Indie Book Club discussion

How much do editor's tend to charge? I am not a professional or anything, but I have thought of offering some discounted editing services to make a little extra cash.

They usually charge a set fee and then a specific amount per page.

That seems like it could add up pretty quick.

Yeah, it can. That's why a lot of authors try to edit their book themselves or else get a friend or family member to do it.

It can be single-handedly the biggest expense when it comes to publishing a book. Then again, it's totally worth it. If you have extra $$$ lying around.

Problem is, most people write as a hobby and therefore don't have (or are unwilling) to spend $$$ on editing.

What do you think a fair price would be for a non professional editing service? I am really not thinking a lot of money, but a little bit here and there would pay for me buying books lol.

Very true. I looked at getting a professional editor, and it was somewhere in the region of £1000 or more, because of how much they charge per page (Liberator's Ruin is 306 pages and 180,500 words).

Way more than I could afford!

Exactly. Scott, I think if you get good at doing the edits, helping authors with the most common trouble spots, you'd do pretty good. For me, I apparently am a notorious 'head hopper' when I write, something I'm doing everything I can to correct.

If you're serious about doing the editing, pick up this book: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print. It was recommended to me by another author friend and has helped out quite a bit.

There are a few good editing services for indie writers, most of whom charge by the word. For my own books I use Harry Dewulf of Densewords. His charges are dependent on the complexity of the work. He looks at a sample and negotiates a rate. It's usually around $0.014 per word, but can be less.

I operate Homunculus Editing Services (I'll add a link below). I charge $0.008 per word for a light (single read through) edit. This is mostly focused on copy but there are detailed comments re content.

I also offer a fully literary edit (copy and content), which involves at least three readings on the text. This costs $0.022 per word.

If you're thinking about starting, Scott, these figures might be of some assistance. The thing to figure in is the amount of hours the work takes. it can seem like a lot of money up front, but once you break it down into an hourly rate it's pretty poor.

There is, however, a lot of work out there and more capable editors are always needed.

http://homunculuseditingservices.blog...

Thanks for the figures D.P. I don't know how capable I am that's the main reason I hesitate to actually offer editing services. Right now I have gotten to beta read for a few people and point out some mistakes, but I have no educational background for it or anything.

So, a thorough edit of Liberator's Ruin would cost about £1400, or $2500, and a light edit would be about £400, or $900.

I really wish I didn't write such long stories ...

Long stories are a problem financially! Harry negotiates special rates sometimes. Most of the light edits I work on fetch me about $300.

Scott, my beta reader charges $0.002 per word. Maybe you could start there.

I used Toni Rakestraw at UnbridledEditor.com and I was very pleased with her service. She was running a special when I hired her, and I got Hemlock and the Wizard Tower line edited for about $500 for 132K words. Her normal rate is .0085 for a baseline edit, .011 for a line edit. Clearly, I got a great deal.
Her husband runs a blog talk radio show too, and they helped me promote by featuring me on the show. I wouldn't say that the interview is guaranteed if you purchase an edit, though.

Beta readers can charge?????

I beta read so I get to see the story before anyone else. I generally feel that privilege is worth any corrections that I make. I should really look into becoming a better editor to make some money on the side. I may have to look into some of these charges as my blog makes me almost nothing. I've gotten about 1.00 per month now which is ok since I'm not trying to make a living with it. I just want to support my book addiction through my blog. The free books are a huge perk though.

Bad D.P. Bad D.P.!!! :)

I offered to pay mine as she's really proof reading (but I like to do the final proofing myself). All my other betas are free!

Scott wrote: "How much do editor's tend to charge? I am not a professional or anything, but I have thought of offering some discounted editing services to make a little extra cash."

I paid a lot to have Createspace edit my book. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand they did iron out some of the technicals, a few grammatical issues, a few suggestions for wording, they found a couple of spelling errors that I had missed on the second, third and fourth pass over.

Stylistically, not much was done. They gave me a lot of praise, so I guess I could look at it as a positive thing. Maybe my writing is that good, but, I would have appreciated more criticism in that department. I only have my own experience to go on. I have a long novel, so the price was pretty hefty. When I finish my second novel, I'll probably shop around a little more for editing services.

One place I found a whole $$ range of editors was Elance.com. When I first put in my job, I received bids from $200 to $1900. They offer their resumes, you can see how many jobs they have completed, how their customers rated their jobs, and some will send you a sample of other books they have edited to see if what they do is what you want. I have been VERY happy with my editor I found there.

There are three different roles in editing.

Editor - not concerned with spelling or language errors. He/she looks at the story as a whole to make sure it has all the proper elements in it to make a good story, that it is structured properly, and that the characters are properly fleshed out. The editor may recommend removal of whole sections that detract/distract from the plot, and may suggest that the author follow up on story threads that were overlooked or minimized.

Copyeditor - This individual needs indepth language skills. He/she corrects errors in spelling, tense, and structure, and may suggest sentence alternatives. The copyeditor must also point out obvious errors in the storyline such as the protagonist leaving home at noon and arriving at his/her destination after dark two hours later. (Why is it dark?)

Proofreader - Searches for spelling errors, missing words, duplicated words, incorrect usage, etc. This person usually has the least amount of training, makes the smallest contribution, and charges the least for services. Many readers offer this service for free to favorite authors in exchange for the privilege of seeing new books first.

