Updated: September 2008
Common editorial rates —regardless of whether a project is flat rate or hourly— tend to fall within the ranges indicated below. These should be used only as a rough guideline; rates vary considerably depending on the nature of the work, the time frame of the assignment, the degree of special expertise required, and other factors. The industry standard for a manuscript page, however, is a firm 250 words.
| Type of Work | Estimated Pace | Range of Fees |
|---|---|---|
| Copyediting, basic | 5–10 ms pgs/hr | $25–40/hr |
| Copyediting, heavy | 2–5 ms pgs/hr | $35–50/hr |
| Substantive | line editing | 1–6 ms pgs/hr | $40–65/hr |
| Developmental editing | 1–5 pgs/hr | $50–80/hr |
| Layout | newsletters | 1–4 pgs/hr | $40–70/prn pg |
| Layout | books | 6–10 pgs/hr | $45–85/hr |
| Indexing | 8–20 prn pgs/hr |
$35–65/hour $3.50–12/indexable prn pg |
| Project management | NA |
$9.00–20.00/prn pg
$40–70/hr |
| Proofreading | 5–10 ms pgs/hr | $25–35/hr |
| Researching | NA | $25-50/hr |
| Translating | 300–500 wds/hr | 20-50¢/wd |
| Writing | 1–3 ms pgs/hr |
$50–100/hr
$1–$2/wd |
| Transcribing | variable | $3–$5/pg |
| NOTE ms = manuscript, prn = printed, pg = page, hr = hour, wd = word | ||