikely…I have enough trouble getting off-site work; imagine when the “site” is 7,000 miles and 4 time zones away!).
2. Conversely, I would have great difficulty poaching work from medical writers in the UK, Australia, or even from right across our border in Canada, due to differences in regulatory policies. All my medical knowledge falls short when it comes time to align my writing with regulatory policies/requirements in any country but the US–I lack that critical experience to take the project to the finish line.
3. And then there are the subtleties of language variation. Some variations are clinical (including spelling), affecting how text in medical textbooks or clinical journals might be phrased for the home professional audience; other variations are colloquial, affecting how copy might be expressed for professional or consumer viewers of print ads or spoken/narrated video advertising. Again, these variations pose a significant barrier, not impossible to overcome, but difficult to overcome, even for a writer (say, one from India) for whom English is a solid, well-practiced second language.
Having said all that, what may be happening overall is that the cheapest, most marginal and desperate of clients in all our countries (ie, agencies, small healthcare communications or medical education outfits)–feeling the effects of a seemingly endless recession–may have turned to outsourcing for some of their creative overflow anyway. IT has happened in other industries, so why not here?
In my case, these are clients who probably wouldn’t hire me even in good times: they’re too cost-conscious, too disconnected from quality, unlikely to pay more than a fraction of my normal hourly rate.
Paradoxically, even for these clients, there are many lower cost alternatives “in-country” (many bottom-feeding recruiters that supply medical writers & copywriters at ~$60/hr client cost, while paying them $25-35/hr). I suspect my biggest competition comes from ignorance or greed on the part of clients, and from overselling of their skills by inexperienced, young local writers desperate to advance their careers.
Net/net, I suspect outsourcing isn’t as big a factor in medical writing as it may be in other types of professional writing.
Well said!
Thank you Peter!