Writer as Mozart (Re: fees: charging for conceptual time)

[JIMCHEVAL -at- AOL -dot- COM]

In a message dated 98-07-19 00:58:30 EDT, beccap -at- RUST -dot- NET writes:

<<
 If I charge just for my writing time, I feel like I'm being a highly
 paid typest -- all the real work has been done already.  >>
Like Mozart - who supposedly composed so fully in his head that his 'first
drafts' are absolutely clean, being simply transcriptions of the end result.

When the writing gets that conceptual, it's probably legit to charge for a
certain amount of 'simmering' time.  In my own case, though, an awful lot of
that occurs simply while I'm editing the client's text in Word. and watching a
thing of beauty (my crafted prose and layout) appear from the raw lump of....
whatever... before me.  But yes, a small portion occurs while I'm sunbathing
on the (current) client's roofdeck overlooking the Pacific and the Santa
Monica Pier, or surfing those free offers that keep popping up in my e-mail.
("I'm Monica, and I want to be YOUR private intern.")

 <<I suppose that if that's how it should work,  my breakdown would be
 "$30.00 per hour: $$7.00 typing; $23.00 knowing what to type."
  >>
Well, not really.  The 'knowing what to type' part would be more legitimately
(not to mention more profitably) put in the hourly rate, and part of what
makes THAT economical  to the client is the fact that you spend less time
figuring out what to type than someone who's still inventing/discovering the
wheel.

My point, I guess, is that your experience and expertise should already be
built in to your rate and that charges for 'meditational' efforts should be
exceptional, not standard.


Jim Chevallier
North Hollywood
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