Thread: New Writer needs help setting fee for corporate client

Hello All,
I am the author of a technical book, which I am self publishing. I have found a corporate customer who is interested in re purposing the book for use as the basis of whitepapers for their products. I am excited about this potential, but do not know what rate I should charge. Here are some of the highlights of the deal.

1-Year term to distribute portions of the book for use in company published white papers. I will have final approval of the whitepapers and maintain ownership of my content. In addition, my name and book title will be included in the whitepapers.

The book is a technical book, roughly 150 pages in length.

This is my first book, and I am looking to gain exposure, but also get compensated.

The company is well known in the industry that the technical book serves.Part of the agreement is that I lock in with them and do not offer this service to another firm. However, I am free to market the book on my own.

My question to the forum is: How do I determine what price to charge the company?
Thanks

It doesn't look like too many people know... If this is going to bring you a degree of recognition, and if the company is respected, it may be worthwhile to find a lawyer who deals in these kinds of contracts. Then, just let the lawyer know neither party wants to rip off the other. I know there are writer's guides out there (PDF and print, every year) that give industry-standard price-quotes.

I know that's not much for advice, but I suppose I give it more for encouragement to keep seeking the answer.

Slugfly,
Thank you for your response. Can you please some recommendations on where I can find a guide that provides reasonable information as far as price quotes be. I feel that I have a hybrid type of situation where the book is already written, they just want the right to republish portions of it for their own use. My time has already been invested into the book, I would just need to provide final copy approval when they use my work.

Thanks!

justinryan - I just noticed your post. Based solely on the information you have provided, there is no way to make an educated guess about what you should expect in the way of compensation. There are many factors involved.

Is the corporation based in a G7 nation or in a developing country? If in a G7 nation is the company involved with government contracts? If in a developing country is there donor agency such as EU or USAID funding involved? For how long is the exclusivity agreement? Will you personally write all the white papers, or will they be contracted out to others, consist only of extracts from your book, or be written in-house? At the termination of the agreement who will hold the copyright to all the material? Is there a retainer for the one year you mention?

All of these, and some others I've probably not thought of, will affect how, when, and how much you are paid.