Any book publishers out there - could do with some advice on how to price a book editing project?

[aliceinlalaland]

I'm usually a freelance journo/editor (of magazines, reports & the like) but have recently been asked to edit a book. I have to put together some costings and could do with some guidance on the best way to do this and, in particular, what the going rate is.

As I understand it you'd usually either:
a) charge a set fee for the whole project or,
b) charge an hourly rate

My feeling is that it'd be more sensible to go for an hourly rate (as I've no idea how long the whole project would be) but would be grateful for any thoughts from the pros

Thanks all

The society of proofreaders has rates on its site per hour. Check it out. I think they are on the high side in my experience of stingy publishers.

I was once asked to do a 50,000 words non fiction book for a major publisher for 300-400 pounds, which is a pittance as I was like in you magazines and then didn't get it - I'm relieved now as I can earn that a in less days copywriting.

Go with hourly rate or daily rate...

Be prepared for them to push you towards a flat fee as it's easier for them to budget for, and makes them feel more in control. I worked inhouse In books, and my bosses always pressured us to agree flat fees with freelancers. Often they simply refused to sign off on a job unless I'd got the freelancer to agree to a flat fee.

Sorry, random caps. I am on an iPod and it keeps messing up my typing.

Was going to add that the sfep recommended rates are, sadly, far higher than most publishers will pay unless they know you and really want youin particular for the job.

More typos, sorry, cba going back to fix. Blardy touch keyboard!

Depends what level of edit. I'm currently charging £25/hr for light copyedit, £30/hr for anything involving research/rewriting and £35/hr for writing.

Key thing is to ask them to estimate the number of hours it will take, as that takes the burden off you. Then get back to them if you're approaching their estimated time, and say it's taking longer, is that ok, or do they want you to stop. They'll always say yes, but that way you don't surprise them with extra hours.

hth

Just make sure their initial estimate is realistic, because sometimes it may err on the side of optimism as they try to negotiate a lower fee.

Thanks v much all - I quoted £25/hr but as predicted he wanted an estimate. I gave him one (calculated based on how long it had taken to edit a long report last year) and I think it freaked him out (it was quite high and I genuinely don't know if it was reasonable or not but I didn't pluck it out of thin air and I do know that these things always take longer than expected and people continue to come back with changes/requests throughout). Anyway he's since said that he wants to try and finish his draft and then send the whole thing to me to keep costs down.

porcupine like your idea of getting them to estimate hours might use that in future but to be honest in this instance I don't think he'd have had a clue.

DirtyMartini yes, good point, as I said I might actually have gone in too high myself but really didn't want to underquote and then create problems later

Porcupine, your rates are healthy, good for you! I don't know anybody that charges as much in publishing, they sound more like PR rates. I wish I could charge as much but even as a copywriter for an ad agency I probably get up to £25 an hour for writing. That said the jobs I do are big in size and take several days if not months.

It really depends what you edit. If it's not financial stuff, the rates are modest. I used to get 120-130 inhouse at major magazines and know that book publishers pay much less (something like a tenner an hour was common). I hear that magazines are still paying 120-130 a day unless you do trade titles. And the book publisher who offered me a few hundred for a whole 50,000 word book was a big publisher, in the league of Random House and Harper Collins. It was supposed to be a light edit, but I was shocked at the fee, which I could earn with a few days' work at a magazine.