When I first started, I took whatever paying work I could get. Pennies on the word, in some cases.
But as my portfolio grew, so did my clients. And eventually came the question every freelancer dreads:
“So, what’s your hourly rate?”
Cue the panic.
Pricing yourself is one of the hardest parts of freelancing. Get it wrong and you feel undervalued, struggle with cash flow, and risk quitting before you’ve given it a real shot. Get it right and you can build a good, even great, living. This isn’t a step-by-step guide. Think of it more as a buffet of things worth knowing before you set your rate.
Check your mindset first
“Freelancing” carries a stigma it doesn’t deserve. Some people hear it and think unemployed, or doing odd jobs on the side. In medical writing, freelancers regularly out-earn their in-house counterparts. You have years of specialized training. Clients in this field, especially pharma and biotech, often have significant budgets for the deliverables you’re creating. Price like someone who knows that.
Remember what your rate actually covers
A client is paying for your time, but they’re also not paying for office space, equipment, a hiring search, healthcare, retirement contributions, disability coverage, childcare, or their share of social security and Medicare tax. All of that is baked into your rate now. This is exactly why a freelance hourly rate should be meaningfully higher than what a comparable in-house salary works out to per hour.
Do your homework
Your network is the best resource you have here. Talk to other freelancers. If you have a friend working in-house, ask what they pay their freelancers. You might be surprised at what agencies charge pharma clients for your type of work, and that number is a useful anchor for figuring out your own slice of the pie. The AMWA salary survey, published annually, is also a solid benchmark worth checking (available to members only).
Hourly or project rate?
People will argue passionately for both, and the truth is they both have a place in your business.
Hourly is low risk when you’re starting with a new client or an unfamiliar project type. It protects you from scope creep, and it’s the model agencies already use to bill their pharma clients, so it’s often simply the expectation. The downside is that your income is capped by your hours, and it actually punishes you for getting faster and more experienced.
That’s where project fees come in. You estimate based on time, but you can also build in the difficulty of the work, your experience level, and a buffer for revisions. It rewards efficiency instead of penalizing it.
One of my personal favorites is the retainer. You agree on an hourly or day rate, but you get paid whether the client has work for you that week or not. It defines your hours and protects your income from clients whose needs are unpredictable.
Client-specific pricing
One real advantage of freelancing is that your rate doesn’t have to be fixed. Sense early on that a client will be difficult? Quote higher and let that cushion absorb the friction later. Have a dream client doing work you genuinely love? Quote a little lower if it means securing them. Try doing that as a salaried employee!
Payment terms matter almost as much as the rate itself
How and when you get paid is nearly as important as how much. Nothing is worse than finishing a major project and then waiting 60 days for a check. NET60 terms exist for wholesale supply chains, not for a one-person operation trying to keep the lights on. The best terms are electronic payment, due immediately on receipt. Most of your real negotiating will happen somewhere between those two extremes.
So, what’s the number?
You’ll notice I’ve avoided specifics through most of this. Money is personal, and what you need and what you’re aiming for depends on your own situation. Your network and the AMWA salary survey is the better resource for real benchmarks.
But if you want a floor: unless your financial situation is dire, don’t charge less than $100 an hour for specialized medical writing work. Once your portfolio and reputation grow, that number should too.