How Much Money Can a Technical Writer Make? The following is excerpted from "The Technical Writer's Freelancing Handbook", by Peter Kent, published by Sterling Publishing for $12.95. This book was one of June’s "Featured Alternates" in the Writer’s Digest book club. Copyright 1992 Peter Kent CHAPTER 1 TECHNICAL WRITERS: "JUST PASSING THRU"? There is a common theme in technical-writing humor: Technical writing is boring, technical writers get no respect, and everyone would rather be doing something else. A friend of mine publishes a small newsletter called "Dull Way (A Publication for Tech Writers & Dullards)." Another friend claims he was dancing with a girl one night when she asked what he did for a living; when he said he was a technical writer she walked away. And the following poem by Roger L. Deen satirizes a common feeling among technical writers. Just Passin' Thru He claimed to be one of those few Who detested what tech writers do So as the years rolled by, He continued to cry "I'll be gone soon--I'm just passin' thru." Quoth he to all who would hear "Tech writin's for chumps that's clear. I'm smarter than you, 'Cause I'm just passin' thru." He's been saying that now seven year. When judgement day finally comes true, And Saint Peter asks, "What'd you do?" He'll answer with pride, As he swaggers inside, "I'm a tech writer, and I'm just passin' thru." There's no smoke without fire, of course (I'll discuss the "fire" later in this chapter), but there's another way to look at technical writing. For all the complaints about technical writing, most technical writers stick around. I don't know why the jokes circulate--maybe it's simply black humor common to all professions, or maybe it's just the people I hang around with--but if the Society for Technical Communication (STC) is right, most writers are quite happy. In a 1988 survey the society found that 87 percent of their members were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the profession, while only 10 percent were dissatisfied. And the money can be good, too. But before we get to that, let's talk about what technical writers actually do. Technical writers explain things. What sort of things? They explain how to use VCRs, how to use computer programs, how to install telecommunications switches, how to operate blood-testing instruments. Sometimes the technology they are explaining is very complex; it may take a team of 60 writers several years to document a telecommunications switch, for example. Other times what is being explained is fairly simple: how to operate an iron, for instance, or a telephone. Technical writers produce instruction books, user guides, reference manuals, instruction sheets, and so on. But sometimes they "migrate" to slightly different tasks. They might produce public-relations brochures, company reports, or even advertisements, or help prepare articles for professional journals. They sometimes end up designing computer program "user interfaces," or even computer-based training courses. Sometimes they write proposals, documents used by a company to sell its products. There is an enormous range of documents produced by technical writers. That's a great advantage; it means there are many different ways to enter the profession, and many different routes to take once you're in. So how much do technical writers make? From $10,000 a year to $250,000, sometimes more. That's not a very useful range, so let me elaborate. Let's start by looking at the 1990 Salary Review published by the Society for Technical Communication. The median salary for a technical writer in the United States, according to this survey, is $35,000. (Canadian writers generally make a little bit less than their colleagues in the U.S.; their median is $34,000, in $US.) Let's look at the median salary related to years of experience. Less than two years $25,600 Three to Five years $32,800 Six to Ten years $37,000 Eleven years and more $42,000 Personally those figures sound a little low. In the Dallas area--where I currently work--many writers with six to ten years experience are making $43,000 to $50,000. Of course the location does have an effect; the median salary ranges from $30,100 in the Montana to Wisconsin region (the 5xxxx zip code area), to $36,200 in New England (the 0xxxx area). California/Oregon/Washington is almost as high, at $36,000. Of course breaking it down by the first number of the zip code doesn't give a perfect picture. Rates in Milwaukee, WI, are probably higher than in Billings, MT, though they are both in the same zip code area. In general, though, rates are higher on the coasts. And even in low-rate areas there are probably pockets of high rates. The 7xxxx zip code area is slightly lower than the national median, at $34,100, but the telecommunication and computer business in the Dallas area probably push the rates a little higher. We'll discuss Dallas in more detail in a moment. This book is about freelancing. How much do freelance technical writers make? According to the STC survey the average gross income for a consultant/independent contractor is $50,300, and 25 percent are making $58,000 or more. These are the percentages of freelancers in several hourly-rate groups: Less than $20/hr 6 % $20 to $29/hr 22 % $30 to $39/hr 40 % $40 to $49/hr 18 % $50 to $60/hr 7 % Over $60/hr 4 % No set fee 3 % So 72 percent of the freelancers surveyed were making over $30 an hour, and 32 percent over $40 an hour. Some of these numbers seem a little high for Dallas. "Consultant/Independent contractor" covers a lot of ground: people working through technical-service agencies, people working on hourly-rate contracts, genuine consultants, and so on. In Dallas most freelancers I know work through agencies, and most of the experienced ones are in the $27 to $31/hour range. A few are below--mainly people who are very inexperienced or who don't understand the market. And a few are above; the highest agency rate I have heard of in Dallas is $38/hr. As for independents, most seem to be in the $38 to $42/hour range, although those charging by the project---instead of an hourly rate--can often make a lot more ($50-$75 an hour or more). Still, I've heard rates are much higher in New England and California, so maybe the figures reflect that. One thing I should note, by the way, is that unlike consultants in many businesses--who spend a lot of time marketing and a few hours working-- technical-writing contractors often work at the same contract, full-time, for months or years at a time. So a contractor may be making $40/hour for 2,000 hours a year, not just 1,000 or 1,500. A small salary survey published in Consultants' and Contractors' Publication s Job Express in October of 1990 found that Technical writers were being sold by the agencies for about $425 a day--$53 an hour--in the New Jersey area. The agencies in turn usually pay their writers $32 to $40 an hour, according to this survey. The $53 figure is important though, because it provides one indication of the market's potential, of how much an independent writer can charge. (Sure, some clients don't want to pay an individual as much as they pay an agency, but many will, if you sell yourself properly.) According to Bill Oliver of Techwrights, Inc., agencies in New York are paying writers up to $60/hour (the agencies are making about $65/hr to $85/hr), with rates in New Jersey about 15 or 20 percent lower. Writers on long term contracts in some companies in New Jersey make between $30 and $50 an hour--the higher paid people are usually Ph.Ds or have a lot of experience. Now let's take a look at a salary survey published in the May 1991 issue of Technically Write, the newsletter published by the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. The survey found that in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas the median annual gross income is $40,000 ($38,000 for employees and $47,000 for contractors; 27 percent of those surveyed were contractors.) Here's the breakdown by years of experience (for all writers, both employees and contractors). 0-2 years $23,000 3-4 years $31,000 5-6 years $36,000 7-8 years $33,000 9-10 years $43,000 11-12 years $43,000 13-14 years $48,000 15-16 years $61,000 17+ years $46,000 Remember, these are the median figures, so half the respondents were above, half below. These figures still look low to me; I've mainly worked in the telecommunications industry for the past few years, though; maybe telecom companies pay more than most companies. These are median incomes, of course, so many writers are making considerably less. Many are making considerably more, too, which is what this book is about: changing the way you sell your skills so you can move up an income group or two. Incidentally, both the STC and the Dallas chapter report that most of their respondents--and most of their members--are women. Over 57 percent of the Dallas respondent were women, and almost 62 percent of the respondent s to the national survey were women. Does this mean most technical writers are women? I don't think so. Most of the writers I know are men, though many of the younger writers seem to be women. In fact the Dallas survey found that the average age of the men was 45, while that of the women was 37. The national survey found a "larger number of women in the lower-paying, entry-level range." It seems that a high proportion of the newcomers are women, and I have a the ory that young women are more likely to join the STC than older men. It may be that while men are more likely to use the "old-boy" network to find work , women entering a new profession seek out professional organizations to help them. Anyway, the fact that there are so many young (women) writers in the STC would tend to skew the median incomes a little, making the numbers look lower than they are in the real world. Do women writers get paid less than the men? Yes and no; in general yes, because they are more likely to be in entry-level positions. But the STC survey found that when salaries are broken down by experience and age, women get paid about the same; in some categories they are paid less, in some they are paid more. For example, women writers with less than