How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Editor?
As an editor, I am asked this one question more than any other: “How much is it going to cost to hire you to edit my paper?”
Indeed, an author may perceive cost to be the most important factor when deciding which editor to hire. Cost is always a factor when one is a student author who is either trying to graduate with her DNP (doctor of nursing practice) degree or submit her final DNP manuscript for publication to a peer-reviewed nursing journal.
I’ve written this article in an effort to help all authors--especially student authors--adopt realistic expectations about what an editor’s services will cost. The main factors affecting the cost of an edit are described below.
Factor 1: How long is your paper?
Editing takes time. Thus, the longer your paper is, the more the edit will typically cost. If you need a 90-page scholarly paper edited down (essentially, re-crafted) to an 18-page manuscript for publication, that will cost more than if you have a 20-page paper that needs to be edited down to an 18-page manuscript.
In editing, the number of words an editor must read is the number that counts!
In addition, if you have pages and pages of tables and figures to edit, that increases the cost of an edit considerably (see below).
Factor 2: Are there tables, figures, or other items that require editing and/or special formatting?
Tables and figures are crucial for most journal manuscript submissions. When done well, they present data and project/study findings in ways that are easy for readers to understand.
They also take a lot of time to edit correctly. Content must be verified against text; style must be checked against your journal’s required style (AMA or APA or something else); and the typical grammar and spelling mistakes, along with abbreviations and statistical letters, must be corrected. All of that takes time, and thus, increases the cost of an edit.
Factor 3: What is your deadline?
A manuscript that needs to be edited in 3 days will cost more than one that has an editing deadline of 3 weeks. Editors are busy people with a lot of clients wanting immediate service. If your deadline is less than a week away, expect to pay a premium for such fast service. Editors need to sleep, eat, and take care of their families, just like you do.
Factor 4: Do you need the editor to address specific points detailed by either a journal reviewer, a journal editor, or one or more faculty members or advisors?
When asking an editor to help you revise a journal manuscript to address comments from peer reviewers or journal editors, expect that to take some time. Again, time is money.
If you also need the editor to write the point-by-point explanation of how you addressed each of the reviewer or journal editor’s recommendations in the revised paper, expect to pay extra for that service. Such letters are an art and science all their own. If you can’t imagine making the time to write the letter yourself, then you’ve got a good idea of how much work such a letter really is to write. Most editors charge more for writing than for editing, and writing the “response to reviewers” definitely counts as writing.
Factor 5: How good is your writing?
This may be the single most important factor in the cost of an edit. An 80-page paper written by someone with extremely good writing skills may only take 2 hours for a skilled editor to edit. A 12-page paper written by an author who has never written in scholarly or scientific style and who has not taken a grammar or writing class for 20 years will likely take much, much longer than that to edit.
This is one important reason that most editors require that you send them a sample of your paper before they can send you an accurate quote for the edit. Writers who have great difficulty crafting their thoughts into written sentences will pay more for editing services, regardless of the length of the document they need edited. The amount and intensity of the editing required are much greater than that required of someone with excellent writing skills.
Factor 6: How prepared are you to work with an editor?
The general rule is this: The more work you do to meet the expectations of your desired journal prior to hiring an editor, the less work the editor will have to do and, thus, the lower your editing fee will be.
In editing, more work results in a higher fee. Handing over a collection of your previously written course papers and expecting an editor to put them into something resembling a journal manuscript is simply not a realistic request to ask of an editor. You absolutely must try your best to craft a logical, readable manuscript before finding someone to help you with a professional edit. (Also, be sure you clearly understand what you can expect a professional editor to do for you before you hire one.)
Factor 7: Does the editor know your paper’s required style, or does she have to learn it?
This point is most relevant when an author has a lot of citations and references or several figures and tables to edit. If you need someone to make sure all the parts of your paper match a specific style, such as AMA, APA, or Vancouver, then your costs will likely be lower when you hire an editor who already has a lot of experience using that style.
Factor 8: How many revisions do you need the editor to review?
Finally, the total cost of an edit is affected by the number of revisions your paper needs. For example if you hire an editor and then submit the manuscript to your journal only to get a list of recommendations from the journal editor about content or specific references to add, the editor you previously hired will need to charge you separately for editing a revised draft of that manuscript.
The general rule is that each time you get feedback from a journal editor, committee chair, or reviewer that results in substantive changes to your paper, expect to pay for a new round of editing. (If the changes you made were minor, however, expect the subsequent editing charges to be lower than those for the initial edit.)
The bottom line: A lot of factors go into determining the cost of editing a paper or manuscript for publication. In addition, professional editors can charge several ways for their services:
• per word (6 cents to 12 cents/word),
• per page (double spaced with 12-point font and 1-inch margins, $5 to $30/page),
• per hour ($45 to $125/hour, depending on all the factors listed above), or
• per project (which the editor estimates based on the sample you send for review).
Remember that the cost of a project, while a concern for most students, should not be the sole factor you use to determine whether you will work with an editor. Having a conversation with an editor before you hire them, or getting a personal recommendation from someone in your field, are good ways to "vet" a possible editor to see if they are a good fit to edit your manuscript or project.
