Plenty, says Joe Donatelli. By treating every story equally, and every writer equally, pay-per-word degrades both the best writers and the best stories: "I calculate how many hours the story will take and multiply that number times my hourly fee. This is what other professionals do. They give an estimate and a rate. As far as I know, freelance writers are the only professionals who charge for their services so arbitrarily. It’s like paying a carpenter by the nail."

Jodi Helmer says there are five ways freelancers undercut their own incomes, and she lists them in a WordCount post. One of them is focusing too much on a per-word rate: "In most cases, writing for magazines that pay top rates requires a lot more work, including extensive outlines to nab the assignment and multiple rewrites. Accepting an assignment with a lower rate, like 50 to 75 cents per word, not a few pennies per paragraph, often leads to a higher per-hour rate."

Dave Bricker has some "look before you leap" advice for self-publishers. Be realistic, he says, about your costs and potential profits, your markets, pricing, and whether it's smart to take advantage of every last marketing opportunity: "If you’ve written a book about sailing, yacht clubs may be happy to have you as a guest speaker but consider whether selling a dozen books at a presentation will make a dent in your original investment — or is even worth your time."

Jane Friedman offers 10 suggestions for making sure your website attracts eyeballs. An example: When cross-posting from your site to social media, give each of your posts a personal touch, tailored to that audience. "Be sure to link to new blog posts on each social media network where you’re active. But don’t just post a link. Offer an intriguing question, lead in, excerpt, or explanation of why the post might be interesting to people on that specific social network."