Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tony Burton on April 20, 2010 at 10:29am

John,

I have developed educational and training curricula for a variety of subjects. The areas you are curious about really require more information for anyone to give you meaningful input. It would be useful to know things like the subject matter, whether the author wants case studies, open-ended questions, or simple review questions such as multiple-choice, true/false, how in-depth the training is, etc.


Tony Burton

Permalink Reply by John Christensen on April 20, 2010 at 11:12am

Hi Tony,
Thanks for the quick reply.

She's a corporate trainer/personal coach. Her focus is coping with stress, job satisfaction and personal/professional fulfillment. For each section, she's looking for introductory material about, for example, how harmful stress is, etc., and then will provide her own materials in the form of questions for the reader to answer.

This just came up yesterday, so I'm doing some preliminary fact-finding before we talk again. So if you're thinking I don't seem particularly knowledgable, you're right.

But my impression is she's less concerned with case studies than with anecdotes, etc., that illustrate various points and set up her own material.

She says she wants a 50-page workbook and -- blue-skying -- about 30,000 to 40,000 words. I think I've talked her down regarding the word count. Even 20,000 seems high, which is why I was hoping to connect with someone like you.

FYI, I looked through some workbooks yesterday. "Think and Grow Rich," which is adapted from Napoleon Hill's book, is entirely text and 125 pages or more. Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way Workbook" was 162 pages, and it includes text and a lot of assignments, and space to do the assignments.

Another -- "Team Games for Trainers" -- was 300 pages, and far more than I think she intends.

I'm guessing Cameron's workbook would be closer to the model she has in mind. Thus...enough text to make the point thoroughly and then get out of the way for the exercises. So I'm guessing probably a maximum of 10,000 words...does that sound sensible?

Also, she's got this wild notion of having it done in a month. Talking to a local publisher yesterday, that got a big laugh. More reasonable seems to be 6 weeks to 3 months. Do you agree?

Anyway, I apologize for flying blind right now, but I'd be grateful for any thoughts you have.

And my thanks again for responding.

Best wishes,
John

Permalink Reply by Tony Burton on April 20, 2010 at 12:55pm

With the page count of the workbook and how you describe the content, I'd say that 30- to 40-K words is a high number. Even with it produced in an 8.5 x 11 format (which I'd recommend), it would not allow much room for writing. It sounds more like a very compressed text. To put it another way, a novel of 50,000 words or so in 5.5 x 8.5 format ends up being well over 200 pages. If you cut that in half because of the page size, it still runs over 100 pages. Knock 20% off the word count, and it may come down to 80 pages. But that is still all text, and no room for any writing space. Make sense?

If she really has 40,000 words worth of material, she will want to have lots of white space plus room for attendees to write their notes and answers. Put that in 8.5 x 11 format, preferably coil-bound, and she is looking at a more reasonable page count of somewhere around 120 to 140 pages, depending on how the book is formatted.

If you can talk her down to 10,000 words, she may be able to put it into a 40- to 50-page workbook.

She may be able to write the thing in a month, but add printing it to the mix and your local publisher is right to laugh. I'd say the total is more like (at best) six weeks, but probably two to three months.

Good luck on the project.

Regards,
Tony

Permalink Reply by John Christensen on April 20, 2010 at 1:28pm

Thanks, Tony, that helps a lot.

Two quick questions:
• Would 10,000 words in a 40- or 50-page workbook still allow room for answering questions, taking notes, etc.

• Can you give me a ballpark figure as to what the writer's fee would be for that -- meaning 10,000 words and 40 to 50 pages?

Thanks again. This has been a tremendous help.

Cheers,
John

Permalink Reply by Tony Burton on April 20, 2010 at 2:13pm

10,000 words in a 50-page 8.5 x 11 workbook would take up maybe two-thirds of the available page space with decent white space and margins, depending on the formatting, line spacing, etc. So, that ought to give plenty of space for writing answers. It doesn't address the idea of any illustrations or pictures she may want, though.

As to the writer's fee, I'm afraid I can't be of much help there. A lot of it would depend on exactly how much help you are giving to this person. If you are ghost-writing it entirely, based upon her input and/or notes, it would be much more than if you were merely polishing her rough draft. And, you have to consider whether or not you will be the one preparing the book for print (formatting and page layout), which is another time-sucker. If I were quoting this, I'd probably get very specific about exactly what the client expects from me and what she will provide, and then build my quote/proposal around that.

Regards,

Tony

Permalink Reply by John Christensen on April 20, 2010 at 2:22pm

That's great, Tony. Just what I was looking for. Thanks so much for your help, and I hope that someday I can reciprocate.

Best wishes,
John