[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

It's not big enough. Most companies want to hire someone on premises, as they are very afraid that people tell them "it costs me X hours", while in actuality, it costs them X/2 hours. I for one know that, in 90% of all cases, writing software costs *more* time than you would ever think. There is *always* stuff you can't foresee, or which you have to research, which often costs more time than actually implementing the solution.

Hmmm. I've worked as a pay-by-the-hour consultant, (and not at cheap rates, either) and I have to admit, I never had that issue come up. Ever. That doesn't mean anything--too small of a sampling--but it's odd (to me) that it's so prevalent in your biz. Weird.

I agree, EVERYTHING takes more time, when you are billing hourly, than you ever recoup. No argument.



<Snip the direct photography discussion>

For some people, 'better' does not exist; only 'pay less money' is what counts, and apparently, aunt Maggie and uncle Pete are 'good enough' nowadays. As a working person, you can't compete with free.

For example, with regard to building websites and stuff... do you *KNOW* how many 'web design agencies' there are around here, with 1-5 employees? They make websites for such low prices that it comes down to "install wordpress, install plugins, frack a theme on top of it, change colors and logo, glue everything together, configure, and done", because otherwise, it costs too much time. They basically need to deliver a website every two days to barely survive.

And 'cheap' is everything that counts. Having something custom made is only possible for big companies (the baker in town balks at a €250 website already), and as I said: big companies only hire on premises.

Brother, you are preaching to the choir, there. I deal with that daily. Quoted a woman to do her ebooks. She accepts the quote. Good. We move her into production, and THEN she asks, "do you also do print?" Well, her book was simple enough, so, yes, we do. (We don't do big ornate books. Not our cuppa). We send her another quote.

THEN she comes back and wants to know why we're more valuable (e.g., : more money) than "some local people who say that they will do all of that and more, like uploading my books, getting my ISBNs..."

I had to restrain myself from saying "Lady, you ASKED ME. If you don't think we add value, why are you here?" And that's endemic, in the global economy. There's always some dips**t, either down the street, or in their kitchen, or on their $300 computer, or what-have-you, promising a better product for less money. Or, a slightly-less-great product for free. (Auntie whosie-whatsits.)

I know all too well about the website thing, too. I see that CONSTANTLY. Authors, particularly, telling web dudes (and dudettes, no sexism here), that they "can get a custom website from Wix/GoDaddy/insert flavor du jour here) for FREE!" (or, $1, or $25, you name it.)

Of course, that's not what it means. They can get GoDaddy, for ex. to upload/install hosted Wordpress. But that's a far cry from a completed website.

And I also struggle with that "why are you better" question daily, just about our eBooks. Why are we "better" than Indians doing the same work? Why are we "better" than Mary Sue, who uploads a Word file?

(n.b.: no jingoism here about the good citizens of India, making a living. It happens to be the area of the world that produces the most outsourcers that compete with my biz directly.)

There's a real issue, when you cannot directly show or see the results, and the difference. Same is true, no doubt, in writing C#. The people for whom you are writing it can't see the CODE. Or, rather, don't know what they're looking at. Same here. I coudl SHOW Mary Sue how her Calibre-created MOBI looks, in HTML, but...so what? Her theory is, if she can't SEE the underbelly, why does she CARE?

I concur--pricing for quality work, in a world in which everybody has access to everybody else, is a b***h. It is. I don't have some magic answer. I wish I did (oh, BELIEVE ME). I wish I knew how to make that which is invisible to people, MATTER to them. If I knew, I'd tell you.

I think that all you can do is keep a very detailed and thorough record of what you have accomplished, and use that. We have a boatload of extraneous, somewhat worthless pages on our site, that exist for NO other reason than to show hundreds of books that we've done, to establish credibility. I think that's the ONLY way to fight that "cheap is better" mindset.

Doubt that helps. Wish it would. I don't envy you your uphill battle on this front. (Is there anything--anything at all--that you encounter, in that battle, that would provide a kernel of an idea, for a service or website or..? that would address that battle?)

Hitch