How much are we worth?

[Gailwriter]

I was disappointed to receive an offer of $4.00 for "full rights" for one of my articles. Naturally I rejected this offer and was surprised it was even made. Surely I am worth more- $2.60 for me and $1.40 for CC to edit and send emails etc. This type of offer undervalues all of the CC authors and CC itself. What really upset me was that someone has sold an article for $4.00 "full rights" so I assume it was the same person I rejected who was lucky enough to find someone foolish enough to sell. This customer has made a public request for a mother's day article for $5.00 full rights and I am really hoping there will be no response to his request. We should all stick together and reject such offers. Perhaps CC should consider placing a cap on offers - It is ok to purchase an article for "usage" for under $10 but surely not for "full rights". This way we would not be all wasting our time rejecting offers that are an insult to all writers. What do other writers think?

[jak]

I just refused an offer of $7 usage on an article I priced at $25 for usage. I'd rarely accept less than $12 for anything. For this it would have to be at least $15 because of all the research time it took. I only added best offer once the three days for the requester was up and I'm still hoping to get $45 for full rights. Even if it sells twice at $15, it won't match that. So I'm happy to let it sit a while longer.

[Lysis]

I just commented on another thread, but I did think of one exception for my high-horse

If I have an article that has sold for use and already made $20-$30 profit, the value of that article is lowered. I realize that an article that has been downloaded 3-4 times is not worth much anymore, so if someone offers me $5 for it, I'll probably accept.

[Gailwriter]

I understand why someone would price a usage article at below $10 although I would think twice about doing so myself. I agree with Jak as far as my own work is concerned, however I accept the reason given by Lysis as well. My complaint is not with the sale of articles for usage, but the sale of articles for full rights. I am unsure how a Public Request is posted. Is it checked by CC first, or can it be posted as a request without being actually seen by CC? Surely we can stop Public Requests being offered at $5, so authors do not jump at the thought of being published at any cost. If authors agree to accept such small amounts, we will continue to undervalue our work and the work put in by CC in the editing process.

[aprilk10]

I thought CC had placed a limit that authors had to ask for at least $7 for any license. Does this not apply to best offers as well? I wondered about the request for $5 articles as well. Granted, they would be simple to write, but not really worth the time they would take to write I think. If I can find time soon, I am considering writing a Mother's Day Gift article however and placing a much higher price tag on it. I don't think I will be submitting it to this request though.

[jadedragon]

Does not hurt to submit to the request at a higher price. That will set the market.

[Goalsethigh]

If you must know, I am the person that sold two articles for four dollars. I recieved two offers on my articles for four dollars. At first, it really ticked me off. I know my time is worth more than that. I've been under the weather and not done much with my writing this month. But, I got to thinking about those two articles. They really were not my best work (solid, but not spectacular) and I needed two more sales before I could qualify for private requests. Since I probably wasn't going to do anything with those pieces anyway, I thought I would put them to some good work.

Now that I've made my sales quota, I have no plans to sell below my normal rate. I may even take down my best offer option, as well.

As far as all the high horses are concerned...well, they probably can't hear lowly ole me from way down here anyway.

[4rumid]

Does not hurt to submit to the request at a higher price. That will set the market.

Only if everybody does the same thing.

"I needed two more sales before I could qualify for private requests"

I didn't realize there was a requirement for that. How many articles do you need to sell before you can get private requests?

[Celeste Stewart]

I don't think there's currently a threshold on how many articles you must sell in order to get a private request. In the olden days, you had to reach a certain level of sales in order to be "listed" as an author here (and thus get private requests) but I'm pretty sure that's been phased out with some of the design changes. Now, if a customer can see your profile, the customer can see your "contact this author" link and issue a private request. It helps to have articles to show to potential customers as well as some sales to instill confidence but I'm not sure that there are any predefined limits anymore.

Don't feel bad for accepting the offers. Sometimes a low offer is better than no offer and it's not really for any of us to judge. Yeah, we all want to see market value prices because that's important for our craft, but it's hard to know the circumstances for the individual deals going through. Most of us will reject offers that don't make sense for us, but who knows, maybe an offer, lowball or not, comes at the right time for work long since completed? If you're hungry and someone offers you a few bucks to click the OK button for an article you wrote two years ago, you might just click that OK button. Don't get me wrong, I don't want writers to get taken advantage of, but I also don't want of any us to feel bad for cutting our losses or making a decision that's right for us at the time.

[Goalsethigh]

Things might have changed since I joined up, or I might have read the instructions wrong, but it used to be that you had to have five sales to qualify for private requests. When you went to submit an article for private request, you would be blocked if you didn't have enough sales.

Thanks Celeste for your input. I've been thinking of another reason I might take the lowball offer. If it is the end of the month and I haven't sold anything, I might take a lowball offer so that I don't have a goose egg in my paypal account. Kinda like punishment for not doing better.

On another note, I've submitted a request at a higher price. It wasn't bought by the original requester, but by someone else. On the other hand, there was a request for a 1200 word article. I tried to write it, but could only squeeze out 600. I submitted it anyway (priced accordingly) and the client bought one that someone else wrote (1200) and bought mine, too. That was an eye opener.

[dmgray]

I saw the request with the $5 full rights. I had been tempted until I saw that little line. Erm no. I can accept low bids for usage but not full rights (I accepted one for usage yesterday for $6, the article was my first submission here and a pretty niche topic so although I hesitated, I figured that was better than nothing and as it was usage it was not too insulting). It is a problem, but so would be everyone agreeing to stick to their guns. It is a wonderful idea and a lovely thought but I would expect someone with no sales, and no real morals, would fold and take the offer.

It is up to the individual what they choose to do and I won't judge, there are often very good reasons...like the ones offered in this topic.

[JoHunley]

I just received an offer for an article I have priced at $80 for full rights. Buyer offered $4. $4.

What I want for "buyers" like that isn't a counter-offer submission form, it's a file-a-complaint submission form. As I pointed out in an earlier thread, there is a minimum price guideline. If the site chooses not to enforce this guideline, then they might as well have not set it in the first place and saved themselves the trouble of making a page for it.

My opinion. That and a $4 offer for a full rights license will buy you a cuppa.

[4rumid]

$4 for an $80 article doesn't deserve a reply. On the other hand, maybe they meant to offer $40?

[JoHunley]

I would certainly hope it was an error.

Ack, don't mind my earlier post. I was annoyed. Maybe it was a typo and as soon as they see that I rejected the offer, they'll notice it and send another offer with the typo fixed.

[dmgray]

Oh I just got one of those wonderfully flattering offers from the ever-benevolant georged. He whose generosity knows no bounds...

$4 for full rights on a $40 article that is 2 days old!

I am not accepting a typo here. He has just given me the cyber-equivelant of a slap about the chops with a big wet fish.

Am I happy? Hmmm, well if there had been a "Kiss my a@@" option in the accepted/refused drop down menu - it would have been selected! I think he need telling that CC stands for Constant Content, not Cheapskate Customers.

Sorry, I know I should not be badmouthing an offer here...but I am a little ticked off.

Oddly, the offer was not showing in my Content page. Another article is shown as "waiting", which I assume means there is an offer? But when I checked in "Received Offers" there was no sign of any offer for that article. The only one showing was the "Gift from the Gods" $4 offer...which does not show as waiting in the Contents page. Now I am confused and bitter!