How To Set Up Prices For Editing Services

Ask any freelancer: Determining your rates can exist about as challenging as the actual work itself. In that location's plenty to consider, and y'all don't desire to leave coin on the tabular array or lose a customer. To help, we've put together this in-depth guide.

Don't forget dollars are only part of the equation

"How much is this going to toll?" How many times have you been asked that in your freelance career? Probably so many times you could answer in your sleep.

But not with a number, with either "It depends" or "I take a few questions first." Giving a quick answer to how much something costs—especially when you're talking about freelance editing or freelance editing rates—without getting some more than item never ends well. As you lot tease out more information y'all starting time to run the numbers in your head.

Okay, 100,000 words, very technical topic, first time author. That's going to bump to the college cease of the range. A looming deadline and the task needs to be done fast? That means pricing your editing rates at the higher end, plus xv% rush accuse. The motion picture gets clear and all you need is to give a number.

What is that number? What'due south that range you first with to piece of work out how much to charge for your freelance editor rate? There are no easy answers (especially a apartment rate) to those questions. Our other posts near setting your rates and advice to requite our past selves, all touch on the topic and all have the same reply:

Information technology depends.

Whether information technology'southward copy editing, developmental editing, or even being a volume editor, in that location are a few resource for finding out how much to accuse for freelance editing rates and they all intermission things down similar this:

Per word rates.
Per folio rates.
Per hour rates.
What kind of work is it.

Generally, your per word rate tin be converted to a per page rate (assuming 250 words per page) for many types of editing. Your per hr rate comes from how many pages per 60 minutes you can edit. And the kind of work takes on a whole new fix of questions based on its nature and what kind of editing is needed.

EFA survey results

The EFA surveys its members regularly to answer that immortal question: what's the going rate? EFA makes it articulate they aren't setting freelance editing rates or proverb this is how much members should charge—there are a lot of sticky legal issues effectually professional person groups and rates—merely "this is what our members say they accuse".

Only the editing rates (run across the table below) requite you a really good sense of the range and how dissimilar kinds of jobs require different rates. Whatever freelancer who has a single, ane-size-fits-all rate is going to have bug. Editing work for $sixty/hr is just fine for a tight piece from an experienced writer. Then there are pieces where there isn't enough money in the world for you to accept on the job—even every bit a beginner.

Freelance editing rates range from $61-70/hour for consulting to $thirty-45/hour for proofreading and everything in between.

The EFA survey is cited every bit the best manufacture criterion you can get, just information technology'southward not the only manner to become a feel for how much editors charge. Before you set your freelance rates in rock based on these survey, talk with swain freelancers. Get their feedback on what they accuse every bit editing rates for different kinds of projects based on your experience. Freelance editors who accept years of experience and are sought later on, charge premium editing rates for their work. When you lot're just starting out, you can't necessarily charge high editing rates.

Experts accept a proven track record and have honed their skills to where charging based purely on words or hours or pages might not even make sense. Successful editors like Miranda Marquit and Blake Atwood talk about things like:

What kind editing is it? Simple proofreading or giving in-depth advice on the work?
Is the work very technical or in a very specific niche?
Is it copy editing? Developmental editing? Volume editing?
Is the work fiction, non-fixture, academic, business organisation?
What'due south the scope and scale of the project?

These questions merely scratch the surface of the things y'all tin ask about a piece of work, but starting with these 4 will make both y'all and the customer think nearly the piece of work. Editing, like writing and designing, is a creative skill. At that place is a lot of nuance to being a good editor.

To make sure the work is even right for y'all in the first place, you need a clear picture of what's required.

Before we delve into how those questions affect your rate, permit'due south talk about how you price your work. Not only the dollars and cents, simply are you billing past the give-and-take, the page, the projection, or the 60 minutes. Each choice comes with pluses and minuses—and how much fiscal risk yous take on with the project.

How you price the work

For a lot of freelance projects—writing, development, and graphic pattern especially—billing on the most granular part of a piece of work seems a little strange. Some writers charge by the word, simply more than often freelance writers accuse past the slice with upper and lower word counts. Tin y'all imagine developers charging by lines of code or graphic designers charging by the number of layers an image has?

Information technology seems strange because these kinds of jobs accept the scope and scale set out in terms of complexity and how long it volition take to get a task done. Freelance editing is a niggling different. In editing it's the number of words and blazon of editing that give the editor a sense of calibration.

Charging per word

The standard in the editing world is charging per word. When you tell an editor you need a vii,500 word count (roughly xxx pages) non-fiction book chapter proofread—just typos, grammer, and spelling—the editor gets a good guess of how long it will have. Charging per word is like charging per project because there is a shared corporeality of hazard involved.

