Hi Michael, I'm answering partly off-list (I'll send you a fuller message off-list).
I am very sorry that this is distressing, but you're very much in the right here. These days the recommended rate for 'simple' work is $15 per page, separately for score and parts. 'Simple' is 6-8 lines per page -- four piano lines, two choral lines, etc. If you charge per page, then it's per page, no matter what, even if a part is nothing more than a copy with page turns. You bring expertise to the legibility and usefulness of the part, and in a way it compensates for the lower price on the score. Anything more complicated is normally charged by the hour, including arranging and transcription. To this you bring a differeny set of skills; just because they happen to mesh with you does not mean they are a given and included in the existing work. If you an engraver only, you would charge that price; a separate person who transcribed and arranged would get full rate. You are the equivalent of TWO people, two skill sets, two jobs. Don't undercharge. So hold your ground on this -- and raise your rates. Then offer a discount for 'packaged' skills. They get an apparent break, you never suffer a loss of income from it. Dennis On Wed, July 4, 2012 7:41 am, delius...@aol.com wrote: > Dear Finale List, > > This has always been a point of a big question mark with me, but I wanted > to get some ideas of pricing structures, even gross, ballpark ones from what > seems to be in the market today. I recently had a deal go very badly > where I created over 100 pages of documents and now the client is balking at > the price. I have always charged by the page, which I have always also said, > "per part, per score". I have charged the same price for part and score, > and I have said that I will even do revisions after payment until the > client is completely satisfied. What happened is the client suddenly viewed > this, after the fact, as I was charging, "twice per line". I said I had to > do > revisions and editing to all the parts, and that it wasn't just a > magically created part (or unedited, for that matter), so time and care for > page > turns, adjusting of dynamics, etc. must be accounted for in some way. As far > as I saw it, my price per page was so low that this was the only way I > could make any money. > > In the case of this project, I was also doing arranging and not just > transcription, which I had never charged differently for, so I came up with a > higher rate, but kept the "per part, per score" clause. On top of this, as a > lot of these arrangements were meant to go with piano parts that already > existed, I not only didn't put the piano parts into the arrangement or the > score, but the client "benefited" since it didn't cause the score to go a > bunch of extra pages. I had to write in a piano part for one particular > piece > due to transposition, and I was apologetic about it. Now the client is > saying that the scores, which were primarily for rehearsal purposes, only, > are simply ways to charge them twice. I should also throw in that this was > after the client kept adding more and more pieces to arrange and then kept > checking in, saying that the music wasn't being produced fast enough. I > was sending it as it was going, all parts and scores, and pages could have > been counted; then I suddenly get an email asking why I hadn't said the price > would be so high. This has all been very distressing. > > I will come out and say it; for over 100 pages of music, scores and parts, > the total for everything came out to a little less than $1500, calculated > on $10/page for transcription and $15/page for arranging. I have been doing > this professionally for more than ten years; I really would like to know > your thoughts, either privately or publicly as you wish. I took three weeks > of my time working into the night on many occasions to meet this deadline, > for so little money, really, and now the client has my music but doesn't > want to pay; to make matters worse, I have known the client as a close > friend and associate for over ten years, and this may well terminate our > friendship. Am I being unreasonable? I haven't moved my rates since I > began, > because I haven't even known how to do so. > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
