People are so funny. I once had someone perfectly happy with the flat fee I quoted and they accepted it. When they found out that meant I’d make $100 an hour (don’t recall how that part of the conversation unfolded, but clearly I didn’t handle it well), they changed their mind. They felt very strongly that it was overpaying if it was only going to take me X hours. If I’d lied and said it was going to take three times as long at 1/3 the rate, they wouldn’t have been bothered in the least – despite the fact that the end result was the same either way.

I do this – I figure how much time it will take, add 25 percent to the total, and multiply by my per-hour rate.

To be honest, I’ve had people think $30 per hour is too much. I like to be as straight as I can with a client. I tell them what they’re getting for their money and how much of their money they’ll be using for me to deliver that.

Proofreading, obviously, is a lower rate because you’re not restructuring anything – you’re simply pointing out/amending simple mistakes or inconsistencies. That’s a lower rate for me – averaging between $30-40/hr.

Here in Chicago, I can’t justify $100 per hour for editing. I’m at $60 (and that’s with publications that see the value of $1 per word for writing).

I’m able to charge $75 per hour for writing. I think that should be higher, but I haven’t been successful.

I THOUGHT I had enough coffee this morning, but so far I’ve polished and article, written a review, and spat at Microsoft for not having a Conficker patch on the site, just a bunch of totally useless information.