I was chatting with a friend a couple of days ago, on the subject of pricing and selling services and products, amongst other things, and he told me about his mother, who paints.
He despairs of her pricing policy, which is basically this: cost of canvas plus cost of frame plus cost of paint plus 'a bit' (ie about 10 pounds or so). On that basis, she'll sell a painting which took her a week or more to paint for about 40 pounds.
Ridiculous?
And yet how many of us are much braver in pricing the things we write? On that basis, with no canvas, frame or paint to buy, we might be tempted to 'sell' our talents for next to nothing. And all too often, we do just that.
Of course, the advice to friend's mother is obvious: double your prices and see if you still sell as many. She probably would, as her work sells very quickly - as quickly as she can produce it. In which case, she might try pushing her prices up even higher.
Now, giving advice is one thing, and taking our own advice is quite another, but we must be brave. After all, we have nothing to lose but an unprofitable job.
An associate of mine recently took the decision to follow said advice and has never had so much work, or so much money from writing, as he has now. When one of his existing clients queried his rising prices he turned the tables and simply asked them to consider their priorities: price verses quality.
They could hardly backpedal quickly enough and willingly agreed to his new asking price. He's very good but he also has a strong nerve and growing confidence in his ability. He put both to the test, and passed with flying colours.
If you want to be a professional writer you cannot afford to work for nothing, except perhaps at the very start of your career when you're building a portfolio.
After that, if you're not charging enough to make a good living, you're not really being a professional.
Now, where did I put that price list?
Roy.
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