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Freelance Editing Prices

Updated: Feb 4

“Fifty dollars an hour? It must be nice!”


Let’s talk about money. If you are a professional, as editors are, and work for a company in an office, that company pays you a salary or an hourly wage. In addition, that company typically provides benefits beyond your pay: things like health insurance, paid sick days, paid vacation days, contributions to your retirement account, training. They also provide the office where you work, your desk chair, your desk, the materials you need, a computer, and so on. They withhold and pay taxes on your behalf, contributing a portion themselves as well. If all these benefits were accounted for in your hourly wage or salary, you would be making significantly more than what is added to your bank account every two weeks.

A boss cartoon represents full-time employment. Colorful circles with icons show what employers typically cover in wages and benefits: Full-time employment typically provides both wages and benefits that cover family and employment needs: child care, education, savings, utilities, housing, food, transportation, clothing, health care, retirement savings, office furniture, technology devices, software, office supplies, professional training, sick days, vacation days, professional networking, and health insurance.
Full-time employment typically provides both wages and benefits that cover family and employment needs: child care, education, savings, utilities, housing, food, transportation, clothing, health care, retirement savings, office furniture, technology devices, software, office supplies, professional training, sick days, vacation days, professional networking, and health insurance.

The opposite is true for freelancers. From the money clients pay us, we have to pay for all the usuals—food, clothing, housing, utilities, child care costs, transportation, education, insurance, health care—plus we have the full burden of the costs businesses typically absorb for their employees: overhead, furniture, office supplies, software, training/courses, books or other resources needed to do the job, professional association dues, 100% of health insurance premiums, all retirement contributions. And then there are the self-employment costs: marketing and advertising, the self-employment tax, business insurance, website costs, professional services, travel, events, internet, and making up income lost for sick or vacation days.


several client silhouettes represent a freelancer's "boss." The colorful circles from above are inside yet another one that shows icons that represent a freelancer's costs: the self-employment tax, overhead, a website, professional services, books and resources, internet, travel expenses, events, advertising/marketing.
Client payments need to meet all a freelancer's needs, including the ones listed above, plus: the self-employment tax, overhead, a website, professional services, books and resources, internet, travel expenses, events, advertising/marketing.


When you hire a freelancer, in essence you are their employer for a brief while, and the money you pay them has to meet all their needs for that time. While many freelance editors charge by the word for editing services, those rates are typically based on a minimum hourly rate they need to get by. And here’s something important you must understand: Editors cannot sit at their desks and edit for a straight eight hours. Not if they want to do a good job. Editing takes a level of focus and concentration that cannot be maintained for the length of a typical workday, and there are other job duties that must be attended to if the editor wants to have more work in the future: marketing, advertising, doing sample edits, communicating with clients, attending events, updating their website, keeping on top of new trends, taking courses to improve professionally, doing the bookkeeping, sending out invoices and contracts, etc. 



Let’s take an example: a copyedit of a 50,000-word fiction manuscript. Say the editor in question can edit at a speed of ~2,500 words per hour, which is on the high end. That would mean this book would take twenty hours of work, which would take at least a full week (remember, editors can’t focus and fulfill their purpose editing for eight straight hours a day).

An open book has "50K words" on its pages. Next to that, it says ~2,500 words/hour = 20 hours of work = 1 full week

I’ve seen rates for copyediting as low as $0.002 per word, and these were not sales, promotions, or new editors trying to drum up business and referrals. At that rate, a 50,000-word manuscript will earn the editor just $100 for a week of work (if that editor isn’t rushing through the job to get to the next one, that is). That’s equal to $5 an hour.


At the lower end of the EFA rates, an editor earning $0.02 per word would earn $1,000 for that week of work. That’s $50 an hour, a wage that will allow the editor to provide for their family, pay for professional development to improve their craft, purchase books and resources to do the job to the best of their ability, and devote to each manuscript the time it needs to be its best. This wage also allows the editor to edit a limited number of hours per day so as to give each book their full focus and attention, to take time off when they are sick, and to recharge their batteries with vacation time.


The same text and image from above, plus two equations are added: $0.002/word = $100 arrow $5/hour. $0.02/word = $1,000 arrow $50/hour


When considering the cost of professional editing, authors need to ask themselves these questions:

·       Does this rate provide my editor with a living wage*?

·       At this rate, will my editor be able to devote the time needed to polish my manuscript?

·       If you’re paying rock-bottom prices for editing, is the quality of that editing worth even what little you may be paying?

·       What are my goals in getting this book edited, and what rate will best help me reach those goals?


Editors are not out to fleece you, to get rich off your business, or to be layabouts only working half days. They are working to pay their bills.

 

* The Global Living Wage Coalition defines a living wage as “the remuneration received for a standard work week by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.”

 

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Convidado:
06 de fev.

Terrific post on pricing, Blunderwoman! I'm a writer and editor too, and I'll connect with you on LI. Be well, friend.

Curtir
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