Re: Estimating a project rate?

[Barbara Donohue <bdonohue -at- alum -dot- mit -dot- edu>]

Hi, Chris,

Years ago I learned, I think it was from Judith Tarutz's book, 
Technical Editing, that one could expect to do developmental  editing 
at the rate of 100 pages/40-hour week.  And I found that to be very 
accurate for quoting jobs where I need to reorganize and/or 
restructure a book. The pace of work may be similar for this 
unification-of-voice type of editing.

When I have no idea how easy/difficult, fast/slow a project will be, 
I like to do a sample portion of it and base my quote on that. But it 
sounds as if none of this book has been written yet.  True?

It sounds as if you'll be working for the publisher, rather than for 
the software firm. I believe publishers generally have a budget 
they're working from.  So you can ask your contact at the publisher 
what they have budgeted for the job. Bear in mind that they'll 
probably quote you the low end of their range, and you should be able 
to kick it up some.

The Editorial Freelancers Assoc. has some common rates and pace of 
work listed on http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.html, in $US.

Cheers,

Barbara
(The engineer who writes. . . and sometimes edits)







----------
Barbara Donohue
The engineer who writes. Turning technology into English.
978-263-4961
bdonohue -at- alum -dot- mit -dot- edu
Specializing in mechanical technologies  

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