Okay. I have an English degree that I never use to its best ability (Though I did use its correctly just there), but a friend of mine has a freelance opportunity for me and I need the advice of the masses.
My friend is building a website for a gentleman who runs a luxury real estate company.
My friend says he is getting raw copy from this guy but he knows the copy will be shite, and wants me to re-write it. It’d be 5 - 8 pages of text. Do I charge by the page or the hour, and how much?
Don’t wanna screw my friend, but if this guy’s niche is luxury real estate, and he’s doing well-enough to get a high-end website, I figure he’s got the duckets to get good copy…
Have a look here for some guidelines (you’ll have to click about a bit) - these relate to the UK, but will give you an idea of scale.
You can charge by the page or by the word, I generally charge my lowest rates for editing/minimal rewriting.
In terms of high-end glossy corporate copy, that usually commands the highest fees. It really is somewhat of a piece-of-string situation though.
At the end of the day, work out how long the job will take you. Work out how much on a reasonable regular salary you would be getting per hour - then at least double that. You should always be estimating on a higher rate for any freelance work, because it has to take into account the irregularity of work, lack of benefits, and overheads. You also should consider a minimum fee for any job: if you’re only proofing a hundred words or so, unless the person is a regular client, it won’t be worth your while.
If you’re working off of somebody else’s copy, it’s hard to charge by the word. Hourly makes more sense then. Either that, or take a look at his copy and give a flat quote. It’s hard to give you an exact number, but I’ve seen copywriters paid as little as $15 per hour (OUCH) and as much as $75 if they are well known and highly experienced.
