Advice on a book design quote

[Ink Eye Studios]

I'm working on a bid for a book. How much would you charge for something like this?

The manuscript is 260,000 words and around 450 pages long. (We are assuming the book will be around 400 pages.)
There will be about 100 b&w illustrations and 6 maps, also b&w.
We plan to print 250 hardcover and 750 softcover.

Thanks for the advice. I haven't had a book job before so I don't know what going rate is.

[Hrabovsky]

What market? Retail, direct, educational... etc. It varies.

Go get/look at a copy of the latest Graphic Artists Guild Pricing Guidlines book or one put out in the last 3–5 years. To buy one new is kind of pointless when you can get a past year's used for less and the price quotes really won't have changed that much.
Graphic Artists Guild - Handbook

[Plantweed]

Are you just designing the book or also paginating it? If it's just black, $2K might be good, for 4 color maybe $4K. That's just for design, and for a medium amount of elements.

[Ink Eye Studios]

Here is some more info about the project:
I think the illustrations will be already scanned for the designer.
I don’t know how big the maps are, but I doubt there’d be any foldouts—we’re talking a nonprofit historical society.
I imagine the hardcover would probably have endpaper and a dustjacket.

I don't there is going to be anything fancy based on the budget.

[Ink Eye Studios]

The last bit of info was provided by one of the editors of the book.

[Plantweed]

By elements I was referring to chapter openers, heads, subheads, sidebars, etc. I designed and art directed textbooks which were loaded with this stuff, thus had higher budgets. Sounds offhand like you might be in the $1K to $2K range.

[Hrabovsky]

Be wary of them providing "camera ready" art and make sure you have it in the ink that you're not responsible for materials for print that are submitted out of spec.

Get the GAG book. The $35 I spent on mine has more than paid for itself in terms of me not underselling or just covering my ass with the random kook client.

[Ink Eye Studios]

Thanks for the responses. I'm borrowing the GAG book and investigating some more.

I'll have a contract ready just in case if I win the bid.