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Technical Writing

Over the course of my career, I’ve completed more of these types of projects than any other—everything from simple software release notes to in-line user and technical software documentation to 800-page technical manuals. I spent 5 years as a dedicated software technical writer and 10 years prior to that preparing commercial letter proposals and sophisticated proposals to State and Federal governmental agencies ranging from state park departments to DoD to the EPA.

Recently, I've also taken a course on grant writing--more to learn about the business and find inside information about grant funding sources than to learn about grant writing--which is very similar to writing proposals.

Rates and Rationale

It’s the same story here as with copywriting, though most technical and grant writers have staff positions, so you’d have to add labor burden and other overhead for a comparable number.

I usually charge a little less for technical writing than I do for copywriting because technical writing tends to include more time-consuming activities like up-front research and interviews with SMEs, formatting tables and working with data, etc.—so, more hours overall, giving me more security and the ability to stay competitive with an internal person.

Project Example . . .

For a simple grant or letter proposal where you provide a basic outline, pricing, and all of the relevant information, I would charge something like 4-8 hours of time (three or four hours for the draft and a couple of revision cycles . . . If it’s any simpler than that you should just do it yourself and save the money!).

For more complex projects, I would typically meet with you and your team by phone once or twice to discuss the project in detail, then provide a time and materials estimate and not-to-exceed amount.

Types of Projects I’ve done . . .