Rates: (with reference to scope of work and work phases)
My rates will tend to track the rates chart of the Editorial Freelancers Association; click here to view it. Note the differences between levels of editing.
The manuscript itself will give me an idea of what level of work is needed. Email me, ideally attaching your manuscript in Word or PDF format, and, if I'm available, we'll see what we can work out. I would rather help you than not. Gaps between assignments are terribly boring.
Students, if you just want a light or medium edit on a school paper, I've made that easy; click here to go to my annex where you can set it up!
You may want my "kitchen sink" mode of working, which will tend to follow this definition of "line editing." If you wish me to do less (to look for/pay attention to a smaller category of issues, as in a simple grammar and punctuation edit), or to do more, or to help you with specific additional things, my rate will reflect that. (If it's a rush job, or if similar special circumstances apply, that may also affect the rate.) We'll get the scope of work clear at the beginning of the project.
Work scope aside, I am going to advise you not to skimp on one phase, unless time will actually make this impossible. Particularly with long documents and with more extensive edits, I advise you to expect it as part of the project from the beginning. This is the phase in which you review my comments and recommendations, make decisions, and then return the manuscript file to me for another run-through, which you will then review again. We should probably do this more than once. (Barring our running into unusual circumstances, each pass I make is likely to take a fraction of the time taken by the one before. With a recent novel-sized project, the ratio was 68 hours, 17 hours, and 3 hours.)
Part of the reason is that I'd better look at the results of the new changes you'll have made . . . and part of it is that, strangely enough, the editing awesomeness that I offer crucially involves my advising you that I'm not infallible. We need to be sure that neither of us has inadvertently introduced new problems, and, beyond that, it's likely that more things are going to be caught. The additional passes are worth it. Do not be so ecstatic with what I've done when you first get your manuscript back that you just submit it for publication right then. You want your baby clean.
The manuscript itself will give me an idea of what level of work is needed. Email me, ideally attaching your manuscript in Word or PDF format, and, if I'm available, we'll see what we can work out. I would rather help you than not. Gaps between assignments are terribly boring.
Students, if you just want a light or medium edit on a school paper, I've made that easy; click here to go to my annex where you can set it up!
You may want my "kitchen sink" mode of working, which will tend to follow this definition of "line editing." If you wish me to do less (to look for/pay attention to a smaller category of issues, as in a simple grammar and punctuation edit), or to do more, or to help you with specific additional things, my rate will reflect that. (If it's a rush job, or if similar special circumstances apply, that may also affect the rate.) We'll get the scope of work clear at the beginning of the project.
Work scope aside, I am going to advise you not to skimp on one phase, unless time will actually make this impossible. Particularly with long documents and with more extensive edits, I advise you to expect it as part of the project from the beginning. This is the phase in which you review my comments and recommendations, make decisions, and then return the manuscript file to me for another run-through, which you will then review again. We should probably do this more than once. (Barring our running into unusual circumstances, each pass I make is likely to take a fraction of the time taken by the one before. With a recent novel-sized project, the ratio was 68 hours, 17 hours, and 3 hours.)
Part of the reason is that I'd better look at the results of the new changes you'll have made . . . and part of it is that, strangely enough, the editing awesomeness that I offer crucially involves my advising you that I'm not infallible. We need to be sure that neither of us has inadvertently introduced new problems, and, beyond that, it's likely that more things are going to be caught. The additional passes are worth it. Do not be so ecstatic with what I've done when you first get your manuscript back that you just submit it for publication right then. You want your baby clean.
My general philosophy: I fix things that are actually broken. I point out things that are unclear or that may be troublesome, and I may suggest fixes. But if something isn't actually broken, or if a change would be correct but is not actually mandatory or definitely needed . . . I'm not out to change a writer's style, and certainly not just to make it match the way I might handle something. My job is twofold: to help the reader understand, and to help the writer say what he or she is trying to say. And I like explaining my reasons to writers . . . which, as a side benefit, involves my making sure that I actually do have a reason.
If you could use an editor, or if you have any questions, send me an email at flugendorf@yahoo.com.