Well, probably, but not neceessarily. More than one publisher I've worked for has subscribed to the "Amount of red pencil marks = Amount of work done by copy editor" theory. I've discussed this with several other people who freelance for you, and we agree that more than once, our work is sometimes invisible. For example, I worked on a long, politically partisan biography recently. Most of the names and facts were correct; but every now and then there was something egregiously wrong. Since this is a book that is going to be in the crosshairs of those who don't agree with its point of view, it's essential that easily spotted factual errors be corrected before its publication. But for me to find those relatively few, but important, errors, I had to do a lot of research, most of which checked out with what the author had. But every now and then, it didn't.
Fortunately, the person I was working for understood the situation and didn't quarrel with the hours I spent. But a lot of my work was invisible.
This was proofreading, too, cleaning up after a messy series of edits and author revisions. The copy editor had already done lots, but there were rewrites.
Your figure of $630 for copy editing seems reasonable: Say, a 300-pg. book, doing 10pp/hr, @ $21/hr, = $630. But even doing 15pp/hr (about the absolute maximum I can proofread an hour), times $16/hr (lower than I'll usually work for, but once in a while for someone or something I love...) = $320.
Actually, IIRC, when these costs are figured in a P&L, they are generally budgeted higher than the actual amount paid to the freelancer. They're called "plant costs"; and it has been my understanding that here is where some of the publisher's costs of doing business (salaries of editings, marketing, sales, art, publicity people et al., mortgage or rent on office, etc.--or at least the in-house administration of the freelance work) are slipped into the budget.
But it's been a long time since I had to deal with anything like this. Maybe it's different now...
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Date: 2006-06-06 12:23 am (UTC)Fortunately, the person I was working for understood the situation and didn't quarrel with the hours I spent. But a lot of my work was invisible.
This was proofreading, too, cleaning up after a messy series of edits and author revisions. The copy editor had already done lots, but there were rewrites.
Your figure of $630 for copy editing seems reasonable: Say, a 300-pg. book, doing 10pp/hr, @ $21/hr, = $630. But even doing 15pp/hr (about the absolute maximum I can proofread an hour), times $16/hr (lower than I'll usually work for, but once in a while for someone or something I love...) = $320.
Actually, IIRC, when these costs are figured in a P&L, they are generally budgeted higher than the actual amount paid to the freelancer. They're called "plant costs"; and it has been my understanding that here is where some of the publisher's costs of doing business (salaries of editings, marketing, sales, art, publicity people et al., mortgage or rent on office, etc.--or at least the in-house administration of the freelance work) are slipped into the budget.
But it's been a long time since I had to deal with anything like this. Maybe it's different now...
But it was a long time ago