busyNote that the worksheet is old; federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour, state or local wages may be higher, and a living wage would be around $15/hour. Pay attention to how long it takes you to make something. I write lickety-split after decades of practice, which means I can afford to sell a short poem for $5 or a medium-short one for $10, because it just doesn't take me very long to make those. Conversely I have some epics priced $100 or more because they take hours to make. My per-hour rate varies between $20-40 when I'm writing poetry, and it's almost the only time I've ever been paid what my skill is worth.
Ideally, you want to offer some things that are very affordable so everyone can shop with you, and some that are more expensive for people who want to spoil themselves (or you). My low end is the $5 short poems and the microfunded epics where you can donate however much you want. Most of my poems probably fall in the $20-$50 range. I think the top is a little over $200 with a few of the longest epics but those are more likely to go in half-price sales or perks.
Three points to consider on the pricing scale:
* Where you lose money. Unless you are just starting, or using this as a tax writeoff, you really want to set your prices so that you will at least break even.
* What you can get. This is often a lot lower than what your skill or product is really worth. Consider underpricing if you need the money more than the respect. It's often easier to sell 10 cheap things than 2 expensive things.
* What it's really worth. You should know for your own sake, whether or not people will pay it, how much your skill or product should cost. There are websites that will calculate a wage or salary if you key in your years of experience and education. You might also look at what the professional rates are in your field. There's been talk about raising the pro rate for fiction writing from $.05/word to $.07/word but unless most of the magazines are planning to raise their pay rates, that's pointless. Most places don't even pay that much. Pro rate for poetry is supposedly $50/poem. I've made that a couple times from a conventional editor and most months from crowdfunding if folks are buying epics.
May 15 2014, 02:18:21 UTC 7 years ago