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pedanterast
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« on: November 09, 2011, 12:48:31 PM » |
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I have been approached by a prolific but sloppy author of e-books (fiction sold on Kindle) about doing some proofreading and possibly some editing. Anyone out there give me a baseline rate? Per page? Per hour? Per error?
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lasquires
Hopelessly Abject
Senior member
Posts: 715
Awaiting the zombie apocalypse.
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« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2011, 01:31:13 PM » |
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I've been doing this sort of work for a while, and I charge $2.25/page (standard typescript formatting). I know really experienced editors (usually with publishing industry experience) who go as high as $3.00.
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Live every week like it's Shark Week--30 Rock
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jessvo
New member
Posts: 33
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« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2011, 04:38:03 PM » |
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I've received $2.50 per page for copyediting for academic journals. I also do dissertation editing/proofing and I charge by the hour for that, because the amount of time I spend on a page varies widely by author. My usual rate for that is $20 an hour.
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tuxedo_cat
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« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 04:52:35 PM » |
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Someone else may have more precise advice on the tax front, but when I was doing freelance proofreading for an ad agency several years ago (about $30 hour), a huge chunk of that payment went to payroll + other taxes, maybe 35% of my paycheck.
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The only protection from zombies is a good friend who runs slightly more slowly than you do.
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pedanterast
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« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2011, 05:44:55 PM » |
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Right. This is self-employment and that right now is 13.3% but will sunset back to 15.3% at the end of the year. Then I'd have to pay state and federal income tax on top of that. $20 an hour wouldn't be enough, given those taxes, but I think I'm going to go with a page rate anyway. Issue there is, Kindle has no page numbers and if it's 100 pages in Word that would be closer to 250 Kindle pages.
The author doesn't know yet if they want me to go back and fix the errors on what they already have on Kindle (lots of the reviews like the books but complain about all the errors) or just work together going forward. I think if I do the existing books it makes more sense to charge by the error. Author has just put book #4 on Kindle and claims to have an "ambitious publishing schedule."
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totoro
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« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2011, 05:49:34 PM » |
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$20 an hour for a professional is way too low for anything...
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bibliothecula
Academic ronin
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 3,907
like Bunnicula, only with books
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« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2011, 05:58:10 PM » |
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Current rates from the Editorial Freelancers Association are listed here: http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php. If you are in a big city and/or have a lot of previous professional editing experience, you can ask for the high end. If your editing has been limited to your own work, or scholarly work (like on a journal, etc), then you should start at the lower end. |
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I came. I saw. I cited.
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pedanterast
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« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2011, 06:21:57 PM » |
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Thanks for the link! Author said yesterday they would not be getting back to me until next week but that they had "definite interest." I offered them a free sample of my work, an hour or so. I will let you all know how it goes. There is a lot of bad writing out there on Kindle so this could have some growth potential, if I can hook this first author and do a good job.
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lasquires
Hopelessly Abject
Senior member
Posts: 715
Awaiting the zombie apocalypse.
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« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2011, 08:06:29 PM » |
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I'm reaching a point where I think I should charge a bit more for my services (it comes out to about $25-30/hour depending on how much work the document needs). The problem is that there are particularly desperate grad students here willing to work for $1.85/page, which is ridiculously low, in my opinion. I get away with $2.25 because I'm fast and easy to work with, but the couple of times I've asked for $2.50, I've lost the job to someone else.
I am in a pretty moderate cost of living area as well. In an expensive urban area, $3.00/page would probably be baseline.
By the way, you can call a "page" 250 words and charge based on that rate as well.
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Live every week like it's Shark Week--30 Rock
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niceday
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« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2011, 08:16:51 PM » |
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Why does where you live matter to how much you charge? Isn't most of this kind of work done online or via email?
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lasquires
Hopelessly Abject
Senior member
Posts: 715
Awaiting the zombie apocalypse.
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« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2011, 08:26:20 PM » |
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Why does where you live matter to how much you charge? Isn't most of this kind of work done online or via email?
All of my current clients are local, actually. |
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Live every week like it's Shark Week--30 Rock
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bibliothecula
Academic ronin
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 3,907
like Bunnicula, only with books
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« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2011, 10:05:19 PM » |
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Why does where you live matter to how much you charge? Isn't most of this kind of work done online or via email?
Like other COLs, prices are higher in big cities, and places home to large publishers. You can get more if you are working out of NY. I don't know why, you just can. |
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I came. I saw. I cited.
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promovenda
Just thrilled to be a
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Lost in the library
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« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2011, 06:33:49 AM » |
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Bookmarking.
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"You're a wonderful bartender, Promovenda. The hamster bestows one of his special nibbles on your ear."
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oldadjunct
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« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2011, 06:16:59 PM » |
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Twenty bucks an hour? Plumbers make twice that. I won't even talk to you for under $2k a day, some of my friends will drop to $18k (even $16k) per day, plus expenses. Yes, I do teach for well less than that, but only because my per diem on contracts far exceeds it.
I am not exaggerating. If you are willing to work for 20 bucks an hour, well that is probably what you are worth.
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Fiction is baseball; Rhetoric is football.
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pedanterast
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« Reply #14 on: November 10, 2011, 06:28:35 PM » |
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It'd be nice if I could get $2,000 a day ($250 per hour) for proof-reading but I don't really see that happening. It's not like I'm a recognized expert in the field. So somewhere north of $20 an hour and south of $250 an hour, I guess is what I will shoot for. If $20 an hour is the equator and $250 is the North Pole, maybe I can get to the Tropic of Cancer.
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