What's the going rate for a pro to format an ePub?

[K-Thom]

This brings up another question. Are contract eBook formatters doing this as a full-time job or are they supplementing their regular income, say as a web designer or some other job?

It's still a supplementary income, but for the last two months it's been the biggest chunk of my income. There is a steadily rising demand over here which was rather non-exstent in 2009.

And, sadly/interestingly enough, much of it due to the iPad, which most publishers want to use as their primary platform.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Since I'm doing exactly that kind of work professionally for about half a year now (semi-professional for about the last seven years or so), it looks like i'm way too low priced ...

* Proofread is only done casually while formatting the files, i.e. I use the Word2007 spell checker which does find a lot of errors and browse the files while working at them. No client I ever had asked explicitely for it, either. . . .

I just want it to be clear that spell checking in Word is NOT proofreading or copyediting, although far too many authors and publishers think that is sufficient. Think about all of the things that spell check cannot find for correction, for example:

• which vs. witch
• there vs. their
• seen vs. scene

Or miscapitalization as in:

"Jonah helped his Uncle Jack off his horse" vs. "Jonah helped his uncle jack off his horse"

Not quite the same meaning, ehhh!

[Ken Irving]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

Or, is this question too simple since the books vary in length, some have more complex layouts than others, some may contain images and depending on whether they want the same layout (look & feel) in each ePub.

I could make an anonymous poll of rate ranges if that would be preferable.

If this is inappropriate in the Sigil forum, or should be moved to the ePub forum, please let me know.

Thank you.

Your question is not too simple, but though it's a start, there are some key points that are too vague. This is what you need to tell a professional:

1. Exactly what the origin files are. "...relatively clean HTML but would likely require further cleanup" signals unknown problems, so you should specify the source of the HTML and provide a sample. HTML can be produced by a wide variety of word processors and layout programs, each of which does some things well and others badly. Cleanup for any of them can involve both replacing or tweaking style sheets, using find-and-replace to correct bad coding, global replacement of typewriter with typographer quotes, and styling the text for consistency, depending on what you want.

2. What is the range of the file sizes (in word count if possible) and what is the average length?

3. Exactly what destination files you need. Nook-friendly epub and Kindle-friendly azw would probably be a minimum, but you should make that specific.

3. Does cleanup only require fixing the file coding, or do you need cleanup of the text itself?

4. Images might require a separate per-image quotation. If they are all in a usable format and resolution and don't require resizing, probably not. If they are in differing formats, sizes, and resolutions that introduces problems that need to be solved in addition to the basic formatting.

5. Do your files require links other than for the table of contents - e.g., footnotes, index links, etc.?

There are other questions such as start and end dates, and deadlines in between that would be a matter of discussion of course, but these five points cover the main variables that need to be settled in order to get a meaningful rate quote. The best way to handle a job of this size might be to agree on a price and a deadline for a single book, plus a tentative volume price (i.e., lower per book) for the series. Doing that first book will tell both you and the epub contractor whether or not the job is doable within the time frame you need, whether you can work with each other, and whether or not both of you are on the same page in regard to what needs to be done.

Your job is varied enough that rather than polling for prices you might do better to deal with people one at a time, providing a sample or maybe two (say the job that looks simplest and the one that you feel is the most complex) and some more details. Talking to people directly will probably get you better results than anonymous price quotes based on general information in a mobileread post.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

No. But some e-book coming from ocr aren't proofread either.

True, they should be proofread but that is a separate job. It is not tied to the conversion effort. As the saying goes GIGO. The source must be ok or the results are not ok.

[Fabe]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

That works out to only $40 per ebook ...

Yes, that's fair for a large contract.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

That works out to only $40 per ebook, plus extras. This would imply that you could complete the contract in a more timely manner than the contract specified and would give you an advantage if this contract was put to bid.

This brings up another question. Are contract eBook formatters doing this as a full-time job or are they supplementing their regular income, say as a web designer or some other job?

I run a full-time shop with Crew. In addition to conversion Crew I have a woman who proofs the books for polish and for changes we've made (either to fix conversion errors or the ubiquitous copyediting) and I have a guy who specializes in utter dogs from crap code. He also does the enhanced epubs for iBooks. AND, I admit this: when I have big-name authors in, I give those to him, too, so that I know they're perfect. {shrug}. Oh, and the graphics dudes, but none of them are actually paid by me; I just refer them around to whatever author or house needs them, no kickbacks, no commissions, none of that nonsense.


HTH

Hitch