Re: What does $3 a page mean to you?

["Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

I am curious, trying not to be too nosy, about whether your
project metrics reveal the publisher's terms as favorable?
For example, seeing that you're talking about work in a
major metro area where publishing (and competition) are
thriving, you might run a heuristic over your project
metrics and business objectives to see if a contract is
breaking fair or foul. Your heuristic has to account for the
difficulty of the manuscript (publishers will be doing this
too, when they set the rate), expressed as how many pages
per hour, and the pay rate

1. 10pp/hr, = paying dues
2. 10-20 pp/hr =sneaking by
3. etc.

I might be way off on the cost of living, so take my numbers
with a grain of salt, but I would expect a publisher to pay
a qualified editor at a "sneaking by" rate.  Qualified, to
me, implies that you will be able to do the job--you might
be qualified to edit higher math journal articles, college
texts, aftermarket User Guides for software--most
good-paying work has at least some qualifications attached.
Pp/hr will really show the difference between qualified and
unqualified.  I think qualified also means that there's room
to become faster (increase pp/hr) with experience, which
will take you farther toward good pay. Editors make a living
wage, even a decent living wage, in a city of publishers and
presses like yours.

If the publisher has left you paying dues and you think
you've got a case, sue 'em in small claims.  They might not
bother to show up to defend their claim, and you win by
default.  Sue 'em, not to be litigious, but to keep them
honest--you're doing your part to keep editing a healthy,
dignified industry.

If the publisher is reasonably fair in the rate you can earn
working for them, then professional dignity is within reach.
To me, that is a what needs to be constant among all
desireable contracts.  If you have suspicions, check the
Better Business Bureau records or ask at your local STC
chapter about any file or records they might keep of member
evaluations of local employers.  If your publisher's a bum,
maybe someone else will have realized it and made a note:

Umbro Publishing,  (office address unknown, correspondence
to PO Box), phone (answering service).  Pays on time:  No.
Pays industry standard:  No.  Legal actions to collect owed
back wages:  999 judgements against (999 max ).  BBB rating:
fuggeddabouddit

You would expect real publishers to have pay scales that
reflect their dependence on local editors.  It's a bummer to
find that the terms remain fluid after you accept the work,
but employers can definitely push or exceed what is
prescribed by law, not to mention blowing away pre-conceived
notions of how they work.  The reputable ones use that
flexibility fairly.  Boston has a lot of legendary
corruption (politicians, PD) but also many justly-famous and
respectable presses and publishers.

If this sounds like I am blowing sunshine, well, yeah.  Much
as I'd like to be able to generalize, publishing is a big
industry.  Do your metrics, scope your projects, and then
you're doing what you can to predict what you can do and
what you need to get it done.  If anyone keeps you from
doing that, sue 'em.

Hope it works out.

Ned Bedinger
Edwordsmith Technical Communications Co.
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
http://www.edwordsmith.com
tel: 360-434-7197
fax: 360-769-7059


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