OK, since I know my PM is new at this, I've basically decided to go with something to the effect of "I wish you had asked me about this before you sent it to the team... I think it's disingenuous to ask this of fixed-bid hires... " and telling him that I'm simply providing estimates for my stuff based on my hourly base because I don't track this (which is true).

I know he's under the gun and is just trying to put together a plan for a Monday meeting where he will be raked over the coals, but I will be very annoyed if he has pissed off my editors.

Working backwards to come up with the hours based on the fixed bid makes a lot of sense.

oh joy ... spam

Question for the freelance editors around here: a friend has been asked to edit a full-length book, nonfiction I think. What would be a reasonable rate to charge for that service?

I can't speak from experience, but here's the EFA:

[link]

thanks, Dana

I'm curious. Which of those categories is giving editors notes? I.E: "This approach isn't working. You need to go into more detail here less here. Your tone is too serious/not serious enough." I'm guessing "developmental".

My take is that developmental editing is anything that is shaping the text. (My McGraw-Hill title was developmental editor.)

If you are providing notes/queries it could also be considered heavy copyediting. Line editing would be if you are diving in and rewriting. This happens quite a bit with textbooks, but less so with fiction or academic/narrative non-fiction.

I find that for tasks such as the one mentioned above, what people generally mean is heavy copyediting (proofreading, identifying awkward word choices/suggesting alternatives, minor rewriting of sentences to clarify, style consistency, etc.) This is what I do for California History or other academic articles.

I would not recommend charging less than $40 an hour for that but that can add up quickly so many people that do personal (not publisher) gigs end up charging less.

So, I might have a contract training opportunity coming up. A company that I worked for back in the 90s asked if I'd be interested in developing two training sessions and a job aid. I could do all of these, but I have no idea how to price it. It would probably take me a week or two to to pull together, plus a few hours for the actual training. If anyone has any suggestions, please, that would be very helpful.