Part of being a great contract employee
is knowing how to price jobs.
Part of being a great writer
is knowing how long a story idea
will be.
(publishers look for specific lengths
and writers write to these lengths)
The process for the two
is very similar.
For story ideas,
I’ll look at a similar story
I’ve written.
I’ll then tweak the word count
based upon the differences
between the two stories.
At this point in my career,
I know how many pages these differences
will add to the story.
Earlier in my career,
I’d look at how many pages it took
other writers to incorporate differences.
I sometimes would write to certain point
to judge how many more or less words I used.
I’d then extrapolate this variance
for the entire scene.
The more experienced I am,
the closer I am to my estimate.
However,
as with contract jobs,
I err on the low side.
I can easily add description or a scene
to meet word count.
It is more difficult to subtract scenes.
If I don’t make my word count,
my odds of selling the story
greatly diminish.
If I don’t judge a contract job correctly,
I’ll either bid too high and lose the job
or I’ll bid too low and lose money on the job.
Learn how to price contract jobs.