Freelance pricing guide from Dr. Freelance

Over the course of the years I’ve been writing this Dr. Freelance blog, I’ve received countless questions about freelance pricing for writing, editing, ghostwriting, and other freelance jobs. By its nature, the 300-400 word blog format isn’t ideal for dealing with such a complex and important part of your freelance business. So, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just published The Science, Art and Voodoo of Freelance Pricing and Getting Paid.

You can read a brief synopsis of this freelance pricing guide at my new website, MoreCowbellBooks.com, or on Amazon, where it’s available in paperback and Kindle editions. At More Cowbell, you’ll also find a couple of freelance rate calculators that are free to use whether you buy the book or not—although they’ll make more sense in the context of the book.

I won’t repeat the details about the guide here, but rather wanted to take a moment to discuss why I wrote it: Freelance pricing isn’t just a matter of slapping a price tag on your creative services and hoping that it all works out because you’re a great writer, editor, or designer. Anybody can pull a number off one of the publicly available freelance rate sheets—but the key is whether that rate works for that particular client and project, and most importantly, whether it works for *your* freelance business. You need to have a strategic approach to every aspect of the process, from estimating, negotiating, and invoicing all the way to managing client perceptions and behaviors. It’s what I call “monetizing your freelance brain,” and this freelance pricing guide lays out a logical, simple, and effective route to accomplishing that.

By the way, I’ve also published a guide that deals with a strategic approach to the freelance business from the “other” perspective: Help! My Freelancers Are Driving Me Crazy: 12 Keys to Driving Loyalty and Results from Your Creative Workforce. I’ll discuss the thought process behind that in an upcoming post.