Hi,
Any idea how much to charge for a children’s book cover design? Plus a bit of Photoshop editing.
Would you charge per hour or offer a package price?
I’m also thinking of increasing my hourly rate. Would be interesting to hear how much you guys charge (it obviously depends on experience; I’ve been doing graphics for around 6 years now).
Thanks!
its always a job rate. I think the rate is around $500.Iif you are given the illustration and there is less graphics / concept to do then sometimes the charge could be less.
Hi Dassy,
I think by 6 years (really by 2/3 years already) you shouldn’t be charging an hourly price on anything! What you are doing then is penalizing yourself for getting more skilled and working quicker 
The best way to calculate your pricing is to create a spreadsheet of how long each type of project takes you and then how much it would be worth your time to do it for. You can reassess every year or so if it is still taking you that long etc.
I would time at least 4-5 projects from start to finish on toggl.com
(timing every time you email the client, brainstorm, revisions etc)
After you do that you should have an idea of how long a project will take you. Yes some clients may take a bit longer, and some a bit quicker but your overall price should make sense for both.
The rate you are “working for” per hour does not need to be told to the client rather the final price.
I find clients are happier with that as well since they know the total amount up front and afterwards they dont sit there questioning every minute.
not sure why my post posted in bold!! Sorry!
Thanks Zippy and Adina!
The thing is that I don’t necessarily find the process quicker just because I’ve been working for longer. Oh, the execution is quicker, sure. But I spend so much time on research, concept and tweaking/touching up the end result… I like everything to be perfect If I try to factor it all in and come up with a package price, lots of clients seem to be scared away (though I am aware that my package prices are not in the higher range at all). If I give an hourly rate and they are OK with that, they seem to be more likely to take me on as there are no large numbers to scare them off! Does that make sense???
You should be confident enough with your work at this point which boils over to the pricing that you give for it! People don’t get that scared away if you are confident (clients sense confidence even in emails) and besides i’m assuming that we aren’t talking such huge numbers! if you think that a set price doesn’t make all those small tweaks and revisions worth it then offer a certain amount of revisions with the project price and all revisions after that will be charged at xx amount per hour which you usually don’t come to because when clients know there’s a limit they will tell you everything at once and then they’ll be happy with the result!
Don’t know if thats at all helpful-sorry for the drasha!
Thanks Ahuva!
I think I come across as pretty confident, both in verbal and written correspondence. I guess the ones who don’t get back to me after an enquiry are just not meant to be!
I would love a general pricing guide for various graphics/branding projects, nonetheless…
You can always follow up on an inquiry!
Not when they are phone calls… (my mobile number is on my LinkedIn account)
I have no other contact details apart from their numbers and I definitely don’t plan to cold-call!
Oh well
Looking at your portfolio from when you graduated Design Alive (assuming it’s the same Dassy Halpern ) I think you could charge a lot a lot!
And I don’t like charging per hour, both for my sake and my clients
I have seen your work and its AMAZING! You can charge accordingly!
People value your work want to work with you.
In general i prefer to work project based and not hourly. It frees my head to just focus on the actual project and clients like to know the bottom line.
Goldie and Schlomith - thank you so much for the vote of confidence!
Do you not use an hourly rate to create a package price? Hourly rate * expected number of hours = package price?
Yes, I do. But the client does not see this, it’s my internal cheshbon.
Right, of course, just want to know what the benchmark is
Even with the calculating per hour, Keep in mind the total needs to make sense. So if it takes you two hours to create a A4 ad I wouldn’t charge just $100 even if your “calculated” rate is around $50 per hour.
It makes sense to spend some time creating estimated total rates for the projects you are usually reached out for and then take it from there.
Thats what I do - I have a rate per hour but the client doesn’t know how much it is. I then calculate how long it’ll take me times my rate and then add some more money for revisions, back and forth phone or email conversations…etc.
Some clients I add a lot of money to the package price because I know that they are harder clients and it is worth my time only if they pay a higher price…
Plus include a buffer time + 10-15%
Thanks all - very helpful!