I have applied for a permanent employee position with a large publisher. The publish books and reference manuals in the tax and human resources field. The funding did not go through, but they do have several freelance editing projects, one of which they are offering to me. This project is a detailed discussion about lifetime gifting.
The company received a submission from the author, and returned it to the author with a request for substantial revisions both for accuracy and to fit with the publication’s writing guidelines. The author was apparently too busy to make the changes. Now the company wants me to edit/rewrite the project. My contact said that they would probably want the finished project within the next three months. In addition to checking the project for legal accuracy with the 2000 tax laws, I also need to incorporate the changes from Dubya’s tax act. Since this will be in a reference manual, I expect it will have a great deal of footnotes or endnotes.
I think I have good writing skills (despite what you see on the boards) and I certainly have the background in tax. I have been working in estate planning for 7 years now.
What I don’t know anything about is publishing/editing, especially freelance work.
How much should I charge? What do other editor types make?
How long should it take? The package with the manuscript and the company’s proposed revisions is about 1 inch thick, typed, double-spaced. They know I can’t devote my full time to it, since I still have a day job.
Any pointers for a first timer? I would really appreciate any tips you could give me.