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The Editing Blog: for Editors, Proofreaders and Writers

FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

The highs and lows of editorial fees (or how not to trip up during rate talk)

15/3/2017

8 Comments

 
One of the things new entrants to the field of editorial freelancing want to know is: What’s a good rate? ​Here's how to work out what's a good or bad fee for the job.
Editorial fees in relation to location and circumstances
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Terms like good, high, fair, low, poor and predatory are problematic because they’re used by individual freelancers to reflect their own experiences and circumstances, which are often very different.

Rate talk can trip us up if we're not careful.

​And while it can be interesting to listen to colleagues’ opinions of whether a fee is low or high, their views might not be in any way useful for us because we need to make decisions based on our circumstances, not someone else’s.
Currency problems
One of the first potential trip-ups occurs when the conversation takes place between colleagues from different countries. This issue is one of currency, particularly fluctuations in the exchange rate.

Proofreader A lives in Oxnard, CA, USA. She tells her colleagues in an online forum that she’s accepted an offer from an agency to proofread 4,000 words for US$25.

​The job is budgeted to take one hour. Some of her US colleagues say that the rate is unacceptably low; some even believe that she’s encouraging a race to the bottom by accepting such a fee from an organization whose rates are clearly unfair.

Meanwhile, Proofreader B, who lives in Manchester, UK, is reading the forum thread.
  • It’s January 2017 and the exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.22735 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £20.36.
  • Roll back to early 2016, some months before the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union. The exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.468570 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £17.02.
  • Let’s roll back one year earlier to 2015. The exchange rate is 1 GBP = 1.532750 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £16.31.
  • Now let’s imagine instead we’re in January 2018. The pound has collapsed beyond even the worst expectations: 1 GBP = 0.8 USD, which means that US$25 converts to £31.25.

Proofreader B needs to earn a minimum of £20 an hour to meet her needs.
  • If it’s January 2017, she thinks the agency’s rate is okay, but she already has enough clients filling her schedule who are paying that fee so she doesn’t feel compelled to jump through the hoops to get on board.
  • If it’s January 2015 or 2016, she thinks the agency’s rate looks low because she has enough clients filling her schedule who’re paying a fee of a little over £20 per hour. The agency work therefore holds no appeal for her and she dismisses any thoughts of working with them.
  • If it’s 2018, she’s already working out how she’ll word her email to the agency before she’s finished reading the thread. She thinks it’s a fantastic opportunity! £31.25 per hour? Nice!

Conversations that include blanket terms such as high and low therefore don’t help Proofreader B. Because the exchange rate fluctuates, so do her perceptions of whether a price is good or bad.
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It’s not just currency fluctuations that affect our perceptions of good, high, fair, low, poor and predatory in relation to editorial rates. Circumstances muddy the waters too.

Proofreader C lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She tells her colleagues in an online forum that she’s accepted an offer from an agency to proofread 4,000 words for £16.

The job is budgeted to take one hour. Some of her colleagues say that the rate is unacceptably low; some even believe that she’s encouraging a race to the bottom by accepting such a fee from an organization whose rates are clearly unfair.


Meanwhile, Proofreader D, who lives just down the road from C, is reading the forum thread.
  • She’s been working for a local supermarket, earning the UK’s legal national minimum wage of £7.50 per hour for people over 25 years of age. She lives at home with her parents so she’s able to survive on this.
  • When not working, she’s used her spare time to take an intensive distance-learning proofreading course. She’s passed with distinction. Now she needs to find clients, acquire practical experience, build her portfolio, get some glowing testimonials – all valuable stuff that she’ll be able to sell on later to even better-paying clients.
  • From her perspective, every hour she spends working for that agency she’ll be earning 113% more than if she was working in the supermarket. To her, the rate looks high.
  • The agency is worth getting in contact with because it will offer her the opportunity to acquire some of that value-adding stuff mentioned above. She appreciates that it might not be a viable solution in the longer term, but her marketing is currently non-existent, which means her visibility to potential clients is non-existent. The agency will ameliorate the problem while she attends to making herself discoverable.

