Proofreading - what to charge

Eliza_2

Morning all, a friend has asked me to proofread her interior design business website, spelling, grammar, readability, links and so on (not the arty bit which I know nowt about). It will be initially while the site is set up then ongoing - just keeping an eye on the updates, making sure links work etc.

I'm reasonable at English, will check spelling and grammar properly and comfortable using the net to check links etc so would like to do this. However I have no idea what to charge. I know professionally qualified editors and proofreaders charge per word read or have various other systems of calculating pay but I obviously can't charge those sorts of amounts.

Can anyone give me an idea of what to ask for? Thanks.

Tom99

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]I would charge per hour of your time at whatever you think you are worth.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]You would them just submit an invoice to your friend based on this hourly charge.[/FONT]

Eliza_2

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]I would charge per hour of your time at whatever you think you are worth.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]You would them just submit an invoice to your friend based on this hourly charge.[/FONT]

That's the problem, I have no idea what this work would be worth!

Tom99

Eliza wrote: »

That's the problem, I have no idea what this work would be worth!

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]Can you ask your friend how much they are prepared to pay you, if you don't know what your time is worth to them?

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]What else would you be doing with the time you will spend on this job? If you could otherwise be earning £50 per hour somewhere else, then charge that.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]However if its only a few leisure hours you will be giving up and its for your friend then do it for free or a minimum wage.[/FONT]

Robinette

I am a freelance copy editor and earn between £12 and £30 per hour. The lower rate is my bread and butter (editing high-volume work for content mills) and the higher rate is for quick-turnaround work for private clients.

Hope this helps.

Eliza_2

Thanks both, really helpful. Will go for somewhere between min wage and £12. Next question is how to determine how long something will take. If it's just reading through picking out spelling mistakes that wouldn't take long, if I have to rewrite something to make it more readable or checking links - those things would be longer. Would rather err on the lower side so that expectation isn't too high

Feel more comfortable about this now, thanks again.

Tom99

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]You don't have to specify how long it will take, because as you say until you see the website and start work you will not know what is involved.

[/FONT] [FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]Just agree with you friend how much per hour you will charge and that you will only spend a maximum of x hours before reporting back to them. Your report will then be better informed about how much extra time you need to spend and your friend has the opportunity to say how much further time they are prepared to pay for.[/FONT]

PasturesNew

Time is easiest/best for your first venture.

Per word is too hard to count/quantify etc.

Per page can be a problem due to variable lengths.

Time .... per 15 minute chunk.

You don't want to spend longer calculating/billing for it than it took you to do it.