Cost of a good copy editor?

1739 Views 21 Replies 19 Participants Last post by C. Michael Wells, Jun 17, 2015

suzflt

Discussion Starter · May 21, 2015

Hi Writers ... Anyone have a ballpark figure of how much I should budget to hire a copy editor for my 70K word novel?

I'm thinking someone with fairly extensive experience in the biz.

Thanks! Suzanne

1 - 20 of 22 Posts

Jim Johnson

· #2 · May 21, 2015

Here are professional rates: http://the-efa.org/res/rates.php

Many editors working with indie writers charge less. Some editors are listed in the kboards yellow pages: http://www.kboards.com/yp/

Carradee

· #3 · May 21, 2015

First, it depends on how you're defining "copy editor".

Second, it depends on your writing skill level.

Third, it depends on if your text is fiction or nonfiction. (Skills and markets differ betwixt the two.)

Fourth, it depends on what the editor includes in their edit. (Do they just flag things; fix them for you; or mark everything up and explain? Different editing style & time investment for each option.)

Fifth, it depends on what part of the field the editor focuses in. You can expect to pay them at least $20 per hour (which is not as much as it sounds, once you account for self-employment taxes and such). A skilled pro with a solid backlist may charge the equivalent of as much as $50 per hour. I've heard of folks charging double that or quadruple that, but I've not directly experienced or witnessed it.

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MyraScott

· #4 · May 21, 2015

I know my editor looked at a sample before setting a rate, although she had ranges posted on her site. They really need to know how much work they are getting themselves signed on for before quoting.

Make sure your manuscript is as clean as it can be before sending it off so you aren't paying for things you could have handled yourself. (I'm looking at you, double-spaces-after-a-period.)

Dave Hassler

· #5 · May 21, 2015

MyraScott said:
Make sure your manuscript is as clean as it can be before sending it off so you aren't paying for things you could have handled yourself. (I'm looking at you, double-spaces-after-a-period.)

Hehe -- too true! Although, the double spaces aren't not too much of a pain, all things considered.

When I have a new client, I always ask to have 4-5 pages to look at, which I will edit for free. It's the only way I can know how best to help the author, as well as set an appropriate rate for the client. And with book-length fiction manuscripts, I can be pretty flexible on the pricing. I think most copy editors will work with a client on the cost of a editing a large project.

suzflt

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 22, 2015

Thanks immensely for all the good advice here .. I totally appreciate you taking the time to answer this. I am a seasoned hybrid author but have never hired a content editor before ... we'll see how this goes! Suzanne

ccruz

· #7 · May 23, 2015

I'd charge $450 because I do flat rates. I have three years in the business.

lilywhite

· #8 · May 23, 2015

.

sddonovan

· #9 · May 23, 2015

MyraScott said:
Make sure your manuscript is as clean as it can be before sending it off so you aren't paying for things you could have handled yourself. (I'm looking at you, double-spaces-after-a-period.)

Is double spaces after a period that much of a big deal? I was taught to put a double space my entire life (School and everywhere). I released my first novel with double space after each period, and I don't see an issue...

What issues does it cause?

thewitt

· #10 · May 23, 2015

sddonovan said:
Is double spaces after a period that much of a big deal? I was taught to put a double space my entire life (School and everywhere). I released my first novel with double space after each period, and I don't see an issue...

What issues does it cause?

No issues. It's not taught any more, but those of us who learned to type on manual typewriters keep going it....

eBooks will likely only display one space in either case.

Carradee

· #11 · May 23, 2015

sddonovan said:
Is double spaces after a period that much of a big deal? I was taught to put a double space my entire life (School and everywhere). I released my first novel with double space after each period, and I don't see an issue...

What issues does it cause?

First: it looks amateur (when it makes it through to formatting). It was always ever the standard for manuscript submission, not publication-and even then, it was needed for clarity with monospace fonts (like Courier). Two spaces after a period has been out of date and mostly unneeded for around two decades.

Second: it leaves more room for errors and accidents of formatting. Main place this can cause problems is if you have a lot of paragraph and character styling in your book.

Third: HTML strips out extra spaces, so in order to get those two spaces to show, you need a lot of extra code characters in order for those spaces to show in your EPUB or MOBI files. That increases your file size, which increases download time for readers + the download fee you're charged by Amazon. (Each character doesn't add much size in itself, but for a formatting thing like that…it adds up.)

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

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sddonovan

· #12 · May 23, 2015

Carradee said:
First: it looks amateur (when it makes it through to formatting). It was always ever the standard for manuscript submission, not publication--and even then, it was needed for clarity with monospace fonts (like Courier). Two spaces after a period has been out of date and mostly unneeded for around two decades.