two years experience seem to be paid a little more than the men, as are those with over 11 years experience, while in between they appear to be paid a little less. But the differences are small, ranging 4 percent above and below the male figures. Technical writing is a profession in which women are doing well, taking many management positions and, it seems to me--a mere male, admittedly-- competing on an equal footing with men. Now, these surveys don't show the highest rates, of course, because they get merged in with all the other numbers. I called the Dallas chapter of the STC to find out what the range was, and was told that there were several "six figure incomes." At the top was a man in his mid-thirties-- with 11 years in technical writing--making $110,000. Next were two more men, each making $100,000, one in his mid-sixties and one in his mid-fifties , both with a lot of experience. All three were independents, of course. (To be fair I should mention that at the other end of the range were two people who said they only made $12,000, and neither were entry-level; I can only assume these people were unable to work--due to sickness or inability to find a job--or didn't need to work.) But the incomes keep climbing. For example, The American Almanac of Jobs and Salaries (1987) talked about a technical writer making $250,000 a year in royalties from books published by a computer-book company named Dilithium , and reported that Mitchell Waite was making $200,000 a year--though Waite was no longer just a writer, as he had started a company that published computer books. And take a look at a SYBEX Computer Books catalog. As you flick through you will notice little signs saying "75,000 SOLD," "OVER 75,000," "OVER 125,000," and even "OVER 500,000." Now, I don't know what sort of deal these authors had, but I do know that I earned $1.24 a copy from my first SYBEX book. And some of SYBEX's authors have a dozen or more books in the catalog. In one recent catalog Alan Simpson had 20 books listed, with signs indicating that just six of his books had total sales of almost 1.5 million copies. (Simpson has published 40 computer books in the last ten years, including multiple revisions of the same book.) These are not average technical writers, of course; very few reach these heights. In fact some of the really high incomes are earned by writers who entered the computer-book market at just the right time. When they began writing there were few other computer book authors, few computer book publishers, but a rapidly growing market. While some of the early computer- book authors became millionaires, such success is far more difficult today. Still, one computer-book agent told me recently that his agency had "lots" of writers making $100,000 a year (but lots more writing part time and making only $20,000). But great potential still exists; technical writing does not have to be a dead end. I remember one writer telling me he was leaving technical writing to take a sales job. "In sales, your income is unlimited," he told me. Maybe so, but he eventually decided to stay. He discovered that he could make much more as a contract technical writer than in most sales jobs. What he probably doesn't realize, is that although there are some sales jobs that pay six-figure incomes, there are also thousands of technical writers around the country making $100,000 or more, and some making over $250,000. And a few--just a few--making seven figures. Continued . . . You can contact Peter Kent on CompuServe at 71601,1266. This book is available from many bookstores, including Barnes & Noble and any bookstore which can order from Ingram (a large book distributor). It's also available from a bookstore called Computer Literacy, in San Jose, CA. (2590 N. First St.) Writer's Digest Book Club carried this book for a while, and may still have it in stock. It was June 92's "Featured Alternate." It's also available direct from the author for $12.95 + $1 S & H. Send a check or money order to: Peter Kent 2291 S. Coors Way Lakewood, CO 80228 This is the books Table of Contents: I. Getting into Technical Writing 1. Technical Writers: "Just Passing Through?" 2. How to Get Started in Technical Writing 3. Teach Yourself Technical Writing II. An Introduction to Freelancing 4. What Is Freelancing? 5. The Advantages of Freelancing 6. The Disadvantages of Freelancing 7. What Makes a Good Freelancer? 8. How Much Do You Earn? III. The First Step In Freelancing 9. Finding the Technical Service Agencies 10. Negotiating with the Agencies 11. Unethical Agencies 12. The Interview 13. Contracts 14. Buying Your Benefits 15. At Work 16. The Great Overtime Debate 17. Preparing for Step Two IV. The Second Step in Freelancing 18. Networking 19. Looking for Work 20. Taxes for the Freelancer 21. Are You Really an Independent Contractor? What the IRS Has to Say V. The Third Step in Freelancing 22. Where Next? Appendices A. Contractor’s Publications B. Technical Service Firms C. Associations D. Contractor’s Checklist E. Bibliography F. Co-ops, Correspondence Courses, Courts, Insurance, and the IR