Depends, unfortunately. I’d love to be able to just tell you, but in order to offer fair pricing, I need to see at least a decent-sized sample of the work and talk to you about your goals for the project.

I’m a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). Although it does not constitute a price quote, estimate, or rate chart from me, the EFA does publish an Editorial Rate Chart featuring the average rates members charge for different types of work. You can view the EFA’s Editorial Rate Chart here.

The main reasons I don’t guarantee consistency with this rate chart are that each project is highly variable in terms of both goals and needs, and you might place your project under a different category of work than I would.

To start an editing project with me, send in a Contact form. I’ll email back with a few questions and most likely request a sample of the work to be edited. We’ll chat over the details, and if everything sounds good, I’ll send you a contract outlining the project.

Editors use software features that let you, the client, see every change we’ve made to your text. Any changes that aren’t trivial (i.e. bigger than fixing a spelling error or moving a comma) are pointed out with queries: basically, little notes on the side of the text pointing out what changes were made and why.

The software allows you to reverse any changes made by your editor. The work is yours, after all, and you don’t have to keep any changes your editor made. We’re working together to make the text the best it can be, and that means always keeping your voice and intentions intact.

You’ll also receive a style sheet, which is essentially a guide your editor makes to the behind-the-scenes of editing your work. It helps your editor (and any future editors you may hire) keep track of things like the spelling of names and special terms, the way you choose to handle certain formatting and styling rules, and other details about your work, so that we can help you keep these as consistent as possible.

Is it a complete draft? If it isn’t, you might be looking for a developmental editor rather than a copyeditor. Check out my colleagues at the Editorial Freelancers Association. They have a great page to help you search for the right editor.

Was it written completely by you, or by someone whose work you have the appropriate rights to? Although editors perform some level of checking for plagiarism, the responsibility is on you to ensure your work is truly yours. Additionally, I don’t accept works produced by generative AI or LLMs for editing, but some of my colleagues in the EFA do. See the link above.

Have you completed other phases of editing necessary for your project? Apologies for being vague, but it really does vary. A longer work in a scenario with more budget and a higher need for polish (like a book) might go through a line editor first, for example, while a blog post or other relatively short-form content writing might only need a quick pass or two by the author before being handed to a copyeditor. It all depends on the needs and purpose of the work.

Do you have a reasonable budget for this? Sorry, can’t afford to work for free. Capitalism an’ all.

If you’ve racked up four yeses, hit that Contact button.