Professional editing is an important investment for the future of your book. It can also be a big investment, and a lot of authors are surprised by how much editing ends up costing. I’ll clear the waters here so you can know what professional editing costs, how editors set their rates, and how to recognize a fair rate.

To start, I just want to make a quick note on setting rates per page. With standard manuscript formatting, a single page has around 300 words. But as soon as that formatting varies, the word count per page does too, and any pricing system set by page falls apart. Most authors don’t format their manuscripts with industry standard formatting in mind, so to avoid confusion, most editors don’t charge authors by page count. Any time you do see the phrase “per page,” bear in mind that 300 words per page is the standard.

Editors usually calculate their fees based on an hourly rate. If their speed is consistent regardless of the project at hand, then editors usually translate that hourly rate to a rate per word. If the service requires their speed to adjust based on the manuscript’s needs, then editors usually create unique quotes for each project. So to understand editing rates, we need to start with rates per hour.

Editing Rates Per Hour

To find standard editing rates, you should start with editing associations’ websites.

The U.S.-based Editorial Freelancers Association estimates that heavy copy editing rates are around US$40-50 per hour, line (stylistic) editing rates are around US$40-60 per hour, and developmental editing rates are around US$45-55 per hour.

The U.K.-based Society for Editors and Proofreaders recommends that copy editors charge a minimum of £29.10 per hour and that developmental editors charge a minimum of £33.50 per hour.

Editors Canada do not list estimated ranges on their website, but as an Editors Canada member I do have access to their latest member survey from 2016. While wages vary from less than C$40 to over C$80 per hour, the most common rate in Canada is C$40-59 per hour.

Keep in mind that all of these rates are all very broad estimates (and only the Society for Editors and Proofreaders frames these rates as recommendations). Rates will vary depending on the editor’s level of experience and training as well as the level of involvement required for the specific service.

The Time Spent Editing

Of course, to calculate a rate you also need to know how long an editing pass will take. Editing speed varies depending on how long the manuscript is, how much intervention is needed, what the specific service is, and what the editor’s personal speed is. Some smaller services take a matter of hours to complete. Others that involve full manuscripts can take a week or two of full-time work. The time spent will be different depending on the editor, the author’s manuscript, and the service being provided.

That being said, it’s still possible to provide general speed estimates. In The Copyeditor’s Handbook, Amy Einsohn and Marilyn Schwartz estimate the following editing speed ranges based on the editing level and the text’s difficulty:

Editing Level	Standard Text	Difficult Text
Substantive, structural, or stylistic editing	2-3 pages/hour	1-2 pages/hour
Copy Editing	4-7 pages/hour	2-4 pages/hour
Proofreading	6-9 pages/hour	4-6 pages/hour

At this point, you may be thinking that editors must live a pretty cushy lifestyle if they get to work at these rates. If an editor works fifty full weeks in a year and charges $50 an hour, her yearly income should be $100,000, right? Not quite. There are two things you need to keep in mind: business costs and non-billable hours.

Balancing for Business Costs and Non-Billable Hours

Any editing rate also needs to account for business costs. Here are common costs that editors need to account for:

• Professional development and training (such as courses, webinars, and conferences)
• Certification and professional membership fees
• Office supplies and professional software (the Microsoft suite, PerfectIt, style manuals, dictionaries, and an e-reader are common software and supplies that editors use)
• Holiday pay, insurance, and benefits
• Employer as well as employee income taxes (at least in Canada)

Also, freelancers only get paid for the direct time spent on specific projects. They won’t be paid for time spent on any other task.

Beyond working on projects directly, editors also need to respond to emails, handle administrative tasks, create and maintain their website (and blog), network and connect with the writing community and their editing colleagues, and continue their professional development. So even if a freelance editor works forty hours in a week, she may only get paid for twenty or thirty of those hours. In fact, Editors Canada say that experienced freelance editors usually bill twenty to twenty-five hours a week.

What These Rates Mean for Editors

After accounting for all these factors, the rule of thumb for calculating a freelancer’s yearly income is to multiply her hourly rate by a thousand. If a freelancer’s hourly rate is $50, her yearly income would actually be around $50,000 a year.

So, to estimate a fair rate for editing, start by asking yourself what you’d hope your ideal editor (who’s presumably educated, experienced, and professional) would make in a year. Then divide that amount by a thousand and you have your estimated hourly rate.

Professional editing is so important. If you have a limited budget for editing and you’re not sure how best to use it, check out my post Tips for Editing on a Budget. It’s full of guidance to help you ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

Please know that most editors aren’t trying to gouge you. Editors don’t choose this field because they want to get rich. We choose this field because we’re incredibly passionate about helping authors hone their craft and share their stories.