How Much To Charge For Editing Services

Once you've finished a typhoon of your volume, the natural next pace is to wait for a book editor.

How much does an editor cost, though? Is it going to break the bank and wipe out your acquirement?

I wish I could give you lot a firm rule: that proofreading will e'er cost one cent per discussion, copyediting two cents per word, and developmental editing three cents per word.

But the truth is much hazier than that. How much a book editor costs depends on several factors.

So my goal here is to flesh out those factors and give you lot a sense of how much book editing might cost. Freelance editing rates vary widely from one editor to the adjacent, so I'll also aid you remember through how to compare unlike editors and decide which one to hire.

Table of Contents

How Much Does an Editor Cost?
seven Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor
How to Compare Editing Costs

How Much Does an Editor Price?

How much an editor costs, as with any self-publishing service, depends on a lot of factors. That said, for copyediting/proofreading, you're generally looking at $1,000-$3,000 per book. For developmental editing — the higher level stuff — you'll exist looking at $5,000-$x,000 per volume.

At that place's obviously a lot of room in in that location, so let's interruption down some difficult numbers and actual rates.

Many writers point to the Editorial Freelancers Association rates page equally a guide toward setting editorial rates. (Disclaimer: I'm a member of the EFA.)

The EFA rates page lists various editing and writing tasks and their attendant hourly rates as cocky-reported by EFA members who took the rates survey. They break downward editing into five subcategories and list proofreading as a separate category. (Tip: they also list per-hr and per-word rates for writing work.)

For comparison purposes, let's look at the editing rates and use an average page-per-60 minutes and an average hourly rate. For instance, the EFA lists bones copyediting of 5–10 pages per 60 minutes at a cost of $30–$xl per hour, so I've assumed 7.v pages per hour at a cost of $35 per hour. The other full calculations also use their corresponding average rates.

For a 70,000-word book, your editing costs could be:

• Developmental editing: $.08 per word, or $v,600 full
• Bones copyediting: $.018 per give-and-take, or $one,260 full
• Proofreading: $.0113, or $791 total

It's easy to extrapolate from this what your full expected editing cost could be. Fantasy, sci-fi, and epic novel writers should be forewarned.

For a 120,000-word book, your editing costs could be:

• Developmental editing: $.08 per word, or $nine,600 total
• Basic copyediting: $.018 per give-and-take, or $ii,160 full
• Proofreading: $.0113, or $1,356 full

While these are only 1 website'southward average estimates for editorial costs, they serve every bit a reliable criterion.

If you terminate up paying more for an editor, you might be glad you did. Every bit in life, so likewise in books: you often go what you pay for.

7 Questions to Enquire Earlier Hiring an Editor

call back through these questions. They'll aid you lot figure out how much you'll need to pay an editor to review your book.

1. What kind of editing do you need?

What does a book editor do? Not all editing is created equal. Hither are a few different kinds of editing:

• Developmental editing: large picture, content editing, macro editing
• Copyediting: micro editing, grammar editing, menses and structure editing
• Proofreading: consistency check, format and layout

Developmental editing costs more than than copyediting, and copyediting costs more than than proofreading.

2. What's your total word count?

Book editors for hire typically charge past word count or page count. Some charge by the 60 minutes, but that'southward rare, specially for editing long books.

Knowing your total give-and-take count is essential to an editor'southward price estimations for taking on your project.

3. How complex is your volume?

Editing academic work to a niche style guide volition toll more editing a novel per the Chicago Manual of Style .

Editing a book with hundreds of footnotes or endnotes should toll more than editing a book without citations.

In other words, the complication and niche of your work will affect the book editing rate.

4. What's your deadline?

How speedily practise you need the work done? The more flexible yous are with your borderline, the less you lot might pay.

If you lot inquire for your 100,000-word novel to exist copyedited within two weeks, you might have to pay a premium for such a fast turnaround, especially if your editor is already booked.

5. What'south your writing feel?

Practise you consider yourself a beginner, mid-level or practiced author?

Past default, beginning writers will demand more help, which means more time, which can mean more money.

An experienced editor can often take a look at an excerpt from a manuscript, get a feel for your experience level, and deduce the corporeality of time they need to edit the full manuscript.

For the beginning writers: ever await at hiring an editor as an investment in both your volume and yourself. With the right editor, you should grow as a writer because of the feedback.

6. What'due south your editor'south feel level and/or demand?

A novice editor will toll less than an editor with decades of feel and multiple best-sellers in their portfolio.

Of form, you go what you pay for, and an experienced editor might bring more value.

Likewise, if you want to work with an editor who's in high demand and booked half dozen months out, you'll likely have to pay more than than if you choose to work with an editor who has lots of room in her schedule.

7. What's your flexibility?

If an editor is booked solid, tin can yous afford to await six months to go the editor you lot want?

Or, will you lot pay a premium to leap their queue if they offer such an option? Or, will you choose a lesser-known or less experienced editor at a lower price so that you can take your editing accomplished faster?

How to Compare Editing Costs (gratis spreadsheet download)

If you'd like to become truly organized virtually your search, use this editor comparison spreadsheet template to help in your search for an editor who meets most of your desired criteria and offers freelance editing rates you lot're willing to pay.

I say "almost of your desired criteria" because it's rare to detect an editor who will run across all your criteria. For instance, you may have to pay a few hundred to a few thousand dollars more for your height pick. Or, you may find someone at your precise price point, but their experience isn't quite what yous'd similar it to be. You must be the one to assess what trade-offs you're willing to make.

By using that spreadsheet, you should exist able to rapidly and easily compare the editors you're vetting.

Notation: On the spreadsheet, the editor's total cost will be automatically calculated once you insert your full word count and the editor'southward per-word rate. If you're given a per-folio rate, you can calculate a per-word rate by assuming the industry standard of 250 words per folio, e.thousand., $3 per page equals $3 per 250 words. Dividing 3 by 250 equals $.012.

If you're given an hourly rate for freelance editing, ask the editor how many pages per hour they tin can edit, then extrapolate their per-discussion rate.

The rightmost function of the spreadsheet also includes pre-calculated per-discussion rates based on per-folio rates.

Compiling this information is a headache (specially for math-averse writers like myself), but seeing every editor's rate as a per-word rate will aid you lot better compare editors.

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. Nosotros update our posts as ofttimes as possible to ensure they're useful for our readers.

Source: https://thewritelife.com/how-much-to-pay-for-a-book-editor/

Posted by: menatoodn1952.blogspot.com

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