Re: Speaker Fees

**"* m* p* <m*@dargan.com>**

Negotiate!

Frankly, if I expect to sell 20-30 books, I'll lower my fees a bit to get
the word out. I try to never lecture for less than $300 for garden clubs and
encourage them to poole their groups to make 3 clubs host me together for
$750-800. But, it is not a perfect world and found myself in a small
mountain garden club last week who told me they didn't have funds until the
week before ( go figure!). It was just a 30 min drive, and I did handle all
the advertising in local papers and to home owner associations so 70 people
showed up.Timeless sells for $30 and it costs me $15 ish a copy to purchase
from the publisher, Gibbs Smith. I sold 30 books, so made $450 net. And just
got 2 strong consultations from that lecture ( Mountain Chic Landscape
Design), so their itty bity $40 check was not wasted.

It is  $1200 fee if I fly to a lecture ( they pay expenses) ; I add $500 for
extra lecture and $1000 if a workshop day in addition. I enquire the fee for
attendees, expected turn out and try to help hosts think thru paying my
honorarium. I stay with a host family and suggest a party the night before
to get to know them better. Sometimes, if the group is especially appealing
I offer 3 or 4 two hour consultations to help defray the cost of many hours
of travel, for instance to the west coast. I provide a printed flyer with a
emailed .pdf to get into members hands.

With Botanical Gardens, unless their Board of Friends or a specialty seminar
wiht paying attendees hosts you, don't plan on much. However, if you market
the lecture and pump up the audience, bring a book, plants, art to sell,
well, it was probably worth any amount to make new friends.

Fees are always a negotiation, and in the end, great fun is had by all. Of
course, it must be a spectacular lecture!

On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 11:43 AM, Katie Elzer-Peters <
katie@thegardenofwords.com> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I've gotten several questions from Botanical Gardens lately about speaker
> fees. One garden is redoing their fees. Their current free structure is
> really low, I think. Right now, they give $50 to everyone and $125 to
> anyone
> outside of a 20 mile radius.
>
> Would anyone care to weigh in on what their organizations pay, or ball
> parks
> for what they charge?
>
>
> --
> Katie Elzer-Peters
>
> The Garden of Words, LLC
> "Business Writing for Busy Bees"
> http://www.thegardenofwords.com
> 317-313-8366
> -----------
> Great Garden Speakers
> Horticulture. Design. Ecology.
> Inspiring topics for every audience.
> http://www.greatgardenspeakers.com
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-- 
*
Mary Palmer Dargan, ASLA, APLD is a registered landscape architect with Dargan
Landscape Architects.
404-354-1715 (cell), 404-231-3889 ( office) www.dargan.com
Author : Timeless Landscape Design: The Four Part Master Plan, Gibbs Smith
Publishers (2007) now in sixth printing!  http://www.gibbs-smith.com
iBook : Timeless available as an Apple iBook
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8
Upcoming: Lifelong Landscape Design: Environments for Health and
Longevity, Gibbs
Smith Publishers (spring 2012)
Order: 404-231-3889  http://www.dargan.com
Friends:      http://facebook.com/darganlandscape
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I CHARGE
*
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