Freelance English editors charge different rates depending on many things, including their location, experience, and specialty. However, professional editing services do not come cheap. The recommended hourly rates for editing nonfiction documents are between $40 and $70 according to the Editorial Freelancers Association and at least £31 according to the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.
If you have a nonfiction book manuscript, technical course materials, or a few hefty business reports, hiring an experienced editor may end up costing you as much as a nice overseas vacation.
Whether your budget for editing is tight or limitless, keeping the cost of editing low means you’ll have more money for marketing your publication or for other writing projects. Here are four things you can do to minimize the cost of editing regardless of which freelance editor you hire.
1. Avoid rework
Problem: Several editing passes cost too much.
This problem can occur when the author, or one of the co-authors, makes significant changes to the “final” draft received from the freelance editor. The paper then needs a new round of editing, which adds to the cost of this service.
Solution: Send your language editor the final version of the document after it’s been revised and approved by all the authors.
However, in some cases, you may not be able to avoid several editing rounds. A good example is a paper intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. You’ll most likely have at least two versions of a manuscript—one before peer review and one after you complete the revisions requested by the journal editor—and both may need editing, or at least proofreading.
In cases like this, sending both drafts to the same freelance editor, rather than to different editors, will help you minimize the cost of editing. As the freelancer will be already familiar with your manuscript and your writing style, they may charge you less for the second editing pass. This is because, in general, a second draft takes less time and effort to edit than the first.
2. Send the freelance editor an editable document
Problem: The editor charges an extra fee for editing scanned documents.
Some authors prefer to send their freelance editor non-editable files to ensure the editor doesn’t make changes silently (without tracking changes). However, editing a scanned document or JPG is more laborious—and expensive—than editing a Word document. That’s because the editor will need to add comments on the side of the document for each proposed change, regardless how minor it is, rather than just make the change.
Solution: Send the freelancer an editable file (such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer). You’ll not only reduce editing costs but you’ll also save time, because you won’t have to make each change manually. Instead, if you use a word processor, you’ll be able to accept or reject any suggested change with a click. And if you need to compare the edited version with the original, use the Compare Documents tool to highlight the differences.
As an alternative to using Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer, or another word processor installed on your computer, you can upload the file to Google Docs and share it with your editor. They will edit the document online, and you’ll be able to easily track changes and view comments, as well as collaborate with your freelance editor in real time if you need to.
3. Use reference management software
Problem: Editing and formatting references costs too much.
If your book, article, or PhD thesis has many references and you’ve overlooked reference management, manually formatting the references (per APA Style, for example) and cross-checking them against the in-text citations may end up costing you more than a quarter of your total budget for editing.
Solution: To avoid unnecessary costs, and minimize the cost of editing, use a reference manager to automate manual tasks. Or, if you don’t have access to reference management software, fix most of the references manually before sending your manuscript to a freelance editor. One free tool that is very useful is Google Scholar. It can format a citation per APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard styles. While automatically formatted citations are not foolproof, a partially formatted reference list should be cheaper to fix than one which looks like a ransom note.
4. Pay editing rates for editing services, not other tasks
Problem: The freelance editor who finalizes my work for publication charges me too much.
If your copyeditor charges an affordable hourly rate for their services, but you think the editing cost is too expensive, it may be because they do more than just copyediting. To prepare a document for publication, your freelance English editor might also need to correct formatting (fixing errors such as multiple spaces between sentences, tabs used for indentation, or extra spaces between paragraphs), add figure captions, create a table of contents, and more—as well as language editing.
Solution: To keep language editing costs low, ask your freelance editor to edit only the text and ignore formatting or other document layout issues. You can send them a plain text document so that they’re not distracted by layout inconsistencies. But this solution only makes sense if you’re willing to design the publication yourself or have a document designer on your team. Enlisting the help of a friend or family member can also be a solution if you can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant.
If you’re a PhD student, you’ll probably need to format your own PhD thesis. If you have a dissertation with many equations, images, tables, and footnotes, try LyX. It’s an open-source text processing program that helps you avoid document formatting nightmares. Many of my clients who work in academia use LyX to write their papers, and it helps minimize the cost of editing.
Hire an experienced editor to minimize the cost of editing without sacrificing quality
High-quality English language services don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Regardless of your publication budget, you can continue to afford high-quality editing services if you hire an experienced editor who works efficiently and if you avoid unnecessary expenses.
Minimize the cost of editing by sending your freelance editor the final version of your document as an editable file, using reference management software, and asking for language editing only. If you need other services, such as document formatting, maybe a family member or a friend can help you for free.
Do you have a document that needs revision and want to keep editing costs low? Send me a message at editor@languageediting.com so we can discuss your project.
Related posts:
- How much does English language editing cost?
- Should I edit my own research paper?
- 5 Ways to get free manuscript editing
Last revised on 24 June 2022
