Bidding Writing Projects On The Fly

You just never know. In the midst of a whole bunch of un-fun stuff, including chasing a delayed payment, the phone rang. I found myself talking with two delightful gals about a book proposal.

Apparently they’d hired someone and were quite unsatisfied with the job. As we chatted it became obvious they wanted to know exactly what I’d charge and precisely what I’d deliver. Not unreasonable requests at all.

Usually I’d ask for a copy of the proposal before making a bid, but there seemed to be both urgency and good rapport. I poked around and got a rough page count on the existing proposal and named a price to read it and submit written comments – not editing, just my overall take and, perhaps, comments about specific parts with suggestions. If they like my suggestions and feel they need help implementing them, we’ll talk about actual editing, but that’s premature.

The number I quoted is based on my experience coupled with my hourly fee. And it does take experience to state a price during the first phone conversation – not a range, but the actual price.

The first couple of times I tried this, I didn’t do so well, ending up working for far less than I actually should have earned. But it’s hard to get worse at something you practice.

Write well and often,

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