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I think it depends. NOTE: Typists are not the only ones who charge by the
word. Most professional translators charge by the word (common practice in
North America) or even by the character (common practice in Europe)--many
people who dabble in translation though, but are not strictly translators
tend to charge by the hour, not knowing the common practice. Editors do
charge by the hour in general, but here in Montreal many do charge by the
word as well (0.03 to 0.04 cents a word), especially when a client wants an
approximate price up front.
BUT she should definitely try to get a copy of the manual ahead of time,
before committing, and go through it quickly to see what type of changes may
be required. If there are major changes (switching around paragraphs,
making sense out of unclear text, etc.), then definitely charge by the hour,
since the time commitment could be huge, but if it is more cosmetic changes
(prepositions, grammar, some style, spelling, choice of words, etc.), then
you really have the choice of charging by word or by hour.
Traci
-----Original Message-----
From: Marc A. Santacroce <epubs -at- ricochet -dot- net>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Saturday, February 19, 2000 12:48 PM
Subject: Re: Freelance editing rates?
|IMHO Typists charge per page or word, technical writers and editors
|charge per hour (or, ugh, fixed priced).
|
|Marc
|
|
|>Someone has asked my wife to edit a manual as a freelance project. What is
|>an appropriate rate to charge? Should it by per hour or page? The
|>document is about 200 pages long.
|>
|>David
|>david -dot- g -dot- skoglund-2 -at- tc -dot- umn -dot- edu
|
|Marc A. Santacroce
|
|Senior Technical Writer
|ePubs, Inc.
|
|"I write, I train; either way you learn."
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