Setting fees

A frequent problem for freelance technical authors is to decide how much to charge. Some popular methods of deciding how much to charge are as follows:

Christopher Juillet discusses how to set fees in The Meter is Running... But What's the Rate? Christopher's article contains the best formula for calculating fees that I know. The top-level view is:

daily billing rate=daily labour rate+daily overhead rate+daily profit

The article explains in detail how to calculate each of the values.

Whether you charge by the day or whether you charge a fee for a job, calculating your rate has the following benefits:

Download an Excel spreadsheet (blank-consulting-rate-calculator.xls) that uses Christopher's formula.

See also

Cost of employment

Why are most translators underpaid? (www.translationdirectory.com/article480.htm)

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