Invoice Template for Writers

Words are your product — don't waste them wrestling with a spreadsheet. Speed Invoices gives writers a free invoice template you fill in online and download as a PDF. No signup, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded anywhere: the invoice lives in your browser until you decide otherwise.

What a writing invoice looks like

Writing work gets billed in more units than almost any other trade — per word, per article, per hour, per project — and a good invoice makes the unit obvious. Typical line items:

• Per-word work — "Feature article, 1,800 words @ per-word rate".
• Per-piece work — "4 blog posts, 1,000–1,200 words each".
• Copywriting projects — "Website copy: home, about, and 3 service pages".
• Editing and revisions — "Substantive edit, 22,000-word manuscript" or an hourly line for extra revision rounds beyond the agreed number.
• Research or interviews — billed hourly when they fall outside the writing fee.

Because line-item descriptions support rich text, you can note the publication date, brief reference, or word count right where the client's accounts team will look for it.

Billing conventions in the writing world

A few conventions are worth adopting:

• Kill fees — if a commissioned piece is cancelled, a 25–50% kill fee is standard; put it on the invoice as its own line so it's never a surprise.
• Deposits for large projects — long-form and book-length work usually takes 30–50% up front.
• Revision limits — agree how many rounds the fee includes, then bill extra rounds hourly.
• Monthly invoicing for retained clients — content marketing clients on a monthly article quota are best invoiced on a fixed day each month.

Speed Invoices totals everything automatically, handles tax and discounts, and supports 46 currencies for publications abroad.

The getting-paid tip for writers

Invoice on delivery of the draft, not on publication. Publications can sit on finished pieces for months, and "pay on publication" quietly turns into an interest-free loan from you to the publisher. Your work was done when you filed.

When invoicing becomes a monthly chore

If you have retainer clients on a content schedule, Pro ($5/mo) adds recurring invoices, scheduled sends and payment reminders — the invoice goes out on the first of the month whether you're on deadline or on holiday. The template itself stays free forever.

Plenty of writers also tutor or teach on the side; there's a dedicated invoice template for tutors for that work.

Write the easiest 200 words of your week

Open the template, fill in the piece, the rate and the total, and download your PDF invoice — free, in about a minute.