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Jobs and Contracts
Finding Work
Contracts
Fees

This section quotes and paraphrases information provided by the Freelance Editorial Association. For more complete information, as well as sample letters and invoices, go to their site.

Book editing of all kinds is frequently outsourced to freelancers. The types of editing jobs that freelancers do are congruent with the types listed in Types of Book Editors. The following sections outline how to find work, the elements of a freelance contract, and suggested payscale.

Finding Work

NetRead's Job Board is a place to start. See Resources and Professional Organizations for other sites that may have job boards. As with nearly all publishing jobs, however, word of mouth is best.

Depending on your experience and the position you're interested in, a publisher may require you to take a proficiency test. This is a drain on time, of course, but many publishers are inflexible on the matter.

Contracts

Although many working relationships in publishing are informal, it is preferable for a freelancer to have detailed agreements, especially for large-scale projects. If your client doesn't provide one, consider drawing one up yourself. The following is a checklist of elements in a typical contract.

  • Names and addresses of all parties involved
  • Date on which the contract takes effect
  • Status of freelancer (contractor vs. employee)
  • Date on which the project or parts of the project are due to both freelancer and client
  • Description of freelancer's tasks
  • Schedule by which the project is planned to proceed
  • Location at which work will be performed (freelancer's office vs. client's office)
  • Party responsible for purchasing supplies, equipment, and additional services
  • Basis of freelancer's compensation (project fee, hourly rate, or other agreed-upon arrangement)
  • Amount of freelancer's compensation
  • Billable expenses
  • Schedule of billings and payment
  • Interest charges for late payment
  • Applicability of reservation fees, rush fees, late fees, or cancellation fees
  • Conditions in case of project termination
  • Copyright holder for final publication
  • Special considerations: equipment needed and any reimbursement for equipment, prospect of project's interruption, possibility of subcontracting a portion of the project
  • Printed credit listing the freelancer's name in the final publication
  • Complimentary copy or copies of the final publication

Fees

Freelancers generally get paid either by the hour or by the project. Unless the project has very clear parameters (e.g., an index with a known number of entries), it is usually better to insist on an hourly fee, with agreed-on provisions for time overruns. It is traditional for freelancers to estimate their total hours for a project in advance, but an estimate is just that.

The following is a suggested fee schedule published by the Freelance Editorial Association as of 1995. Some fees, accordingly, could be raised slightly.

(A manuscript page is assumed to be double-spaced on a standard 8�-by-11-inch page. Freelancers are encouraged to negotiate according to the particular needs of each project.)

Type of Work Estimated Pace of Work Range of Fees
Copyediting, basic 3–8 manuscript pages per hour $20–30 per hour
Copyediting, substantive 2–5 manuscript pages per hour $25–45 per hour
Desktop publishing 1–4 pages per hour (newsletters) $25–30 per printed page
6–10 pages per hour (books) $35–60 per hour
Developmental/substantive editing <1�5 pages per hour $28–50 per hour
Illustrating spot, ½–8 hours or more $30–75 per hour
$25–300 per spot
full-page, 8 hours or more $250–1,000 per page
cover art $1,500–5,000 per cover
Indexing 5–10 book pages per hour $25–60 per hour
$3.50–10 per indexable book page
Project management not applicable $8.50–15 per printed page
$40–60 per hour
Proofreading 3–10 manuscript pages per hour $20–30 per hour
Translating 500–1,000 words per hour $80–140 per thousand words
Writing <1�3 manuscript pages per hour $30–100 per hour
$45–95 per book page


 

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