Job Discussion Forums

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Hi,

I met an old lady here in buenos aires doing a postgrad degree who's currently writing her thesis (in english) and wants me to check it over and correct her mistakes. I had a quick look at some of her work and to be honest there really aren't that many errors so i don't think it would take ages and ages. How do i charge for this? By word count or by how long it takes me to complete?

Cheers,

matt

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

I'd do it by the page.

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

It should work out to be about the same by the page or calculating time. I usually give a total price--be it for editing or translating--so that it comes out about 35 dollars an hour. Not a lot of money, but better than we get in our day jobs in Latin America.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Either make a rough guess as to how long it will take and offer a price for the whole job, or charge by the hour.

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Ta, i was thinking along the lines of charging by the hour but thought i might be selling myself a bit short as the lady got in touch with me through my ad offering english lessons for the going rate of 20 pesos ($6.50) and hour...can't really say that editing is going to cost more than this. Guess i could stretch it out to earn a bit more but i'd feel a bit guilty doing that...damn morals, always screw me over...

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I don't understand why someone would assume that English lessons and editing manuscripts would cost the same.

Unless you are wild about editing--in which case maybe you should be paying the client to let you do it--I suggest leveling with her that 6.50 an hour is not what you charge. Morals have very little to do with this question--either you are in business, or you're not.

Alex42 · Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Posts: 77 Location: Salta, Argentina

I had an editing job last week for a friend�s company. I was initially under the impression that there would only be half an hour�s work, so I charged 30 pesos an hour to make it worth my while. As it turned out, I was there for 5 hours so I felt a bit guilty at charging such a high hourly rate. I offered to reduce my fees and they suggested 25 an hour, which was fine.

I don�t want to charge too much because I�d like them to hire me again if possible!

So basically what I�m saying is you could charge a high hourly rate for a small amount of work, but reduce it if it�s going to take a while. Smile

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Cheers Alex, 20pesos, as you'll know, in local terms is the equivalent of $20 which is a fair bit of money for an individual to fork out. I'll probably stick to that amount, the person in question is a 75 year old lady doing a postgrad degree so i guess she's living off some kind of pension (of course if that pension comes in the form of foreign currency she's laughing...)