While I would love to be a circa-1952 housewife with no responsibilities save cleaning the bathroom once a month and feeding the occasional child, I have fully accepted my fate as a member within the ranks of the blue collar army.
I am currently a college student. Tuition, rent, food, utilities, and student loan interest are expensive, so as long as I plan to live indoors, I have no choice but to charge an ethical amount for my services. I also consider myself a business owner, so I do keep in mind the other side's costs. As such, I have settled on a median price I believe is fair for everybody: $160.52 per minute.
My services are priced according to given skill level. The underlying goal is to charge a rate that averages to a certain amount per hour of active work. So a fiction-writing assignment which would require ten hours of intense, focused activity (approximately 6,000 words, give or take for requirements) will cost between $100 and $150. The former price results from no-effort formatting, while the latter would require me to hand-format in HTML. Half the estimate will be charged upfront and no work will happen on the assignment until the payment has been posted to my bank account, or completely cleared for first-time customers. Should the work be overwhelmingly easy or take only a fraction of the estimated time, the original charge will be lowered to a reasonable amount, or you may even receive a refund to achieve fairness, if it was really, really easy.
This is for various reasons. I'm not terribly paranoid of being ripped off, as I have defenses in place to protect against some scams. If one is willing to put forth an upfront payment, he or she clearly takes the project seriously and, ideally, won't change his or her mind after I have made an investment of time. If you do, you won't be getting your money back, so you might as well use my work. Additionally, should issues arise which interfere with a client fulfilling the agreement in a timely manner, I should still be able to cover my bills. This means none need cry if banks close or Internet is botched or cars break down on Christmas Eve. One can simply take a deep breath, contact me through phone, email, or carrier pigeon, and get it to me when possible.
If unwilling to work with the half-upfront system, then do not contact me. This policy is strict and is not, never has been, nor ever will be negotiable. Repeat customers may be able to pay less or nothing at all upfront, depending on payment history.
Detailed contact information is available.