What am I gonna do?

[RoyBiggins]

I'm editing this guy's book.  It's not a bad book.  It's full of good ideas executed poorly.  But there's a good book in there.  He's getting his Doctor of Ministry degree right now, and the book counts as his doctoral thesis, sort of.  He needs me to help him with it because, while the school would probably take it in the poorly-written form its in and be fine (somehow), nobody would EVER publish it this way.

I've been working with him for a few weeks.  It started out as light copyediting, but diverged into comprehensive content editing, too.  This kind of work is worth a lot of money (probably $40/hour if I was a pro).  I'm not, but I am trained to edit this kind of nonfiction pretty well.  I think we could take it to the level where some Christian publishing houses would definitley take it.  

I've done the work so far for very little money--free food and coffee, and the promise of money in the future.  He wants me to quote him a price to finish editing the book, which will take me a couple of months of treating it like a real, 20-or-more hours a week job (on top of the 40 hours I already pull down).  

How much money should I tell him?  Any advice or talking points are very welcome.

[elpollodiablo]

How well do you know this guy? I mean, is he a very close friend, or just an associate who needs a helping hand?

[RoyBiggins]

Father of a good friend.

[DCDave]

Oh man. The thing is that books don't actually make money.

[rockmeamadeus]

Oh man. The thing is that books don't actually make money.

Truer words never were spoken.

Tell him what you think the book is capable of, then how much time you're going to need to put into it, then tell him you're going to need either A) So much money an hour for the time you put in, or B) A percentage of the profits.

B, I don't think is entirely legal in your situation, but I really don't know.

[DCDave]

Oh man. The thing is that books don't actually make money.

Truer words never were spoken.

Tell him what you think the book is capable of, then how much time you're going to need to put into it, then tell him you're going to need either A) So much money an hour for the time you put in, or B) A percentage of the profits.

B, I don't think is entirely legal in your situation, but I really don't know.

I mean, you could write up a contract so that it would be, but you should REALLY take the money.  Guy is looking at maybe $10K for a first book. MAYBE.

Maybe 30K if it's AMAZING

[Bernard]

Maybe you could look around in trade journals, etc., and see what people with a c.v. similar to your doing the same type of work are charging? Get a feel for the market price.

[RoyBiggins]

All very sound advice.  It's just a matter of getting paid enough that I won't feel robbed or angry, I think.  My C.V. needs the boost, and it doesn't look like I'm going to get a chance to do anything this big for a while...I'll probably go for it and ask him for about ten bucks an hour (an accomplished freelance editor, upon close inspection makes something like 40/hr) and just tell him that if it ends up being more than a hundred and fifty hours worth of work, we'll talk.  

It's tough, becuase I feel like I look like a sucker in this situation, but I want to help the guy.

[Greg Nog]

Also, keep in mind that he's a Christian.  You should make it part of the deal that if you do this, he has to use his Spooky Powers to get you into heaven.

[rockmeamadeus]

Dude, Spooky Powers don't get you into heaven... only money can do that. Come on, read the bible, stop using it as a door-stop.

[RoyBiggins]

He's probably going to pay me over a grand, so that's good.  I'll sleep okay with that, I think.

[crystalcakes]

If you're inexperienced and helping out a friend, I would charge between 10-15 an hour.  Or give a flat rate of whatever makes you happy (don't go under a thousand) and leave it at that.  Charging friends is so hard.  I totally know where you're coming from.