Being newly self-employed as a freelance editor, figuring out what I would charge for my editorial services was stressing me out. I don’t have editing credentials, but I do have a knack for the trade. As a novice editor, I was recommended and referred among research scientists and university professors. I started to take my knack more seriously, enrolled in editing courses, and fixed myself up with the tools of the trade—The Chicago Manual of Style is like my bible. I was growing my skill set and the editing requests came more frequently. I had a successful side hustle, and one that I loved.
Still, though, how would I set a rate for my services, for my knack? In an informational interview with an experienced freelance editor, I was told I should charge at least $50 an hour. Holy smokes. She said that this is a base charge, and that it accounts for the non-billable hours in your average workday as a freelance editor. Still, holy guacamole.
I decided to do some research with this rate in mind. In one of my editing classes at the University of Washington, we were assigned a reading about setting your rate as a freelancer. It came from the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), a reputable online community for freelance editors, writers, proofreaders, coaches, and other specialists. I revisited their site and saw that the first topic listed under their resources tab was the jackpot: editorial rates. Perfect. Please do tell.
This super-duper helpful page organizes rates by type of work and estimated pace. I recalled the amount of time I spent on the last three manuscripts I edited in my last job (not as an editor) and calculated my pace. I was running about 3 manuscripts page per hour (one manuscript page is a strict 250 words), which aligned with heavy copyediting. The suggested rate is $40-50/hour. Basic copyediting (5-10 ms pgs/hour) comes in at $30-40/hour. Substantive/line editing, meaning rewriting or reorganizing text, goes for $40-60/hour. Since my editing experience has run the gamut from basic copy editing to substantive editing, I looked at the rates for each of these categories and saw $40/hour was the common denominator. Thus, I decided on this as my base rate.
Important to note is that this is a base rate—it is flexible depending on the nature of the project and defining the project scope is a process. Here is how the process works: 1) a client sends me a project proposal with the written work attached, 2) I read through the work and do a sample edit to figure out the type of work that is required, 3) I send back my sample edit with the corresponding rate, and 4) if the client accepts, we move forward.
Writing this out (and doing all the math by hand) has been valuable to how I think of myself as a professional editor. Since my base rate is based on data from my editing experience as well as industry standards, and since my process is what I learned from instructors in my editing classes, I feel comfortable sharing this with my clients and those in my same position, establishing themselves in the already-crowded editorial freelancer field. You latter lot, use what I learned! And go to the EFA website. It really is treasure chest of how-tos.