I also just recently used a couple different freelance sites (freelancer.com & guru.com) and had the same experience as Carly. For a 34k book I had bids ranging from $50.00 to $3000.00. Experience/skill ranging greatly as well.

Ultimately, I found a lady who enjoys the genre I write in (erotic romance) so she gave me an excellent deal. I didn't realize just how horrible I was at editing my own work until I compared her polished version to my own. I'm now in the process of pulling all of my current work and having it professionally done.

You might want to try those sites if you are looking to make some extra cash editing/proofreading. I have noticed a fair amount of authors listing work there. Some simply needing beta readers, while others are looking for copyeditors.

Thanks for all the sites to check out everyone. I'll have to put some more thought into how serious I am about it and look into them for sure.

Looks like you have some good options and input here. If you need another alternative for a copyeditor, mine was Jen Ballinger. She does it for a living. Not too cheap, not too expensive. I think I paid about 2k for my entire trilogy. Money well spent, as she caught lots of errors, made stylistic suggestions, kept a stern eye on timeline issues, character inconsistencies, etc.

IMO, you've got to plunk down the cash for a professional editor. Self Editing is necessary, and that book is superb, but there's too many angles/errors you're going to miss by virtue of being too close to your own work. Like Chris' example, you need an objective (but sympathetic) set of eyes.

Beware though, there are qualified, reasonable services out there, but there are also far too many frauds and shysters who want nothing more than to cash in on your dreams.

I'm in the process of setting up my own non-professional editing service - basically, as a "minimum wage" editor. Jeffrey is my first experience with someone other than my dad, and unfortunately, the last couple of months have been excruciatingly difficult in terms of having time and being able to plot a schedule out.

But, I'm not charging much. If people are interested, depending on how this one goes, I'll be adjusting what to expect accordingly. It may be lengthy, but it'll be cheap, because it's something I'm doing more as a hobby than a form of income.

She's doing really good so far! Brandy, I have made all the corrections thus far!

I appreciate what you're doing!

I'm glad it's worked out so far, Jeff! I'm actually posting while continuing to edit and having my breakfast. My new work schedule is much more forgiving to allow me time to edit in the mornings, when I'm less likely to get distracted by things like video games and roommates!

LOL!

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?

How are you liking book II so far? How far into it are you?

I work in customer support at a gaming company. Anything else I say holds me under a (or several) strict NDA(s), so we'll end there. ;P I end up doing a lot of work with writing and editing there, though.

And I'm really enjoying book II. I'm only a bit farther than when I sent you an update, another chapter ahead. I'm scheduling an hour a day to plow through things now that I'm on this new shift, so things should go much more quickly!

I've worked a few jobs where I had to sign/adhere to NDAs, so 'nuff said!

Sounds like a fun job! Thanks again for working on book II!

Working in the games industry sounds like a total dream. I have read that a lot of the jobs are pretty grueling though...

It can be, but I genuinely love what I do. That makes it much more bearable, even when it gets rough!

Hey, I totally agree. When work becomes fun, then work is no longer work, and you look forward to each and every day of the week. Which I do. :)

I love solving a good puzzle, and most of the times when I get to a client's house, that's exactly what I'm faced with, a puzzle.

Brandy, what was the name of the editing company that you created for your editing services? Gonna include you in the acknowledgements. :)

Please credit it under Camel's Oasis Publishing, LTD. That's the "official" company between me and my dad. =)

Got it now listed under the Acknowledgements!

Thanks!

Awesome, thank you for the mention!

You betcha!

Wow. I'm severely undercharging for editing services. It never occurred to me to charge by the word. Maybe by the page...but by the word seems silly. But, definitely lucrative.

I've been charging $50-100 for proofreading and $100-250 for copy-editing. Definitely not lucrative when you consider it takes 20+ hours to do a good job...but I know a lot of new authors can't afford big editors and it damages their reputation so badly if they put out a 'messy' book.

I guess it's still fun enough for me that I don't care that much about the money. If a book looks interesting to me, I'd edit it for free. Once it gets to become a 'chore' or a 'burden' then I'll probably raise my rates...but hopefully that never happens. Hehe.

;-)

I typically charge $.003-.007 per word depending on the type of editing I'm doing and how "clean" the manuscript is. Since I also do formatting, I can bundle the charges together to give the author a bit of a price break. (You can see this all on my website).

I guess the pricing difference comes from a number of factors, from how many pieces the editor is doing to if they are making a living at it or not. But most authors agree, it's money well spent.

I used Pamela Gifford's services. Very reasonable prices for comprehensive editing. http://www.pamelagifford.com/editingp...

Kris - the main reason to charge by the word rather than page or book length is due to formatting. Someone whose manuscript is in 8pt font is probably going to have more content than someone who uses 12pt font, not to mention margins, whether the book is formatted for printing purposes, etc. So silly, yes, but the best way to protect yourself as an editor from doing more work for less pay.

I wanted to pop in here because I'm going to set up a page (hopefully by end of next week) with my rates. I was recently part of a downsize at my company and find myself in need of any extra work. On the bright side, at least I have time to write now and finish editing Dad's 3rd book!

Thank for the clarification Brandy. After posting that, I also set up different rates based on page count (in word 11 pt font) but I think I'm still charging quite a bit less than most. But, as I said, its really fun for me so I don't mind doing it for free...unfortunately, my mortgage requires that I charge SOMETHING. ;-)
Hugs!
www.final-edits.com