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Bonnie Granat reports: <<The prospect wants to pay for the entire job, not
by the hour, he writes me today. I suppose there's nothing that I can do
about that except be very accurate in my quote, right?>>
Basically, that's all you can do. One way to hedge your bets (since it
sounds like the client doesn't yet know how many pages they want done or how
much information on each page) is to prepare a price quote per page, with a
page defined as a certain number of words or links; that way, he can come up
with an estimate every bit as firm as his plans, and you can cover yourself
by being paid for all the work you're actually going to do.
<<I have raw documents now only, and the prospect tells me he will write
copy and that a Web structure can be done later.>>
In your estimate, account for the fact that you may have to endure
considerably more rounds of revision than if the text were ready in
near-final form before you begin. One interesting possibility is to offer to
ghostwrite the text for him; get him to provide all the facts he wants
covered in bullet/point form, then you can transform them into the actual
text yourself. (This assumes that you're a better and faster writer than he
is, and that he can really provide all the facts you need. Check assumptions
at the door! <g>) If you beat the hell out of the first page (revise it
until no more revision is possible and he finally nods and says "yes, that's
what I want") you'll end up with a good understanding of his style
preferences and what he actually wants you to write for the other pages.
That makes the first page painful, but the others increasingly less so
because you'll get progressively better at knowing what he wants.
<<I also haven't a clue as to how to price myself.>>
The same way you price yourself for any other work: whatever the market will
bear. That means you should start with the minimum acceptable rate you're
prepared to earn then add to it based on what the client is willing and able
to pay. I'm not suggesting this in the sense of "soak a client for every
penny you can get"; what I am suggesting is that unless you really enjoy the
job, you shouldn't work for less than you're worth, and if the client can
afford to pay for good work, you should benefit from that. (In short, charge
IBM and Microsoft the maximum possible; charge your local but well-funded
community group your basic hourly rate.)
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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Hofstadter's Law--"The time and effort required to complete a project are
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