It has been said that although talent is a requisite to entering the industry, knowledge levels the playing field.
I wish I had had access to the information available in this big, thick book when I was freelancing. Even if only to give myself an idea of what I should have been charging my clients!

The legal information is specific to the United States and would be worth looking into for your own specific country; but, as a guideline it is near as perfect as you could ever ask for. If nothing else it makes you come across a great deal more professional by virtue of a bit of background knowledge.

For instance:
If a job is cancelled after work is begun, through no fault of your own, a kill fee can be charged (covering all work done, including research time, sketches, and compensation for lost opportunities from refusing offers of other work, etc.). I had felt this was a moral obligation, anyway. But it is a standard legal one!
Worth knowing since this has happened to me on several occasions in the past, and I could have demanded between 20-50 percent of the original price - Ouch!
It was just such an incident which ended my career as a freelancer, since I had been forced to buy in some expensive perishable materials on the client's request a few days before my client then dropped me.
The biggest loss however was to my confidence; as during this incident, I know that I rejected at least one high profile contract. Although I was also charging such inadequate fees at the time that it still wouldn't have brought me much reward!
This book would have helped me here also, as it furnishes rough prices you can easily scale around your own work.

Reading this book, and its updated editions, has filled me with renewed optimism.
The question is: after so many years, am I tempted to take the bate?
Even if I don't bite, this book has certainly rekindled my interest in an area which till recently I had written off. ( )