Comments on: Things to Consider When Pricing Your Work

By: farra

farra — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:11:54 +0000

When you believe with what you have and your business, you can always justify your prices and your clients can’t hold you back. It will take courage but that’s what it is supposed to be. Thank you for bringing this one up! I like it so much. I also would like to recommend you to watch this, I’, sure it’ll help you. http://marieforleo.com/2011/12/should-you-raise-prices/

By: David

David — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:26:26 +0000

All good comments… like the price base regarding copywriting/blogging… whats the same for illustration?

I’ve just been requested to discuss an illustration for a book cover. I never done one before though many other commercial pieces for advertising agencies etc.

How do you price a book cover?

I assume its a Cover Price + expected publication volume + time (and an hourly rate for revisions)… not sure where to start exactkly only that my average price for a single artpiece is £200?

Can anyone offer some guidance?

By: DeadOctopi

DeadOctopi — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:56:21 +0000

unfourtunatel,thiswasoneofthemoremeatydiscussionsinthecomments:-(:-)

By: Jesse Campbell-Brown

Jesse Campbell-Brown — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:59:29 +0000

barely,based on thistemplate!

By: Thomas James

Thomas James — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:20:01 +0000

No problem, Alexandra. Glad to help!

By: Alexandra Bond

Alexandra Bond — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:28:06 +0000

Ok, that makes sense – especially estimating how much extra work it might be (such as if they’re a bean-counter, or wanting a lot of extra revisions, and taking up a lot of time by phone or in meetings) and balancing that against what else is going on in one’s business.

Thanks, that does help a lot! And thanks for responding so rapidly, especially right after the holiday!

By: Thomas James

Thomas James — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:16:24 +0000

I would recommend just making it a part of your base fee, without any need to disclose that to your client. As for the amount, I generally gauge/estimate how much extra work I’ll be putting in and balancing that with what else is going on my my business at the time (other clients, workload, etc). As far as what you’ll “get away with”, every client is different and it all comes down to communicating your value to them when negotiating price. In the case of a pain-in-the-butt fee, it’s kind of a last measure to make the project worth working on at all. If the “problem client” isn’t willing to pay the rate, then I generally would rather not take on the hassle if I’m not comfortable with the compensation. Hope this helps.

By: Alexandra Bond

Alexandra Bond — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:22:43 +0000

Sure, but what range of a percent off the total project can you usually -get away with- that the client wouldn’t balk at upon receiving the estimate or invoice? 5%? And in the estimate or invoice, do you include it in your base fee (before direct and related expenses, etc)?

I just had a request for a commission from a woman who wanted to pay $40 for a week of work AND all of the rights to the piece! I didn’t accept, but it made me wonder if a client is being an a-hole about paying anything reasonable, how much do others manage to charge extra for dealing with someone like that in terms of % of the overal cost of doing the work?

By: Thomas James

Thomas James — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:27:01 +0000

Hi Alexandra. Of all the elements of pricing your work, the “Pain in the Butt” fee is probably the most personal. The basic idea is to charge enough to make sure that you won’t regret putting in the extra time and energy when all is said and done.

By: alexandrabond

alexandrabond — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:09:09 +0000

How much do you all charge for a pain-in-the-but fee? Is it a percentage or a flat fee? Do you use a range given how painful it is to work with them, or more like “I add 1% for every time the client tries to down-bid me”?