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Topic: Offered a copyediting job; what do I charge?
| Author | Message |
| Unemployed-gal | Posted – 3/19/2008 4:23:05 PM | show profile Most of you know me as the girl who won't shut up about not being able to find a job. So here's my situation: for the past six months I've been temping as the receptionist at a non-profit social services company. Besides the usual stuff, I've been doing other projects for various employees. But now someone within the company, knowing of my background in copyediting (ie, college yearbook), wants me to copyedit and proofread a manual they're creating (about 100 pages). When she asked me what my rate was, I just froze. So how do I go about doing this? Do freelance copyeditors charge by the hour/ word/ etc? Also, I'm doing my temp job through an agency--do I let them know I'm been given this opportunity? Ask for a raise on my hourly wage? Any advice to someone who's new at this? |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 3/19/2008 4:32:03 PM | show profile If you're going through an agency, they often hav eyou sign something regarding extra work not covered in the original assignment. If that's the case and they find out about your extra work, they may fire you. Then again, they may not find out about it. I'd charge an hourly rate - since you're new at this with little professional experience, I'd probably go for the low end of the range- somewhere between $30 to $40 per hour. I am not familiar with what others in NYC charge, so some other folks on here might be able to give you better price info. And congrats! |
| can't say | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:12:37 PM | show profile $30 to $40 per hour is pretty high-end. Even places like Conde Nast pay about $30 an hour, for people with years of copyediting experience. I doubt you'll get it from a) a nonprofit social services company and b) considering you don't have that much experience. I would set my sights lower. And don't be surprised if they want to give you a flat rate for the whole project. I don't like to set a price for a project because I find that copyediting usually takes longer than I think it will (if you're doing a good job). I think it's fairer to be paid by the hour, especially if you're going to be double-checking your changes in the final version, which you should do. Also, you might want to set a slightly higher rate for rush jobs that entail working over the weekend. In my experience, most projects end up with a rush component. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:32:53 PM | show profile can't say, I get the impression that she is not working at a magazine but in a corporate environment. In that case, $30 is on the low end, I'd say. |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 3/19/2008 5:34:57 PM | show profile whoops, missed that nonprofit part-sorry! but at any rate, for nonprofits, the depth of their coffers vary greatly. If it's a national, well-known place, $30 an hour is not much. I work at a national nonprofit, and we pay consultants and freelancers MUCH more than that without blinking an eye- and we're not even a very well-known nonprofit! |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 3/19/2008 6:03:16 PM | show profile I recently did a copy-edit job for my old boss and I negotiated it by the hour. The catalog was a mess, and I should have known better than to low-ball my rate at $20 per hour. It took me damn near 42 hours to get through it all. If it's pretty technical stuff that is going to require quite a bit of concentration, such as 100 pages of pure text then I'd say $30 is a good base. If it's mostly pictures and fluff, you may feel more comfortable going to $25. |
| InsomniacNOT | Posted – 3/19/2008 6:58:18 PM | show profile What differnece does it make what you're editing if you're charging by the hour? Your time is worth what it's worth. That's the whole point of an hourly rate, surely. |
| Yam | Posted – 3/20/2008 1:13:04 AM | show profile I'd say you could go up to $40 or $50 an hour if you have enough experience/knowledge to support that rate. I've charged that of nonprofits, online trade pubs, and a state-funded project, but I've taken classes in copyediting and worked as a content editor for a long time. I've never done proofreading, but my understanding is that the going rate for that is less than the rate for copyediting, so you may want to base your rate on the ratio of proofreading to copyediting you'll be doing. |
| Unemployed-gal | Posted – 3/20/2008 9:59:05 AM | show profile Thanks so much for the imput! As I said, I'm completely new at this (charging people for copyediting as opposed to simply doing it for free), so any advice is of course greatly appreciated. |
