Going rate for editing

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Not sure where to put this..
What's the going rate to edit something, like a novel?

 

[Riptide]

What's the going rate for general copy-editing on a freelance basis? And what's the rate for freelance design work?

 

[playthrough]

My wife did some freelance editing a few years back and $50/hour was her going rate. She might have gone lower some for friends and regular clients, but she insisted on an hourly rate instead of per-word rate because some manuscripts were more of a sh*t show than others. Also have to make clear what the "editing" is up front -- just typos and sentence structure, or a full edit including fact-checking?

I edited a book once for a friend who ran a golf course, I negotiated a set of new Ping irons as my fee. Turned out to be a lot more work than I thought, to the friend's credit he asked if the deal was fair. I lied and said it was, though I did hit him up for a new 3-wood too.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Thanks.
Guy wants me to edit his 200-page novel. And that's what I asked him: sentence structure or full-on editing?

 

[CD Boogie]

Yeah, I would definitely go by the hour. I edited a football instructional manual for kids like 15 years ago and it was A LOT of freaking work. Guy/friend paid me $1,000 (as I remember) and also bought me drinks for quite a stretch. Still, I would have been smarter just getting a flat fee. The book was like 200 pages, as I remember. You'd think I would have kept a copy of the book, which was quite nice. You would be wrong.