Determining Time for Editing

Recently, a potential client came to me and thought that I could have his book edited in a few weeks. Although there is no rule as to how long an editing job will take, there are ways to estimate how long you will spend on a project (and consequently how much you should charge). A few weeks is certainly not enough time to edit an average-length book, especially when you are also working on several other projects.

The Editorial Freelancers Association estimates that for basic copyediting, about 5–10 standard pages* will get done in an hour and that the usual fee is $30–$40 per hour. Heavy copyediting knocks the pace down to 2–5 pages and bumps the fee to $40–$50 per hour. Typically 1–6 pages get done in an hour when line editing, and the fee is $50–$60 per hour.

Personally, I leave the calculations up to Excel. I read a few pages from a couple different chapters to see how much editing is needed. I have an Excel spreadsheet in which I can enter the total number of words, and it calculates how many hours the project will take and estimates the fee for the project.

Of course, no matter which method you use, estimates are just that: estimates. Every project is different and will have some challenges. Add more time to your estimate if your project includes fact checking, is a text by a nonnative English writer, or has tables and references.

 

* A standard page is considered to have 250 words.