The editor is bold they tin proof seven-10 pages an 60 minutes. If the work isn't as polished equally the writer says, it might have longer. If the work is in better shape, information technology might accept less time. No matter the time needed to edit the chapter, the cost will remain the same considering everything is tied to the discussion count (when submitted, of course) when yous charge per hour.

Charging per hr

If yous accuse for freelance editing per hour, you're shifting the risk more towards the writer than the editor. No thing the give-and-take count, the editor will take even so long it takes to practice a expert chore. If the piece is in good shape, the author gets a good deal, but if the writer has oversold how polished the chapter is, the editor knows they volition be compensated for the actress work needed.

The run a risk in charging per hour is, unless a writer sets a cap on the number of hours allocated, the cost can balloon out of control. It's up to the editor to requite a good and fair estimate of how long it will have to work on the slice and suggest their client if information technology'southward taking longer than expected.

"Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers."
- T.Due south. Eliot

Charging per page

Similar charging by the discussion, charging per folio is a shared-hazard method. The number of pages doesn't modify and the amount charged can't modify if the work is harder than expected. The claiming with charging per folio is, today nosotros don't piece of work in pages. When yous sent pieces of newspaper to your editor, y'all knew how many pages you lot had. Y'all might take a rough idea of the number of words (based on 250 words per page on boilerplate), but only a crude idea.

Now writers know exactly how many words their works is, but non how many pages information technology is. If you desire to accuse per folio, make sure you tell writers you assume 250 words per page. If you look at the work and their page is a lot more 250 words on average (or a lot less), y'all demand to arrange the rate appropriately.

Charging per project/piece

Most common in freelance writing, development, and graphic design, per project/piece is another shared risk kind of pricing. Equally the freelancer yous await at the scope of the work and judge how long it will accept yous—plus other factors we'll discuss in a moment—and come up with a toll y'all call up is off-white.

All projection-based work has the same risk for the freelancer—if you guess wrong and the projection takes longer, yous're non getting more money (usually). When a projection takes longer you won't exist able to take on every bit much work. If one project takes up the aforementioned amount of fourth dimension two projects would take, you're on the losing side of the equation. Notwithstanding, if like Mary Kole, you lot know how long a typical projection takes, you can safely charge past project when setting freelance editing rates.

The catch is you but become to that level of surety after doing hundreds of projects.

What types of editing are needed?

With how you're charging your clients sorted out, you need to make certain y'all adjust your charge per unit based on the kind of editing needed. There is a large difference between checking for spelling, typos, and grammar (proofreading) and reading for menstruum and characters and concept (developmental editing). Each level of editing needs its own set of editing rates and expectations.

Copy editing

Re-create editing is the middle of the road editing. This means you're looking for more than typos, but non changing the story or structure. You're reading a final draft from an established writer and putting some polish on the piece.

Copy editing includes doing some re-writing (editing) of the work, just still keeping everything in the author'southward vocalisation. You're not editing for way here. It's more so asking if the slice flows and makes sense. If you lot're proofreading you might highlight an awkward or hard to read sentence for the author to set, when you're copy editing you lot're suggesting changes to the piece to improve it.

Re-create editing might include making sure the author followed the correct mode guide to brand sure everything is formatted properly before publishing. Sometimes a proofreader will do a concluding check before publishing, only a good copy editor should be able to edit and proof a piece at the same time.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the virtually basic type of editing. Yous're looking for spelling errors, grammar errors, and simple stylistic edits (Oxford comma, one infinite after a period, spaces around dashes). A proofreader could—and probably should —annotation if something doesn't brand sense for the author to fix. If you're only being paid to proofread, you lot don't need to change it—your client likely doesn't await to pay you for it.

Developmental: Style and substance

Developmental editing come much earlier on in the writing work and editing process. This is conceptual and giving feedback on characters, plot, scenes, logic, and flow. The line between ghostwriting and developmental editing can get blurry. If a work isn't complete, and you're being asked to flesh out a concept that might only exist a few bullet points to first with, are y'all editing or writing?

Developmental editing on the EFA table starts to get close to consulting rates, and for good reason. At this early phase, you are consulting with the author how to edit and improve the slice before a complete or last draft.

Important editing pricing factors

The final part of setting the correct freelance editing rates for a freelance editing task is agreement what kind of writing are you working with. There is a big difference between editing a children's volume and a peer-reviewed scientific newspaper. Different kinds of pieces need different kinds of expertise.

A freelance editor who works on journal articles for social sciences might be completely lost editing a physical science paper. Not only are the citation styles different, the language and writing styles are unlike as well. A scientific discipline editor might have an every bit difficult time being a good editor for a casual article for a lifestyle magazine.

Hither are a few of the things to think about earlier pricing or accepting a freelance editing task.

