I invite you to check how much a freelance writer costs, but to save you some time, the answer is 25 cents per word (usually).
10 cents per word including proofreading and editing is a fair price, but as I said, I'm willing to negotiate.
Anything below 5 cents per word is extremely underpaid, but the video game industry likes that.
Moreover, writing is very underappreciated. Who cares about what characters have to say when you can make up for it with flashy graphics, right?
Well, writing is complicated, and coming up with the right words for every scene is a challenge. This is even more complicated when writing NSFW.
If you think that hiring a tutor would make you write as someone who's written more than 1200 pages, be my guest.
I wish you luck because you're gonna need it.
The necessity of a skilled writer is indisputable, but you must realize that the games posted on an Indie dev site such as this simply cannot afford these rates. I've seen "teams" of only three or two people, where writing is rarely a present talent and never the specialized one. The effort and budget falls on that which is mandatory to include; coding, sound, and some form of visuals. Seeing as most all of us know how to communicate in flawless English, writing is seen as a secondary skill that just about anyone can provide in a pinch.
Look, I know it's a nuanced art, and that it's not that easy to produce a compelling piece. With that said, a visual novel can reach word counts in the tens of thousands. Charging a penny per word would be a lot considering the main question the teams generally care about is "Is it finished or not?" They tend not to appreciate the finer aspects this early on in their career when we're all hobbyists, amateurs, novices.
I understand that most people here have limited budgets. But nothing is set in stone. My 10 cents rate is a reference price.
I'm also willing to work with rev share or smaller rates if the length of the text is not excessive. I could even do it for free depending on the circumstances.
I'm just offering my expertise to the teams that need it or that think they can benefit from it.
A penny per word is simply not enough. If I could write 10k words in a day, then I wouldn't mind, but 10k words can take up to a week.
And these words wouldn't be proofread nor edited. That takes even more time.
It's a pity that developing games is so complicated. Sadly, the almighty dollar limits us all.
Anyway, I hope that, at least, you liked the samples. They're always fun to read and write.