Click the button below to read more about the kinds of editing I offer.
Indeed, an author may perceive cost to be the most important factor when deciding which editor to hire. Cost is always a factor when one is a student author who is either trying to graduate with her DNP (doctor of nursing practice) degree or submit her final DNP manuscript for publication to a peer-reviewed nursing journal.
I’ve written this article in an effort to help all authors--especially student authors--adopt realistic expectations about what an editor’s services will cost. The main factors affecting the cost of an edit are described below.
Factor 1: How long is your paper?
Editing takes time. Thus, the longer your paper is, the more the edit will typically cost. If you need a 90-page scholarly paper edited down (essentially, re-crafted) to an 18-page manuscript for publication, that will cost more than if you have a 20-page paper that needs to be edited down to an 18-page manuscript.
In editing, the number of words an editor must read is the number that counts!
In addition, if you have pages and pages of tables and figures to edit, that increases the cost of an edit considerably (see below).
Factor 2: Are there tables, figures, or other items that require editing and/or special formatting?
Tables and figures are crucial for most journal manuscript submissions. When done well, they present data and project/study findings in ways that are easy for readers to understand.
They also take a lot of time to edit correctly. Content must be verified against text; style must be checked against your journal’s required style (AMA or APA or something else); and the typical grammar and spelling mistakes, along with abbreviations and statistical letters, must be corrected. All of that takes time, and thus, increases the cost of an edit.
Factor 3: What is your deadline?
A manuscript that needs to be edited in 3 days will cost more than one that has an editing deadline of 3 weeks. Editors are busy people with a lot of clients wanting immediate service. If your deadline is less than a week away, expect to pay a premium for such fast service. Editors need to sleep, eat, and take care of their families, just like you do.
Factor 4: Do you need the editor to address specific points detailed by either a journal reviewer, a journal editor, or one or more faculty members or advisors?
When asking an editor to help you revise a journal manuscript to address comments from peer reviewers or journal editors, expect that to take some time. Again, time is money.
If you also need the editor to write the point-by-point explanation of how you addressed each of the reviewer or journal editor’s recommendations in the revised paper, expect to pay extra for that service. Such letters are an art and science all their own. If you can’t imagine making the time to write the letter yourself, then you’ve got a good idea of how much work such a letter really is to write. Most editors charge more for writing than for editing, and writing the “response to reviewers” definitely counts as writing.
Factor 5: How good is your writing?
This may be the single most important factor in the cost of an edit. An 80-page paper written by someone with extremely good writing skills may only take 2 hours for a skilled editor to edit. A 12-page paper written by an author who has never written in scholarly or scientific style and who has not taken a grammar or writing class for 20 years will likely take much, much longer than that to edit.
This is one important reason that most editors require that you send them a sample of your paper before they can send you an accurate quote for the edit. Writers who have great difficulty crafting their thoughts into written sentences will pay more for editing services, regardless of the length of the document they need edited. The amount and intensity of the editing required are much greater than that required of someone with excellent writing skills.
Factor 6: How prepared are you to work with an editor?
The general rule is this: The more work you do to meet the expectations of your desired journal prior to hiring an editor, the less work the editor will have to do and, thus, the lower your editing fee will be.
In editing, more work results in a higher fee. Handing over a collection of your previously written course papers and expecting an editor to put them into something resembling a journal manuscript is simply not a realistic request to ask of an editor. You absolutely must try your best to craft a logical, readable manuscript before finding someone to help you with a professional edit. (Also, be sure you clearly understand what you can expect a professional editor to do for you before you hire one.)
Factor 7: Does the editor know your paper’s required style, or does she have to learn it?
This point is most relevant when an author has a lot of citations and references or several figures and tables to edit. If you need someone to make sure all the parts of your paper match a specific style, such as AMA, APA, or Vancouver, then your costs will likely be lower when you hire an editor who already has a lot of experience using that style.
Factor 8: How many revisions do you need the editor to review?
Finally, the total cost of an edit is affected by the number of revisions your paper needs. For example if you hire an editor and then submit the manuscript to your journal only to get a list of recommendations from the journal editor about content or specific references to add, the editor you previously hired will need to charge you separately for editing a revised draft of that manuscript.
The general rule is that each time you get feedback from a journal editor, committee chair, or reviewer that results in substantive changes to your paper, expect to pay for a new round of editing. (If the changes you made were minor, however, expect the subsequent editing charges to be lower than those for the initial edit.)
The bottom line: A lot of factors go into determining the cost of editing a paper or manuscript for publication. In addition, professional editors can charge several ways for their services:
• per word (6 cents to 12 cents/word),
• per page (double spaced with 12-point font and 1-inch margins, $5 to $30/page),
• per hour ($45 to $125/hour, depending on all the factors listed above), or
• per project (which the editor estimates based on the sample you send for review).
Remember that the cost of a project, while a concern for most students, should not be the sole factor you use to determine whether you will work with an editor. Having a conversation with an editor before you hire them, or getting a personal recommendation from someone in your field, are good ways to "vet" a possible editor to see if they are a good fit to edit your manuscript or project.
Click the button below to read more about the kinds of editing I offer.