How Do We Calculate Prices?
You are likely wondering, "How the heck do those people come up with pricing?" That's an excellent question.
We start with a low, fixed price for a short novel in a word-processing file. Our initial word count is 17,500 words, and we work our way up in tiers. So, a 50K word novel is more than a 17.5K word novella. They're similar in many ways, conceptually and in layout--but not the same amount of work.
COMPLEXITY FACTOR ("CF"):
Then we calculate the complexity. If your book is a how-to, with 100 graphics, charts, images, etc. the complexity is no longer like a simple novel--it's a lot more work. The CF is a multiplier against the base price (as explained above). Then we add any other elements not included in that multiplier, like (old) images requiring optimization, which are priced in packs of ten, for example, or a particular layout element. Once that's completed, we are done with the fundamental pricing. If you need other services or products, we add those in, too, like cover design and editing/proofing.
That's why we need to see your manuscript before we can tell you the price. We're quoting fixed prices, not estimates or hourly rates--we're quoting you a price upon which you can rely. To do that, we need to know how much work we're committing to do--what your file needs and what you want, in other words--and to do that, we have to see the file(s). What we look at, which is generally not visible to the naked eye, and look for, to determine the amount of work versus what you see when you look at it, are two different things. For example, you telling us that you have "120 pages" does not inform us. We can't know from that if you have 30K words, 40K words or more. (What font? What font size? What line-spacing did you use?) We don't know what you have on those pages, or how you typed them. We need to see the book's file(s). That's it. That's the bottom line.
We respectfully request that you not ask us to price the book without seeing it. We're grateful for your understanding around this request.
