Elizabeth Hanes 0:08
Welcome to another episode of The RN2writer Show where we help nurses and other health care professionals become freelance writers. I'm your host, Elizabeth Hanes. I'm an RN, and a former six figure Freelancer myself, and today I coach other nurses like you on how to do this. Today, we have an exciting topic to discuss that also might make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Yes, we're talking negotiation. And trust me, you don't need to fear this. And you're going to want to take notes on this episode. So grab a pen and some paper and let's dive in. I want you to take a deep breath and calm yourself because I'm about to utter a word that seems to strike fear into the hearts of many freelance writers negotiation. But what if I told you that negotiation isn't necessarily what you think it is, that you already have the skills to do it, and that you can employ simple, non icky negotiating strategies to make the kind of money you deserve as a nurse writer, let's go. You may be thinking to yourself, I can't negotiate. I suck at negotiation. Or if making good money as a freelance writer requires me to negotiate, then I'm out. But before you turn off this episode out of fear or disgust, let me assure you that the type of negotiation I'm going to talk about is nothing like what you might be thinking, namely, such as working with a car salesman to get the best possible deal on a new ride, or hardball negotiating a labor contract. In fact, let me lay a mind blowing truth on you right now. You already are negotiating every day as a nurse. Think about that for a moment. You often negotiate with your peers, or your charge nurse regarding shifts, patient assignments, patient care, and so on. On a daily basis, you probably say things like, Hey, can you watch my NG tube for a couple of minutes while I'm on the phone with pharmacy, I'll be glad to watch your patient later to give you a break. In case you didn't realize it, that's negotiation. And that's the only level of skill you need to really do this as a freelance writer, I want to start by saying you should recognize that a negotiation is not a defined period of time, with a specific starting and ending point, at least not in freelance writing, I want you to consider that negotiation starts the moment you begin a conversation with a prospective client. At that moment, every single detail of the relationship between you and the client is open to negotiation, and discussion. So keep that in mind as you're cultivating relationships with prospects. Now, let's get down to specifics. Let's start with money. Because that's what most people think when they think negotiation. Money is an all you can or should negotiate though, and I'm gonna get to that in a second. As a nurse, you deserve to make more money than a non clinician health writer. With respect to all my journalist friends who write about health, nurses bring an exceptionally high level of specialized knowledge to the table that clients should and do pay a premium to get. But you may not be offered what you're worth as a nurse writer, if you don't ask. So a typical negotiation. I'm putting that in quotes because I don't think this is going to sound like a negotiation to you is to say to an editor, can you do any better on the rate? That's simple enough, right? Yep, that is negotiation. And negotiation for writers doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. On the flip side of this clients will often enter a negotiation of the fee when you've presented them with a proposal for services. They'll say something like $10,000, we were thinking more like five, and you're off. Now you get to go back to them with a new offer, if you want, if it makes sense for your business, and you can choose to meet in the middle. How about we say 7500. Now that doesn't sound too hard, does it? But as I said, Money isn't the only thing you can or should negotiate. If you're super uncomfortable at the mere idea of negotiating your rate. Then you can build your negotiating muscles by starting on my non monetary returns of the scope of work. What does that mean? Well, I mean, here's a short list of non financial things you can negotiate with the client, the deadline, the word count, the number of revisions, the submission method, am I sending a Word document? Or do they expect me to learn their content management system and upload my stuff directly? The number of people involved in the editing process, the number of meetings required, if any, the publication date of the piece. Whether or not in person interviews are required. Payment Terms, rights issues. For example, does the client fully own the work? Or did I keep some resale rights in den indemnification clauses? A kill fee, which is a personal fee paid to the writer if the publication decides not to publish an article they commissioned. That's just a few things I can think of off the top of my head. Yet each of these non monetary details can affect your rate or your quality of life, or both. And here's a little secret, editor's and clients expect writers to negotiate everything from the fee to the scope of work details. It's simply a routine element of the relationship between writers and clients. The first time you push back a little on the rate you may feel anxious and and Oh God, what have I done sort of way. But then when it works, and you make more money, pretty soon you'll not only feel more confident about negotiating, but like me, you might actually start to enjoy it. I hope you found this episode of The RN2writer Show. too helpful in helping you conquer any fears you had of negotiating as a nurse writer? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to click the subscribe button on YouTube so you'll be notified of new episodes and follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. I'm your host Elizabeth hanes and until next time, keep negotiating
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
