Re: Question about price quotes and time estimates?

[Deborah Hemstreet <dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com>]

Geoff,

Thanks so much for your quick and clear reply.

For me the issue was indeed the amount of time I would have had to 
invest in the writing. The topic matter was one I am familiar with, but 
not enough so to do it without spending some time reading, researching 
and reviewing to be sure I had it down right. I am sure someone more 
knowledgeable could to the project more quickly.

Thanks, as always, for your wise advice!

Deborah

Geoff Hart wrote:
> Deborah Hemstreet wondered: <<For technical writing time estimates: 
> I've been taught that the  standard for a new page of writing is 
> approximately 5 hours of work per page.>>
>
> That's an entirely meaningless rule of thumb, and should never be used 
> for any kind of serious calculations, such as quoting a price. The 
> rate varies enormously among writers, but more importantly, it varies 
> enormously among topics for any given writer. For examle, a page of 
> text that requires careful testing followed by long discussion with 
> SMEs to learn the details can take an order of magnitude longer than a 
> page that can be written using nothing more than a functional 
> specification or a glance at the interface.
>
> Though it's tempting to assume that the two types of page will cancel 
> out to yield an average of 5 hours per page, it would be unwise to 
> make that assumption. The only useful way to figure out pricing is to 
> learn your own productivity for different types of work, and then 
> apply that to a careful analysis of the nature of the job. For some 
> thoughts on how to do this: 
> http://www.geoff-hart.com/articles/2006/estimating.htm
>
> To be safe, make sure you clearly understand the details of the job 
> before you even think about creating an estimate.
>
> <<I was advised that the person wants 15 web pages, no more than 300 
> words per page, written within 15-20 hours. Does this seem reasonable 
> to you?>>
>
> That comes to a total of no more than 4500 words in (say) 15 hours, 
> which means 300 words per hour. You can probably type that much in 
> about 5 minutes, but the real question is how long it will take you to 
> research the content for each page so you can produce those 300 words. 
> That can clearly take much longer than 5 minutes.
>
> Never forget that there will generally be at least 1 revision cycle, 
> in which the client reviews your work and asks for changes. That can 
> increase your time requirement significantly. Be sure to specify that 
> they get 1 round of revisions as part of the original price, and that 
> all subsequent revisions will be billed at your standard hourly rate 
> of $X. It increases the likelihood of the reviews being done right the 
> first time, though there are no guarantees.
>
> <<What if I am only marginally familiar with the subject matter? That 
> is, I know what it's about, but I would have to invest time to write 
> something better. I've always been told that less is more - in quality 
> and in time.>>
>
> Less is indeed more, more or less. <g> But the problem is that it 
> often takes longer to write something concisely than it does to 
> blather on for pages until you've covered all the details. The problem 
> is that you must come to understand something reasonably deeply before 
> you can identify the essence -- that which is essential. Having done 
> so, you can then write only that essence and ignore the rest of the 
> stuff you might have been tempted to write. But identifying the 
> essence can take time, and the less familiar you are with the subject, 
> the more time it will take.
>
> <<The person  wants me to base everything on existing material, but to 
> avoid plagiarism, I would, essentially need to rewrite everything.>>
>
> It's not plagiarism if the client owns the existing material. Of 
> course, if someone other than the client owns the material, then yes, 
> you'd have to rewrite from scratch to avoid plagiarism. But if you've 
> successfully written essays and term papers, you probably understand 
> the concept of summarizing someone else's words in your own words, so 
> that shouldn't be a problem. The only time this is a problem is if the 
> sources you're using did the job perfectly, and you'd have a hard time 
> doing an equally good job without quoting them. In that case, it may 
> be ethical to simply suggest that the client buy those words from the 
> copyright holder. <g>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
> ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Effective Onscreen Editing:
> http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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