Billing per word, per piece or per hour

Per-word rates are conventional in journalism, per-piece in content marketing, and hourly in editing. The invoice should make the basis obvious: put the rate in unit price and the word count or hours in quantity, so an editor checking against a commission can reconcile in seconds.

Where a piece ran shorter than commissioned, bill the commissioned length unless you agreed otherwise. Where it ran longer at the editor's request, bill the actual length and say so in the description.

Kill fees and rights

Two lines that belong on a writer's invoice and are routinely left off.

• Kill fee — the agreed percentage payable when a commissioned piece is not run
• Rights granted — first serial, exclusive for a period, or all rights
• Syndication or reprint fees where the piece is reused
• Research or interview time billed separately from drafting

Invoicing publications

Publications almost always pay against a purchase order number and on fixed monthly cycles. Ask for the PO number when the piece is commissioned and put it in the invoice number field or the notes — an invoice without it will usually sit unpaid without anyone telling you why.