A: You have much more to consider than the fee, but of course settling on a fee is one of the first steps you should take.

To figure your fee, try to estimate how long you think the project will take. Is the material written, and all you must do is organize, edit and format it? That kind of project will take less time than one in which your clients want you to follow them around for months, collecting material as they remember it. Get a clear picture of what is expected of you, so you can estimate the time required.

Once you have an estimate of the number of hours you will spend on the project, figure out what a regular job would pay hourly. Only you can decide this factor, based on your level of experience and expertise. If you have never before written a book or published anything, you will naturally think in lower terms than authors who have several books to their credit. For purposes of illustration, let’s say you currently make about $20 an hour at your current job, or around $41,000 a year, with perks such as insurance and vacations. You have not yet ever had anything published. Think in terms of bidding the job out at about $25 or $30 an hour, to make up for the fact that no perks are included.

If your $20 per hour job has no perks, then $20 an hour is the rate you would consider for a ghostwriting job, as well.

In such a case, if you think the job will take you six months of working 10 hours a week, multiply your hourly fee by the number of total hours and examine the resulting figure. If it feels low to you, trust your gut and raise it until you feel comfortable with the fee. Don’t underbid, or you will grow to hate the work and resent your client.

Murphy’s Law prevails in any job, so I’ve devised yet another strategy. After years of underbidding jobs and feeling frustration and growing anger, I’ve learned to half again or double my original estimate before I present it to the client. That technique does two things. It gives me some negotiation room, if the client wants to lower the fee a little. If the client accepts the fee as is, the difference helps cover the unexpected. Every job takes longer than you think it will. Every job has bugs that have to be worked out. If you increase your estimate, you allow for snafus and delays as well as for negotiation.

If the client rejects your estimate outright and gives the job to someone else, don’t feel sad. Consider yourself relieved of a job that the client didn’t feel is worthy of a decent fee.

I generally do not recommend working on any project for a percentage of the sale price, unless the project is already under contract with a publisher. In today’s market, the chances of a sale are small. When you work on the speculation that something will sell, you could work a year or two on a project and never collect a penny.

You will have other things to consider, as well, such as a contract that clearly states what is expected of you. You may also be willing to work for less than a normal fee on a project that piques your interest or that is intended to raise funds for a worthy cause. Only you can make those decisions.