How much do freelancers charge for desktop publishing??

[Poysyn]

Sorry this is long, but I’m a little bitter…

Yes when I said I was going to have to bring the baby, I meant it.

Because my darling husband was laid off, we have both been looking for work (he full-time permanent, me for something that I can do and be a mom).

I thought I had lucked out huge, I got a job working for a couple of real estate agents (both as part-time jobs, which together would be full-time) as an assistant. I carefully explained to both that, as a new mom, my baby would be with me, but I would keep track of the time spent taking care of her as opposed to doing the work. They were both enthusiastic.

Now, after three days of, “oh, is your baby going to be here tomorrow too?” and me again explaining that although occasionally I could prevail upon my sister to watch her if the situation demanded it (training course) my baby would be with me all the time. Well, now it seems to be a problem.

I’m sorry, but I thought it was pretty clear when I said, “I am a new mom, my baby will be with me, if that’s a problem for you, please find someone else.” Apparently not.

Sigh. Now, she says that she would still like me to do some desktop publishing stuff for her on a contract basis, sure, but I think that is worth more than the $8.50/hour you were going to pay me.

So, what does layout and desktop publishing stuff cost freelance nowadays??

[Elenfair]

Depends, Poysyn.

If you work for a publisher, they usually pay by the “finished page” - out here, about 3.00-5.00$ a finished page, which you can really make a killing on if the book is fairly simple to work with.

If you’re working with photography books, or cover art then I charge 25-30$ an hour for the work, depending on the complexity. Of course my reputation is that I do fast, good work (so better pay me more per hour, you’ll get it done faster - sort of like the old saying that you can pay a wonderful attorney 500$ an hour and he will do the job in 15 minutes, or a crappy lawyer at 100 bucks an hour who will need 10 hours to do the work.)

If you’re looking at “ad” type work, then it’s usually by the finished job. I pitch on contracts rather than working on a “per hour” basis. On average, for someone who has experience and depending on the INPUT you’re expected to have, the rates per hour can range between 12$-35$ an hour for a contractor with so-so to reasonable experience.

My advice would be to look at the job she wants you to do, and set a price on that OR a number of hours according to YOUR rate. If you want to ask 15 an hour, go ahead, just pitch the number of hours it will take you to do it.

Good luck