Quote:
Originally Posted by mg virtual office solutions
I also offer this type of service (Editing and Formatting - Proofreading, editing, checking spelling/grammar, consistency of message in correspondence and marketing materials) but do not see myself as a copy editor. My question is how do you charge for this type of service: by the hour, page, etc. I had submitted my first proposal for this type of project to edit and proof a 100 page e-book based on a certain number of pages per hour. I know my quote was way to high and I did not get the project. Is there a formula that you use to determine price?
|
Hi Margie,
Many copy editors charge by the page for book editing projects. Makes things simpler because then the author knows exactly what to expect when the invoice comes. To figure out my per-page rate, I sat down with about ten pages worth of content (you can use an existing book or a business report or website content...doesn't really matter, but make sure that the number of words per page is somewhat consistent, around 400 words per page) and timed myself as I edited each page. I had to force myself not to rush through, though, since I knew the timer was going, LOL! Then I divided my hourly rate by 60 (minutes) to get my rate per minute. When I determined the average amount of time it took me to edit each page, I multiplied the number of minutes by my rate per minute to get a per-page rate.
For example, if you charge $30 per hour, your per-minute rate is $.50. If each page takes you 5 minutes to edit, your per-page rate would be $2.50 (which is pretty standard for copy editing rates).
If you were applying for an editing job on Elance or Guru, please know that the providers there tend to way undercharge for their services, so you might have been severely undercut even though you were offering a fair rate. Hang in there, though...there are authors out there who are willing to pay for quality work.