Complexity, topic, and genre

Are you editing documentation for an aircraft technical manual or a slice on the latest food trends for a magazine? Y'all need to approximate both how much to charge and how long editing will take based on how hard the piece is to read and work with per project.

If you're doing copy editing, and especially developmental editing, information technology helps to be familiar with the topic. It's not essential to know everything a subject matter expert (SME) does when setting freelance editing rates, but information technology doesn't hurt. Familiarity helps you suggest other ways to say something without accidentally changing the meaning.

Technical topics can be extremely difficult to wade through. They have terms you demand to be familiar with and stylistic conventions that might seem strange—or wrong—to not-technical editors. This means it will take y'all longer to piece of work on the slice, even once you are familiar with the space, so you tin can't take on as much work.

You need to adjust your rates to account for non being able to take on every bit many clients compared to someone who is editing a less-technical piece.

The EFA guide recommends book editor prices based on different writing genres.

A non-fiction book is different than fiction, business concern different from science. This plays to both the complication of the pieces, but the mindset of both authors and readers.

Copy editing for academics is different than romance authors. Both kinds of works have their own unique challenges, and the audition'due south expectations of the book or newspaper are very different. A good fiction book editor will utilize their copy editing to make sure characters are relatable and make sure inconsistencies don't pop up between scenes. Scientific papers are written in a completely different style and accept technical terms to double check.

Mixing up these styles wouldn't go you repeat business from that customer. When you decide to accept on an editing job, you need to be sure you tin handle it. Not just the timeline or the size of the piece of work, just what kind of piece of work is it in the outset place.

Don't accept editing jobs yous aren't prepared to practise well or have the expertise to practice well.

Timeline

No matter the freelancer, rush jobs cost extra. No one has a special rate when you have a lot of fourth dimension to work on something. That only means you can spread out the piece of work over a longer period of fourth dimension, which lets you take on more work.

Rush editing jobs are unlike. Rush editing jobs mean working longer hours than usual or on days off. Blitz editing jobs can mean pushing out other work that you'll accept to work extra hard to finish on time. Rush editing jobs mean you might take to explicate to a customer their slice isn't going to be fix when you lot thought.

Rush jobs mean hassles for you and other clients. If you're being asked to do a rush job, it needs to be worth your while. You need to feel the actress piece of work and potential problems with other clients is worth the money yous're getting.

Sometimes y'all can't take a rush chore. Sometimes no matter how much money is beingness thrown at you, information technology'southward but not worth it. Decide for yourself how you handle rush jobs and if there is some astronomical sum of money you'd take to practice the work no thing what.

Some freelancers quote editing rates they think no one would pay for a blitz editing job, only to find the client is desperate enough to say yes. Exist set up for the yep.

It'south ever dainty to dream.

"A good editor is someone who cares a petty less nearly the author's needs than the reader's."
- Dene October

It's not simply most the editing rates you lot charge

Many editors develop a specialized niche and don't stray from it. Y'all demand to decide for yourself if you're going to be a generalist or a specialist and toll yourself appropriately. Your editing charge per unit isn't just almost money or your time, your rate as well includes all your experience and skill.

Your editing rate sets an expectation for the quality of your work. In the software as a service (SaaS) globe, charging a premium price signals to large companies y'all're worth it (though avert charging too much). Charging too lilliputian for your work might be telling people you're not all that good in the first place.

The table above is a guideline. Information technology'south the results of a survey from one group of freelance editors. The pool might be broad, only it'south even so a limited group of people. Talk with friends and colleagues. Get a feel for how and why other freelance editors and writers charge for their work.

Don't be agape to charge a premium cost for special expertise (say translating or editing translations). If you've adult a special skill or have years of experience—fifty-fifty if you oasis't been a freelance editor before—those count for something.

Make sure you charge the editing rates you're worth and don't flinch from it.

Don't forget about invoicing and payments

The terminal office of setting yourself up as a freelance editor, whether it'southward copy editing, developmental editing, or as a volume editor, is invoicing and getting paid. Setting upward invoicing and online payments can be a royal pain, expensive, and confusing.

Wave makes information technology easy to start sending professional person-looking invoices in just a few minutes. Sign up for Wave, put in a few details about your concern, and yous can send unlimited invoices for gratis. It only accept a few minutes to get started.

Wave besides makes accepting online payments—bank transfers or credit cards—a snap. You connect Wave with your bank—which typically is set in a day—and you've only fabricated information technology easier to become paid. With Wave there are no hidden or surprise fees. You'll know exactly what you're paying whenever you lot ship and invoice.

That'south not all, of course. Moving ridge has tools for:

Accounting
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Tracking your expenses
Creating estimates that get invoices with a click

Get started with Moving ridge now and offset sending unlimited invoices for free.