Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
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.
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I think one thing to keep in mind is at $25 an hour, I'd be making more than I currently am (0) and my friend would be making more than she does ($9).
I've been self-employed for most of my adult life. Currently as an author/SAHM and before that as a massage therapist running my own pain therapy business. So I'm more than familiar with the joys of the US tax structure and what it does to your hourly rate.
I'm curious as to what sort of editing you're talking about doing where you can only get through 250 words an hour. I'm guessing it's not popular fiction. Even appallingly badly written fiction shouldn't take that long to get through. Not to put to fine a point on it, but for fiction I could re-write the whole page, keeping the original author's voice but improving his grammar and flow faster than that, let alone just make corrections.
I'm also assuming, unless you charge $.15 or more a word, that you also usually do quite a bit more than one page an hour.