Second: it leaves more room for errors and accidents of formatting. Main place this can cause problems is if you have a lot of paragraph and character styling in your book.

Third: HTML strips out extra spaces, so in order to get those two spaces to show, you need a lot of extra code characters in order for those spaces to show in your EPUB or MOBI files. That increases your file size, which increases download time for readers + the download fee you're charged by Amazon. (Each character doesn't add much size in itself, but for a formatting thing like that...it adds up.)

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

I guess if ebooks automatically put one space then it's not a big deal, but I can always start writing just just one space. Just a reaction thing from how I was taught while growing up to put two spaces and not one. (See, I tried putting two spaces here,

).

henderson

· #13 · May 23, 2015

sddonovan said:
I guess if ebooks automatically put one space then it's not a big deal, but I can always start writing just just one space. Just a reaction thing from how I was taught while growing up to put two spaces and not one. (See, I tried putting two spaces here, ).

I have had the same problem with the two spaces after periods as well as indenting paragraphs. I am fortunate, though, because the person who does the formatting for my novellas takes care of them before formatting.

As to the question raised in the OP, I have learned from experience when planning to budget for editing, I plan on using a copy editor and a proof reader. Each of them do very different, but very important jobs on the manuscript before publishing.

Robert Burton Robinson

· #14 · May 23, 2015

My copy editor (the one I used for my last three books: Four Steps Under, Deadly Commitment, and Dream Tunnel) charges $35 per hour, and she does a great job. My new book is 51,000 words, and the editing charge was $568. But before I sent it to her, I did my best to correct all of the errors, and then my three beta readers (family members) caught a number of typos and plot errors. I fixed all of those issues before sending it to my editor.

She found typos, punctuation errors, and even some plot problems---like referring to things as though they had already been discussed when they hadn't, and a few others. Important stuff!

If your manuscript is riddled with plot holes and grammatical errors, it's going to take a lot of time to edit. So, you want to get it as clean as possible before sending it to the professional editor.

My editor is Dawn Herring at http://www.alwayswrite.us/ and I have been extremely pleased with her work.

Just don't keep her so busy that she doesn't have time to edit MY books.

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77071

· #15 · May 24, 2015

Double-spacing between sentences...that's a sort of formatting thing, not an editing issue. Correct me if I'm wrong. $:-\$ :-X

:-X

:-[

Some of us will give up our double-spaces between sentences when you pry them from our cold, dead little fingers. :-*

:-*

Either way, I would find it borderline questionable if an editor charged by the hour to fix that. It can be fixed with an easy find / replace by the author (if they agree).

LifesHumor

· #16 · May 24, 2015

Carradee said:
First: it looks amateur (when it makes it through to formatting). It was always ever the standard for manuscript submission, not publication--and even then, it was needed for clarity with monospace fonts (like Courier). Two spaces after a period has been out of date and mostly unneeded for around two decades.

Second: it leaves more room for errors and accidents of formatting. Main place this can cause problems is if you have a lot of paragraph and character styling in your book.

Third: HTML strips out extra spaces, so in order to get those two spaces to show, you need a lot of extra code characters in order for those spaces to show in your EPUB or MOBI files. That increases your file size, which increases download time for readers + the download fee you're charged by Amazon. (Each character doesn't add much size in itself, but for a formatting thing like that...it adds up.)

That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

My fiction writing professor in college made it a point to make sure we broke the double space habit for the reasons you said.

Paul K

· #17 · May 24, 2015

Double spacing is something I still occasionally do, though, I am getting better at it. Luckily, Ctrl + Space in Scrivener gets rid of em

Salvador Mercer

· #18 · May 24, 2015

Single spacing is for young whipper-snappers

Double spacing is for the wise, elders amongst our society

Anne Victory

· #19 · May 24, 2015

HSh said:
Either way, I would find it borderline questionable if an editor charged by the hour to fix that. It can be fixed with an easy find / replace by the author (if they agree).

Of course she's charging by the hour. If she's working on your manuscript, the clock is running--as it should be. That's not to say it would take an entire hour. As you say, it's an easy enough fix. If you charge hourly or track time on a project you track / charge ALL time, not bits and pieces.

Bbates024

· #20 · Jun 17, 2015

Most editors will do a sample for and explain the different types of editing they offer. Some more established editors might ask for a fee on the sample edit.

I know what I did was look in the back of my favorite books and look who they thanked for editing. Then I reached out to a few for pricing.

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