Quote:
Originally Posted by Keryl Raist
I'm sorry, I'm a little confused here. You tell me that the content farms pay better than .01 a word, but they're also exploiting people so you don't recommend them. At .01 a word, if you can do ten manuscript pages an hour that's about $25/hr. Many of us consider that to be a pretty good amount of money. So, exploited how? They don't actually pay? Way too short deadlines?
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First, a good editor rarely edits 10 manuscript pages an hour. Depending on the the subject matter and the author's ability, the pace can be as little as 1 page an hour. 10 pages an hour would equal a very light copyedit, not a substantive edit or a medium to heavy copyedit, which would go much slower.
Second, $25 an hour is a good wage if (a) you are employed by someone else who provides benefits and this is just pin money for you and (b) it is part of a steady business flow. Most professional editors earn more because they have all the self-employment taxes to absorb (e.g., 13.6% of income for social security taxes alone compared to 6.8% that those employed by someone else pay); the cost of maintaining professional resources and tools that someone else would be providing and paying for if they were not self-employed; the costs of insurance, including health insurance that they not only have to foot 100% of the cost of but also have to pay a significantly higher premium for lesser coverage because they are not part of an employer-sponsored plan; etc.
We tend to forget that what a company pays an employee in hourlay wage is only a small fraction of the cost of the employee.