12-page manuscript turned into a biography?

[50862ed4]

Hi everyone!

I’m the dog that caught the mail truck, and I’d like some advice.

I’m in the interview stage with a client who has her grandfather’s diary, and she’s interested in expanding it into a larger biography or historical fiction. Pay is $50/hr. The diary is 12 pages, double-spaced.

She’s new. I’m new.

I’m far from new to writing, but I am new to freelancing, and I’m seeing red (yellow?) flags. The work, inherently, will require research into the era (1850-1900). The inherent nature of research is that not every word is progress. You can read for 3 hours and end up with three relevant points that make it in the final draft. I’m worried she doesn’t realize this, and wondering if I should propose milestones instead?

And, finally, for those of you who’ve done similar work: is this even possible? I’m not sure, no matter how detailed I get, if 12 double-spaced pages can be expanded into anything longer than a short story or novella.

Or, does this all sound fairly typical and I’m just having pre-plunge jitters?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

[colettelewis · Accepted solution]

I suppose it really depends on how deep your client's pockets are. 

I think you are right in thinking milestones and an estimated fixed-price for the whole work might be the better option.  However, anyone who has done this sort of research knows how long it takes to come up with a logical sequence of events to be applied to either a biography or piece of fiction (and how expensive this can be). 

A twelve-page diary is not very long. So I suppose the best thing would be to use the information in those pages as your starting point, and to go back and forward from there. 

I would suggest having an initial milestone of $xxx   to discuss the shape of the book and the areas of research to be covered, which would take some hours of work so the milestone should reflect this. This should give you  good idea of how much to charge and the client, an idea of what to expect. 

[50862ed4]

Thank you so much! This is really helpful.

Looking to take my first client (in this sort of project) with as few embarrassing mistakes as possible, as happy a client as possible, and not regretting the pay arrangement after-the-fact.

You’re awesome!