Ask and ye shall receive.
The other day I wondered how other voice actors charge for those pesky re-do's, and got 3 sterling responses you might have missed if you didn't chance to come back read the comments at the bottom of the blog.
Read below to see the three suggestions:
Karen Commins writes:
Unfortunately, I think we all
have run into this kind of situation where a single project threatens
to become your life's work! In quoting my price, I state that I charge
an extra fee for changes to the recording due to script revisions. If I
make a mistake in pronunciation, I will re-record at no charge for only
2 weeks after the client receives the project. After 2 weeks, the
revision charges apply.
I assess the revision fee based on the hourly rate that I want to
maintain. For example, let's say I have decided to be a voice actor
earning $100K a year. Since I don't work a straight 40-hour week in
voice-over, I divide my target income of $100K by my average number of
hours spent working in voice-over for the year to determine that I need
to make $200 an hour in order to meet my goal.
Now that I know my desired hourly rate, I can determine how much of
an hour will be needed to accommodate a revision. With that formula, a
word or sentence would be charged at $50 for 15 minutes of time (my
minimum rate to do *anything*); several pages might be $200-300. I
quote the revision fee BEFORE I do the work, and I send an invoice
immediately upon completing it. When the client realizes that every
change will cost more money, they are more likely to gather all of the
changes at once or decide the revision isn't really needed.
Since the scope of work on your narration project continues to
expand, I think you are in the clutches of a price-buyer, as defined in
Larry Steinmetz's outstanding book "How to Sell at Margins Higher Than
Your Competitors: Winning Every Sale at Full Price, Rate, or Fee". I
highly recommend that every voice actor read and apply the fantastic
information in this book. You can see more info about it on Amazon at: http://tinyurl.com/soalh
________________________
Mandy Nelson writes:
I like Karen's response! I do the
same, charging my minimum for revisions and for some clients I sort of
hand-hold and let them know they should try to get their revisions done
all at once instead of one by one. Some get it, some don't. And letting
them know up front is key – whether it's just a back and forth email or
a full on contract – that any work above and beyond the original script
and recording will be charged accordingly. I really like the 2 week
limit on my own errors, though, and will be implementing that.
_______________________
and, Deb Munro writes:
My theory is this, if client re-writes,
they pay again (but about 40-50% the original rate (broken down into a per page
cost). If I make the mistakes…pronounciations,
not the right read etc, then I don’t charge.
Thanks, Ladies, you really helped with your thoughtful responses.
CourVO
