What should I charge to edit an audio book?

[Rodney Morris]

With all due respect Bouke, this is what is wrong with our industry – we are letting the clients dictate the price. Clients NEVER want to pay more, they always want to get something for less. And when they dictate the price, it will ALWAYS go down in the long run. It may work for short term profit, but is completely short sighted (and damaging to everyone else in the business) in the realm of long-term sustainability.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Bouke Vahl]

First, i must admit i’m not a sound guy, i’m a video editor.
For me, a long job is more than 3 weeks.
My normal rates then do not apply.

I never got the ’10 bucks an hour’ answer, as my clients know my rates beforehand.
But on long jobs, it happens a lot that working days get scattered for various reasons. Eg, I expect the freedome to take good paying rushjobs if they come up, they expect the freedome not to show up if it turns out to bee very good weather and need to shoot some additional footage.

The days of high end high pay studios are over, if we like it or not.
My suites were concidered small and cheap when i started out, nowadays i run the most expensive suites around here, and they have not changed much. (Except for normal updates on outdated software/hardware)
I used to compete with high end / high brow studios that were bashing NLE’s, now I have to compete with kids that run illegal versions on home made computers without additional hardware.

It’s not that my clients dictate, it’s more that the entire market dictates. I try to work with my clients in a way everyone is happy.

And that includes educating them to be more efficient. If they start with ‘this must be done cheap’, i start with ‘better be well prepared’
IOW, having a good relation with clients is the most essential part of my business. If that does not work anymore, i’m out of work.

Bouke

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