Proofreader E lives to the west in Strabane.
  • She’s been professionally proofreading for eight years so her business is mature. She’s a marketing monster. Her website is highly visible on Google. She’s a member of the SfEP, EPANI and AFEPI, and advertises in their directories. Her portfolio’s stunning, her testimonials glowing. Anyone visiting those directories or her website will be in no doubt that she’s an experienced professional who can solve their problems.
  • Her business has grown from strength to strength. She remembers what it was like to be in D’s shoes, but that’s not where she is any longer. These days, all her academic and business clients contact her direct or via her professional society directories. She no longer works for agencies, packagers or publishers, though she gladly took work from them in the early days of her business’s growth. Now, though, her own marketing strategy brings clients directly to her.
  • Her average hourly rate is £32 and this supplements her partner’s income. The partner annually brings in 40% more than her, so her contribution means they have a comfortable lifestyle.
  • From her perspective, every hour she spends working for that agency she’ll be earning 50% less than her current average. To her, the rate looks low.
  • The agency is not worth a glance because she doesn’t need the client-acquisition value that it offers Proofreader D, and she can earn more from the large pot of clients who regularly get in contact and ask her to quote.

Proofreader F lives next door to E. 
  • She’s in the same boat as E except her partner was made redundant four months ago.
  • The agency’s £16 won’t cut it. Proofreader E’s £32 won’t cut it. She needs £115.
  • From her perspective, anything under £115 per hour is low because that’s what she requires to avoid moving to a smaller apartment, cancelling the pet insurance, junking the gym membership, throwing her Sky box into the trash, and selling the BMW. If things don't get better soon, she might have to give the pet away, or maybe the partner. She hasn't decided which yet, but the partner's food bills are higher! Seriously, though, if she's prepared to make some changes to her lifestyle, she can tweak her minimum hourly requirement accordingly.

So, conversations that include blanket terms such as high and low don’t help Proofreaders D, E and F either because although they’re all operating within the same geographical region and the same currency market, their circumstances are all very different.

Deciding what rate works for you
If you want to work out whether Agency X, Publisher Y or Packager Z’s rates are acceptable, you need to know what good, high, fair, low, poor and predatory mean to you based on your situation – not anyone else’s. The same thing applies to deciding what price to set with clients who come directly to you.

Consider the following:
  • What’s the current exchange rate (if you’re dealing with a client from another country)?
  • How fast can you proofread straightforward, middling and complex files? Are there efficiencies you can introduce to speed up the process? If you proofread straightforward work at 3,000 words per hour, a 6,000-word file with a fee attached to it of £30 will earn you £15 per hour. If you proofread straightforward work at 6,000 words per hour, a 6,000-word file with a fee attached to it of £30 will earn you £30 per hour.
  • What are your outgoings? (Knowing this will help you calculate the minimum you need to earn to live.) If you are regularly offered a whopping £300 an hour, but your outgoings mean you need to earn £350 an hour, that fee is still too low for you (though most of your colleagues will be chomping at the bit for it!).
  • How many hours do you have available for work? If you need to earn £600 per week, and you have 25 hours available, you’ll need to earn at least £24 per hour. If you only have 10 hours available, you’ll need to earn at least £60 per hour. Even if you have 50 hours available (meaning you could drop your minimum hourly rate to £12 per hour), could you sustain it? Only you know the answer to that.
  • Are you in a position to source, or be found by, alternative clients who will pay you higher fees than those on offer by the agency, publisher or packager?
  • If you are, is the volume of work on offer enough to ensure that your gross earnings from this work replace the income you would have earned from the agency, publisher or packager?
  • Even if you have some lower-paying clients, do you have other better-paying clients who can offset the lower fees? I have some clients who pay premium rates for my services but the volume of work doesn’t fill my schedule. I could, however, choose to accept some work that pays less than my minimum requirements because the higher-paying clients’ fees would offset the deficit, rendering my average hourly rate one that’s still profitable for my business.

​That data – as it applies to you, not your colleagues – will give you a useful initial benchmark with which to evaluate whether a fee is low or high.

Your colleagues’ opinions are interesting but your colleagues are not responsible for running your business or your home, so their opinions should not be used to determine whether you accept or decline work at a given price.


***
​
While I don’t believe that colleagues should be the sole determiners of the fees we accept or offer, I do think they’re the go-to people for many, many more types of information. See this post on the value of networking – both online and offline.
Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.
8 Comments
Sara Litchfield link
22/3/2017 06:31:50 pm

This is so useful! I'm so glad I've found your site (via Liz Dexter and Sophie Playle!) - it's exactly the kind of guidance I'm looking for at the moment. I set up my freelance editing business in 2013, but pricing has always been my pain point, and now I've reached a more stable place in terms of bookings and income, getting it right going forward is this year's goal!

