Re: how much to bill?

**"Doreen Howard" d*@ticon.net**

Nan's hypothetical case points out the need to have a contract signed before
any work is done.  I've learned the hard way and now will only write if a
contract is executed. Contracts guarantee payment, and if payment is not
forthcoming (such as a bankruptcy), you have legal documentation to write
off the fee as a bad debt on your income tax.

The way I negotiate contracts is by the word for so many words ($1 per word
for 1,000 words as example), and then I tack on an extra 10 to 20 percent.
I tell the editor or publisher that I will be doing extensive research,
interviewing or whatever, and that extra is to cover my added work.  This
safeguards me from the situation where I run over a 100 words or so and the
editor uses all.  Or, the editor calls panic-struck and asks for an extra
graph or two, because the page isn't filled or an ad ran smaller or
whatever.  Also, there are times that I will only deliver 950 words instead
of the 1,000 words contracted, because I'm done.  When you are finished, you
are finished, as one editor I work for regularly says.
Doreen Howard,
In Wisconsin, where it is snowing like crazy.

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