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Topic: How much to charge for freelance section editing?
| Author | Message |
| pentup | Posted – 12/21/2007 4:21:24 PM | show profile | email poster I've been asked to freelance edit a section of a monthly magazine I write for (I used to work for the magazine on staff, too). I've done a good amount of freelance writing and copyediting, but never freelance section editing, and I'm not sure how much to charge. Per page? Per hour? Per month? The job will involve everything that a staff editor does -- conceptualizing story ideas for the section (it's a six-page section in the FOB, so lots of short articles), assigning work to writers (so also working with a budget), working with the art department to come up with photo/section design ideas, and also probably doing some writing. If anyone has any insight, it would be much appreciated. Thanks! |
| InformedIdeas | Posted – 12/24/2007 12:32:36 PM | show profile | email poster Freelance Section Editing Rates It sounds as though this is a print publication, in which case, Writer's Market suggests rates between $20 and $125 per hour for content editing. Without knowing their circulation, other freelance pay rates or the readership of the section you would be editing, it's difficult to offer accurate advice but I would try to negotiate something in the $35-50 range per hour. I would also try to stick with a per hour rate rather than a project based rate because chances are you will be spending more time at this than you think. Since you are also writing for the magazine, be sure your contract/agreement specifies that writing is NOT included in your section editing job description, and that any payment for writing is in addition to your payment for editing. If writing for the section you are editing is part of the job, increase your rate accordingly and be sure it doesn't apply to writing for other sections and that you retain as many rights as possible to ALL your writing (both for the section you are editing and elsewhere in the magazine). Good Luck! Let me know how things turn out! J. Hammond Writer, Editor, Photographer |
| pentup | Posted – 1/28/2008 4:34:39 PM | show profile Hello, Just wanted to thank you for your note -- I missed it somehow and thought no one had replied to my post. I'm negotiating the fee now. I'll let you know how it goes! |
| ISR | Posted – 1/31/2008 9:24:12 AM | show profile I charge $35 for a place I work for regularly---they assign me stuff per week, and account for about $20K of what I make, so I keep it cheap, esp since I edit extremely fast. (I charge them the same rate to casually consult on stuff or train new editors or writers, since it's a tiny portion of time.) |
