You ask a bunch of good questions. The world of music engraving is no longer geographically limited as it used to be, but there is a lot to be said for being near your clients.
As with any field where results are important you will need a portfolio of samplers to show/give to your prospective clients. You will need to be fluent in either Sibelius or Finale (thus you will need to own one or the other) and to be of greater marketability you might consider becoming fluent in both. It isn't that great a financial investment compared to the tools of the trade for other businesses. You will also need a great printer, if possible one which can handle 11x17 paper and also can duplex, like the HP5000 with duplexer. Expensive but definitely worth it! You should purchase one engraving program (I vote for Finale because I use Finale and I find Finale can do whatever I want it to and haven't heard of Sibelius being able to do anything Finale can't do and I prefer Finale's business model without copy-protection) and spend a lot of time getting up to speed with the program. This list is the best support group for a program I have ever run into, so don't hesitate to ask a lot of questions. But be sure you work through the tutorials which come with the program and download Hal Owen's fine tutorial and work through that as well. Then you should come up with a sample of each of the following: lead-sheet using the Jazz font(write your own tune so you don't run afoul of the copyright laws), same lead-sheet using Maestro font, chamber-music score (plenty of public domain materials for the rest of the the samples you should have), small ensemble (8-12 instruments) score, full orchestra score, choral score (you only need the first two pages of each of the score types so you can show that you can to the first page as well as subsequent pages), single instrumental string part from one of your scores (string because you can show bowings). You will also need to be able to design and produce a title page and/or cover. Some use Finale for everything, others use Word or WordPerfect or a page layout program for non-musical pages. THEN you need to come up with a pricing scheme. There are a lot of ways to figure out your price sheet, but they all boil down to the same thing -- you need to know how much per hour (based on your desired work week) you need to charge to pay your rent/mortgage, buy food and clothing, have discretionary income and put some in the bank, and pay your taxes. This last bit (paying taxes) many people don't think of in calculating their per-hour fee. In the U.S., in a state where there is no state income tax, I figure I pay the government 35% of my income (as a self-employed individual I not only have to pay the same income tax as everybody else but I have to pay 15% Self-Employment Tax, the full social security contribution). So if I want to keep $30 per hour for my personal/family needs, I need to charge $48 so I have enough to pay my taxes and still have the $30/hour I need/want to survive with. After you figure out how much per hour you need, you should figure out several different price sheets because you will run into clients who want the quotes given in different manners: Some people will be satisfied with a per-hour quote, so you will need to be able to look at a manuscript score and figure out how many hours per page you will need and then do the math. Others will want a per-final-page quote, so you will need to be able to look at a manuscript score and figure out how many Finale pages it will turn into. Still others will expect the quote to be in a per-frame (single measure in one staff of music, so one measure in a 25-part full score is actually 25 frames) manner. Others won't care how you break it down, they will just want a final quote. Remember in your pricing to be sure to find out BEFORE you start doing your quote whether the client wants extracted parts or just wants the score. Ask if they will do the photocopying for extra parts of if they expect you to present them with a full set of score and all parts. Then figure out how long you need to spend to extract a part from a score and turn it into a usable, printed part. And add the appropriate charge onto the quote. You will then need to come up with a simple and clear contract, where you stipulate that you are computer-engraving a so-many-page score for $this-amount and will provide the client with so-many copies of the score and so-many copies of each extracted part for $Extracted-part-fee per part for a total of $final-quote. If you do this in a tabular layout, like an invoice it can be made very clear and very simple. There should be a place to enter the date of delivery to the client, the date the work will begin (and thus the date the client promises to have the materials in your hands) and a schedule of payments. You should get a deposit of at least 50%, with 25% to be paid at a specified point in the project (when the score is completed but not handed over to the client) and the final 25% to be paid when the materials are picked up at the end. Be sure to add a statement to the effect that you will provide a draft copy of the score to the client for proofreading by such-and-such-a-date. Any mistakes you have made will be corrected at no charge, while any alterations made by the client will be made at a per-hour charge of $your-per-hour-charge. Also be sure to add a statement regarding whether the Finale files will be given to the client or will remain with you. Just as negatives usually remain with the photographer so a client has to purchase further pictures from the photographer, so, too, if you retain the finale files your client will need to pay you for further copies of the music. If the finale files are to be handed over to the client, there will be a one-time fee of $50 (or something you feel is appropriate). When questioned by the client, tell him/her that once the files leave your hands there is no guarantee what will happen to them, whether the client will use somebody else to work on them and you may need to do a lot of remedial work on them should the client bring them back to you for further work. Now for the difficult part -- finding the work! You need to get your name known in the areas where composers/arrangers/film-tv-jingle-conductors hang out. You will need to do a lot of door-knocking. You will also need to know what your competition is charging, so if you are lower you can rethink your rates, and if you are higher you can either rethink your rates or be ready with arguments of your higher quality work, more dependability, whatever, to support your rates. Don't simply rely on a mail campaign, although that might be a good way to begin. If you do begin with a mail campaign, follow it up with phone calls and if possible face-to-face meetings. Be prepared to send everybody your sample-packet. Be prepared for a very low return rate. Make A4 posters to put up at college music departments with tear-sheets with your phone number so that college students who might need clear output can take advantage of you. Don't quit your day job until you get a steady stream of engraving work. It may not come for a while, but perseverance can pay off. Set up a web-page with examples of your work downloadble in pdf format and a basic rate chart so people outside your area can find you. Take out small ads in school concert programs. Good luck! Michael Edwards wrote: > It may be only tangentially relevant to this list, but I would like to ask > for anyone's views about what the prospects are like for obtaining work > engraving music. [snip] -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
