I get asked - how should I price for this? I hate to say it, but by the time you ask me this, it's too late for me to help much.
Your pricing discussion depends on where the client is oriented, and that's something you uncover early in discovery. My shorthand for this pricing discussion is "ballpark it." In discovery you ballpark price, resources, and time.
I have an example. This exchange happens in an interview: On Margins is a podcast about making books, hosted by Craig Mod. https://craigmod.com/onmargins/010/
GRAY318: Yes, I did the whole backlist for Philip Roth, and then a couple of front list titles a while back now, but yes.
CRAIG: This is Philip Roth, Nemesis, kids jumping off a pier.
GRAY318: Yeah. I think that photo was supplied. He’d either seen it or it was from the publisher, I think. I don’t know, I never got direct contact with Philip Roth. It always just went straight through the publisher. I suppose designing the backlist was actually very hard. It wasn’t straight forward because I set up this very simple grid. Don’t know if I’ve got anymore here. I don’t think I have. But it was a very simple grid. There was one photograph to be dropped in, into the space. It was mainly a picture research project. But, Philip Roth wouldn’t give advice as to what the images were he wanted. He would just say when he didn’t like the images. Again, you would send three or four for each cover and you just got back an email saying, “No.”
CRAIG: Just, “No.”
GRAY318: Yeah. That was it. Then you’d submit some more and you’d get, “No.” Then you’d send more and you’d get, “No.”
CRAIG: In a way that’s kind of nice, right?
GRAY318: Kind of, but his backlist is quite large. So after awhile it was … I don’t know. I think the backlist must have taken probably two years to finish, just because it was that process of …
CRAIG: How do you bill on a project like that?
GRAY318: Well, that’s the other joy of publishing. I don’t know. Yeah, you don’t. You bill a set fee. That’s the trouble with publishing. You can’t say, “Oh-”
CRAIG: If I do 800 iterations it’s going to cost-
GRAY318: Exactly. Or you can’t say, “Oh, it’s taken me six months. Can I bill you for all the extra work?” No, it’s generally like-
CRAIG: Per cover?
GRAY318: Yeah. That’s another reason why Zadie Smith is so nice to work for. You know that your financially … time wise it’s work.
Did you catch it? ". . .I don't know. . .you bill a set fee. . ."
That's commodity pricing. The client has already decided what a cover is worth and you're either in the range or not. If you can get to the decision maker earlier in the process you might be able to uncover some additional value, but if the purchase order is already made, it's tough. You take your best shot and vow to get in earlier next time.
Good stuff.