Reply
Louise Harnby
22/3/2017 06:47:18 pm

Glad you like it, Sara. I really do believe that the key is to focusing on your own needs and goals. It's easy to feel swamped by what others say is good or poor and that's a distraction that you don't need when you're trying to move forward. I have two colleagues - yep, just two - who I have deep pricing conversations with. That's because their business models are similar to mine and we have a similar approach to business in general. I trust them completely and this means I don't find myself overwhelmed by the death-by-consensus that one can finds if one talks to too many people, say in a Facebook group. The other problem with larger forums is that it all depends on who's around and involved in the thread. If the main opinions are being voiced by people with very different client types, levels of experience, financial requirements, and access to alternative clients, the views may be completely inappropriate!

Pricing is a tricky beast. I'm still learning and I've been going since 2006. One thing that my trusted-two taught me is not to be afraid to change things. And when you've reached a stable patch, like you have, it feels like a safer environment in which to test something new.

Good luck!

Reply
Sara Litchfield link
22/3/2017 06:55:19 pm

Thanks so much! I really struggled initially when attempting to benchmark against others because of all the different definitions of the services on offer - and I definitely made the mistake more than once of trying to be guided by a non-comparable business. I think it's definitely a case of quality of guidance over quantity - and now I'm renewing my focus on how to run my business properly rather than drowning in underpriced work (all my own fault), I think things are just going to get better and better.

I've just ordered your omnibus. Thanks so much for all your incredible content - I can see I have a lot of reading to do here!

Louise Harnby
22/3/2017 07:07:15 pm

The service-definitions issue is massive. Can you imagine what it's like for our clients?

The way that I tackled this was thinking about how much I want to earn an hour (when I'm in control of setting the price - so with self-publishers, for example). I stopped looking at what other people are charging for what they call copyediting or proofreading because sometimes their services include different things (just as you said). Instead, I looked at how long it takes me to do X, Y or Z, then decided what I wanted to earn an hour, and did a few sums. That gave me a sense of what I need to charge per 1000 words. That some people might think my rate is too low or too high is neither here nor there. I might be more (or less) efficient or my projects might be 'easier' for me than they would be for my colleagues because of my specialisms. All that matters is what how it works out for me. If it earns me a minimum of my goal hourly rate, job done! That's one way to go about it anyway.

Reply
Sara Litchfield link
22/3/2017 07:20:43 pm

Absolutely! And having been an editing client as well, I've seen it from the other side - figuring out exactly what you're getting and comparing services and prices is a challenge when it's not like for like! I think the key lesson is: Never assume... and in terms of learning the best way to go about it myself, it's been an epiphany realising that I should be going through the process you describe - looking inward, when I've spent so much time looking out and trying to be comparable rather than asking what the best goal would be for me! Thanks so much for your time - looking forward to diving into your books!

Reply
Freya link
16/1/2018 02:48:03 pm

Not just a read for new entrants and something to share every January... it's been a real struggle these past two years to get pricing right in terms of getting jobs but feeling that I am being underpaid for the time and effort involved. The exchange rate scenario is a good and useful one but what isn't tackled is pricing for clients in countries where charging a certain fee seems extortionate to them and yet when I convert it into what I need to live on it is not nearly enough and I feel like throwing in the towel and cleaning toilets instead! I also charge per 1000 words not per hour as my energy levels and speed fluctuate and that is my problem not the clients' so general vim and vigour affect the hourly rate as well.

Reply
Louise Harnby
21/1/2018 01:35:08 am

Hi, Freya. You raise an interesting point and I've not discovered a solution other than only to accept work from those who can afford my fee. We live in a global market but there is not a global cost of living, as you say. One solution (though it will take time to bear fruit) is to focus your marketing efforts on your 'perfect' customers, sometimes called avatars or pen portraits in the marketing world. This means the opposite of being all things to all people. It can feel daunting, but it does mean in the longer term that you attract those who are best suited for your business model. Good luck!

Reply
Jasmin
30/10/2018 01:17:39 pm

I found your website by chance when I was doing some research and I'm so glad I did! I currently work in PR and have recently been asked to proof read some short books outside of work. Part of my job is proof reading and editing so I already have some of the required skills but pricing was my biggest challenge, this has helped massively, along with your other posts/videos with tips for proof reading and editing. I now feel like this is something I could pursue part time outside of my current job. Thank you!

Reply



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