ROI Clinic
Controlling Costs for Copy

Case: A start-up needs to develop an abstract, a poster, and series of slides to present preliminary data at a scientific meeting. The principals are trying to decide whether to hire a staff person to handle the writing or contract-out the work.

Clinic: When you hire writer, if you want someone who can do the work quickly and accurately with minimal training time, you will have to pay handsomely. So ask yourself: Will we be needing scientific writing constantly for the foreseeable future? If not—if your needs are intermittent or time-limited—you should contract the work. Contracting can be done remotely via email (Pharmhand.net does this all the time). Email can be supplemented with in-person meetings and conference calls when necessary.

Typical cost to contract the text for a scientific poster, based on your study reports: $1600 (first draft and 2 rounds of revisions). Typical cost for an abstract, written to fit guidelines of a scientific meeting: $850.