Q: I have an offer to write a nationally read (12,000 or so readers) wellness newsletter. While I do have copywriting and newsletter experience, I do not have any recent experience. I will need to put together a proposal for this guy next week. He is looking at about 10 or so hours per newsletter twice a month. He asked my hourly rate and said he would like to pay a flat fee for each newsletter. Since I am just getting back into this, what is a reasonable amount to charge? This may evolve into something more full time, and this is a great opportunity. I am a good writer, but a bit rusty, so I don’t want to charge too much, but I don’t want to discount my abilities either.
A: Did you ask him what his budget is? As I talk about in my book, you should always try to get the client to speak first and tell you what they had in mind (i.e., very innocently, “Have you given any thought to what you’d like to keep this to, budget-wise?”) so you have a sense of whether you guys are in the same ballpark, and maybe he’ll be offering more than you thought. They may want you to talk first, for the same reason, so they don’t offer more than you’re willing to do it for.
I’d say the big issue is if it indeed WILL be only 10 hours twice a month. I’m guessing he’s looking for a number in the $500-750 range, probably closer to or lower than the lower end of that range, which sounds awfully low for a newsletter (Does he expect you to lay it out as well? If so, then it’s even LESS likely that 10 hours is going to get the job done). I say his 10 hours number really doesn’t have a lot of bearing on the situation until YOU have a sense of what is involved. You need to ask the questions to find out exactly what is expected of you in those 10 hours to see if indeed it WILL take that much. How does he arrive at that? Have they done it before and know that to be the case?
Best way to approach it is to throw out a number with the understanding that you’ll try it out for a month (2 issues, right?) and see how it goes. At the end of that time, you revisit it and see where you stand and renegotiate if necessary. That’s only fair.