Provided by Washington DC engraver Jim Roberts. This information circa 1999.

The rates set by the DC musician's union are $8 for a single stave page, $12
for a double stave part (piano, harp, etc.) If you put 2 parts on one page
(Flute 1 & 2 on a single one staff part for example) double the price (i.e.,
$16 per single stave page). Score pages, if needed, are $15 per page.

Other things that might figure into the price: your experience, the deadline
involved, the density of the composition (lots of 16ths and 32nds in all
parts, for example), will you deliver a "master set" of parts for your client
to duplicate or deliver a complete set yourself?

You can quickly give your client a range estimate with the numbers above.
Figure a density of 40-50 bars for the first page of each single stave part
and 50-70 for each subsequent page. Do the math based on the length of the
piece.

Say each of your parts will be 5 pages long; 5 x $8 = $40 per part, you're
doing 11 parts = $440. The piano part is 11 pages x $12 = $132. Total = about
$575 - $700.

You should find out if your client is willing to pay this much for your work
before you get started. My experience is that people that have never hired a
computer copyist before are unpleasantly surprised when the bill arrives.
They think it's somehow "easier to do on computer" and should therefore be
cheaper than a person that does the work by hand. You know by now that that's
just not so. (I did a job once for a guy who had used a pen person all his
career; when I sent the bill we got into an embarrassing discussion about the
price of my work. Not pleasant...)

You should probably discount your fee for this first job. The prices above
are for professionals used to delivering high quality stuff on a tight
deadline. If you haven't done a lot of that type of work consider yourself a
"trainee" gathering "On-The-Job-Experience." I did a lot of work for free or
cases of beer (cheap!) before I considered myself capable of taking on
deadline driven, high-level work for non-buddies. Perhaps you could agree to
do the work for the price of materials (a toner cartridge and some paper) in
exchange for first consideration on the next job.

Some other things to consider, regardless of your experience:

* There is no excuse for a bad page turn! You MUST allow time at the bottom
corner of all right hand pages for the performer to turn the page. No
excuses allowed! Performers will forgive a lot of things; lousy page turns
are not among them.

* Do not set the page reduction too small in an attempt to save money. With
the Maestro font 90% is big enough to be seen by the bass players and still
small enough to get plenty of music on the page. Performers prefer bigger
(not too big) over smaller, even if it means turning more pages.

* The best thing about Finale is allows "aural" proof reading; you can play
back on the part on your computer before you pass it out. You MUST do this,
even it means staying up all night before the first rehearsal. There is no
excuse these days for putting a part on the stand with wrong notes in it. You
should allow about 50-75% as much time as took to enter the parts for the
proofreading stage. This is vital! (Better is to have a spouse or friend
proofread; they always seem to catch more clams) Nothing will lower your
value as a copyist among the musicians than having to stop a lot during
rehearsals to fix YOUR mistakes; don't let this happen to you!

* You MUST meet the clients deadline no matter how unreasonable it might
seem. (If you don't think you can make it, don't take the job!) There's a
saying among copyists: "You can have beautiful parts, have them quickly, you
can have them cheaply--PICK TWO!"

* When you give away the parts, you give away your leverage to get paid. A
contract is a good idea, even if it's only a friend or for your church. This
is a sad fact; copyists have traditionally done work on a handshake and a pat
on the back. I did a big job for a trumpet player whose name you know that
took almost a year to get paid for. No contract, just a big job with a fast
turn around. Be very hinky about your money; you're going to spend a LOT of
time on this project and you should get compensated for it.

"The goal of all notation is to allow reasonably competent musicians to sight
read the music accurately the first time." (Ted Petrosky) All your work as a
copyist should be done with that goal in mind.

Hope this helps; good luck!-

Jim Roberts