Calculate editing costs correctly
If you want to have a text proofread, you should be able to roughly estimate what costs you will have to face. Many editors work freelance and calculate their fees based on certain criteria. However, the editing costs can vary.
Editing costs are not fixed
- You can find an editor who will thoroughly study your text via the database of the Association of Independent Lecturers (VFLL) find. Here you will also find fee recommendations and a sample calculation of how a freelance editor will calculate his fee rate.
- A lecturer will calculate his fee either as an hourly rate or per standard page. A few years ago, the SME community of independent lecturers issued fee recommendations for which the hourly rate was between 27 and 42 euros. Since these fee recommendations are a few years old, you should add a few more euros in order to be able to correctly calculate the editing costs.
- The recommended fee for a standard page (max. 30 lines of 60 characters each) amounts to 5 to 9 euros according to the VFLL.
- Using these figures, you can roughly estimate how expensive it can be to edit an average manuscript. However, proofreading is not necessarily included in the editing. If you want a thorough spelling and punctuation check, be sure to agree to do so.
The fee depends on the manuscript
- However, the association's fee recommendations are only a rough guide to the costs of the lecturer. The fee will also depend on the state of the manuscript. If extensive interventions on the part of the lecturer are necessary, it can be correspondingly more expensive.
- For example, if you agree to the editing of a complete non-fiction manuscript for a certain amount of hours at a certain hourly rate, after checking the Manuscripts come to be renegotiated on the part of the editor when it is clear that the manuscript has to be revised extensively and not within the negotiated hours is possible.
- If you work in a permanent position yourself, you cannot compare your hourly salary with the fee of a freelancer. Bear in mind that they have to finance their entire social security themselves and will also include vacation and idle times in the calculation.
- If you are a member of the Federal Association of Young Authors (BVjA), you can apply for shorter texts free editing take advantage of. However, you have to expect longer processing times because the editors do the work on a voluntary basis.
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