How to Negotiate Anything: A Freelancer's Survival Guide Short Book

Negotiation lies at the heart of modern business. If you freelance, you must negotiate. Of course, if you buy a car, you also need to negotiate. This short book will help anyone who faces a negotiation, big or small.

How to Negotiate Anything

A Freelancer’s Survival Guide Short Book

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Copyright Information

Copyright © 2012 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Published by WMG Publishing

Layout and design © copyright WMG Publishing

Cover art © copyright Leo Blanchette/Dreamstime

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

List of all the

Freelancer’s Survival Guide

Short Books

When to Quit Your Day Job

Getting Started

Turning Setbacks into Opportunity

Goals and Dreams

How to Negotiate Anything

The Secrets of Success

How to Make Money

Networking in Person and Online

Time Management

How to Negotiate Anything

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Rules of Negotiation

Negotiating for the Short Term

Understanding Contracts

How to Negotiate Your Own Contract

When to Hire Someone Else to Negotiate Your Contract

About the Author

Copyright Information

Introduction

Negotiation: Modern business wouldn’t exist without it. We negotiate all the time without realizing it. We negotiate our salaries when we take a job. We negotiate our hours every day, even if it’s only to get an extra hour at lunch to take our kid to ball practice.

Some people are gifted negotiators. Some aren’t.

Yet everyone can learn the basics of negotiation—and everyone can become good at it, maybe even brilliant. And the key is not, as some will tell you, to be fearless. The key is to know what you want.

This Freelancer’s Survival Guide short book will teach you everything you need to know about negotiation. It will help you in small situations—like that hour off—and in big ones such as negotiating a contract.

The sections of this short book were originally written for The Freelancer’s Survival Guide, which originated on my blog, kristinekathrynrusch.com. The Guide has morphed into a series of short books. The full Guide will be published in the fall of 2010 in both electronic and paperback editions.

The short books exist for people who don’t want all 130,000 words of the Guide. Those people don’t need help with all aspects of their freelance business, only with a few aspects. If all you need is to learn how to negotiate, then this short book is for you.

The segments in this short book were written on a weekly basis, and I’ve tried to maintain that conversational flavor. Enjoy the book. I hope it helps you in all of your important negotiations.

—Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Lincoln City, Oregon

August 28, 2010

The Rules of Negotiation

My ex-husband used to say all of life is negotiable.

That attitude fascinated me and repelled me at the same time. I loved the way he could get bargains, and I loved the way he refused to hear the word no. But I was raised by people who didn’t negotiate. For all I know, my parents spent full list price on their cars.

The price was the price, my upbringing said. When someone told you the rules, you followed them. You didn’t negotiate them. You didn’t ask for the price to come down. You didn’t try to get something special for yourself.

Who did you think you were, anyway? Someone special? Someone to whom the rules did not apply?

My husband, Dean Wesley Smith, also loves to negotiate. He hates to spend full price for anything. Early in our relationship, I argued with him as he tried to negotiate the price of a television set in a Fred Meyer store. Fred Meyer, for those of you who don’t live near one, was once considered a lower-level department store. Now it’s mid-level. It sells everything from food to electronics to clothes to furniture, but not as cheaply as Wal-Mart or Target nor as expensively as Macy’s. What Fred Meyer shares with those places is this: the listed price is the price. If they want to discount the item, they put it on sale.

Dean never believed that. He knew that the salesperson on the floor couldn’t negotiate, but the manager could. So Dean would see the last television set or the single remaining display model or a huge number of televisions, none of which were moving, and he’d ask for the manager. Then Dean would offer to pay half price and take the item away immediately—no box, no nothing. Just cash.

Nine times out of ten, the manager took him up on the offer. Or she’d negotiate in return. I can’t sell you that television at half price, but I can sell you this one for even less.

Some places—like car dealerships—expect you to negotiate. When I lived in Madison, Wisconsin, there was an appliance and electronics store called American Furniture and Appliances, run by a guy named Lenny. Everyone in town called the place Crazy TV Lenny’s because that was the