Responses to Request for Light Editing Rates

[emmy_aricioglu -at- hp -dot- com]

My sincere thanks to all of you who so generously came to my aid when I 
requested help on finding out how to estimate a "per page" rate for providing 
light editing and proofreading work. These were the responses:
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From Beth Scudder:
I would recommend your friend determine how long it should take to edit a page 
(personally, I manage about 15 pages an hour), divide his/her hourly rate by 
that figure, and work from that. For example: hourly rate of $40 / 15pgs per 
hour = $2.67 a page (roughly $2200 for the whole project). Perhaps, due to the 
size of the project, your friend will decide to lower (or raise) the price from 
there, but I'd think that would be a good way to start.
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From Mark Schweighardt:
Page 78 of the 1999 Writer's Market says $2-4 per page for copyediting. The 
lower-end is for "light copyediting" and the higher-end is for "substantive 
copyediting." Hope this helps.
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From Pat Warriner DeWeese:
I do that sort of work on a routine basis for small organizations and 
individual creative writers. I charge $1.25 per page as my base rate and go up 
from there depending on the level of editing/critiquing the writer/org requests.
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From Kay Ethier:
We have paid our steady editors around $2.00 a page, but I know they charge 
other clients higher prices.  THis is for a one-time proof and edit.  If your 
friend is going to do editing over several iterations, she may want to figure
-- how many actual hours she will spend over time
-- TIMES an hourly rate she can live with
-- then DIVIDE the answer by the number of pages.

She may also want to ask the client what they have paid before.  Be honest -- 
say she is used to working on an hourly basis and would like to know what range 
they usually pay per hour.  THe client may share enough to point her in the 
right direction.

Oh --- I forgot
There is a site that allows bidders to bid on projects and all bids are 
VISIBLE. She could go through some of the editing bids and
find out what others are charging.
http://www.ants.com
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From Chris Kowalchuk:
"Light editing" is a euphamism for "the client does not want to pay you 
properly for this job and thinks that editing is an advanced secretarial skill."

Depending on your friend's skill and experience, I figure $30 to $50 per hour 
is reasonable (I'm not in the midwest, however), and maybe 5 to 10 pages per 
hour would be the rate of work (so 50/10 = 5$/page) but that is per pass, and 
if you are "working with the designer and the printer" then break it down as 
follows:

5 pages/hour  = one pass copyediting
10 pages/hour for further changes introduced as you go.
15 pages/hour = proofreading (that is, checking the proof pages created by the 
printer to make sure they are the same as the final draft you provided to the 
printer--that is what proofreading is, AND NOTHING ELSE).

thus, If 850 is your page count, then
[(850/5 + 850/10 + 850/15) * hourly rate] / 850 = $/page
By my estimate, your "light edit" should take about 312 hours, which at $30 = 
$9360
9360/850 = $11.01 / page
At $50, it would be more.

Chris Kowalchuk
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From Tom Murrell:
Forgive me for not answering the question asked, but I
was very much taken by the phrase "light editing." 
Pray what is light editing?  Do you read only every
other word?  Every third line?  Every other page?

How does one lightly edit something?  I am truly
curious if there are degrees of editing, for I am only
a writer so set in his ways that I either edit
someone's work, or I do not.

If, as I suspect, there is no real difference between
actually editing a work and "light editing" then I'm
guessing, and I hate to say this, that the requestor
is asking for full editing of the document and, say,
half the price.  I think that is not a good thing to
get started on.  If it costs $20/hour for an editor's
services, one shouldn't give those services away for
$10 because somehow the project is not taxing. 
Editing is editing just as writing is writing.

The opinion of a surly curmudgeon.
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From Kirsten Petersen:
What does the company mean by "light editing"?  There are different levels of  
editing and each one requires different amounts of time and talent. I would sit 
down with the company representative and make sure that everyone is on the same 
page as to what the editor will do before you determine how much you want to 
charge.  Multiple levels of editing obviously would require a higher 
compensation.

Below I've listed one set of editing levels from the article entitled "Theory 
and Practice of Editing Processes in Technical Communication" by Roger E. Masse 
(IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, V0L. PC 28, No. 1, March 
1985, pgs. 34-42). Different people have different ideas about how many levels 
of editing there are, this is just an example for you to consider (you may 
think of additional editing levels that you want to present to the potential 
client).

Here are the levels presented in the article (review the article for more 
detail and how these levels were arrived at):
1.  Content
2.  Structure
3.  Style
4.  Format
5.  Mechanics 
6.  Tone
7.  Policy
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From Geoff Hart:
The going rate is highly variable, but 13 years of editorial experience always 
sound the alarm klaxon whenever I see the words "light editing". Inevitably, 
this is code for "we really aren't good enough writers to understand that this 
is going to take one helluva lot more work by a professional than we thought", 
and that's particularly true of marketing and P&P material. The pages per day 
to complete seems reasonable given the time period, but there are lots of 
gotchas that would make me strongly prefer an hourly rate (to cope for the 
considerable extra work that is likely to be required), and I'd write 
considerable "just in case" clauses into the contract. For example, the project 
is going to take longer than they expect (don't they always?), and you'll have 
to write in loopholes concerning deadlines. Moreover, there's a lot more than 
editing work involved; if your friend will be working with a graphic designer, 
there will be lots of back and forth and compromise and renegotiation  
required, and perhaps lots of hair pulling and ulcer medication. This is all 
going to eat up time and have material costs too (e.g., hair replacement, 
antacid tablets).

p.s.
Per page rates vary on how tough it's going to be to edit the text. Let's say 
it's well-written and you can finish 10 pages per hour, and you're billing 
$50/hour, thus... $5 per page. Adjust the numbers appropriately based on your 
expected productivity and hourly rate.
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Again, thank you. This list is a wonderful resource.

Emmy (who receives the digest)
emmy_aricioglu -at- hp -dot- com