Korean Job Discussion Forums

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

Got an email from one of my ex co-workers (Korean), she wants me to help edit a text book for middle school kids. I will get 6 mill up front, and 10% of the book profits. Anyone ever do this? Should take 5 months to complete. Anyone ever do this? Is it worth the money?

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

I don't know, it depends how much work is involved. How many hours a week?

Editing is really difficult depending on how good the person doing the writing understands English (I'm assuming the author is Korean). I've done editing of journal articles and find it quite boring.

kreitler7 · Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Location: Seoul

My friends did a similar thing. They were making a text for a uni professor. He was phoning her about 3 or 4 times a day about "changes" to her work that she did. She was stressed out. And she spent WAY more time on it than she thought she would. Since she was working full time too, her life was not pleasant at that time. She would always complain about it.

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

Thanks! Never thought about that~

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

I did a bit of editing here and there before as well...

Don't agree on a lump sum up front because then they can pile more and more work on you however they feel and you can't say no...

6 million might sound like a lot but if it is only 10 hours a week(it will be more than this) then over 5 months at 200 hours it is not much at all.
Only maybe 30 000 an hour which I wouldn't work for normally let alone for something that can be very boring at times.
If they are offering you that much money up front expect a lot of work. Find out exactly how much they think you will do or set a limit of hours if they don't know.

Go for an hourly rate of W50 000 an hour for editing things like that as it can be mind numbingly boring and frustrating. If you give an hourly rate then you will find they will not waste as much of your time and effort as they will always be looking at the clock....

That has been my experience....

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

thanks again!

blurgalurgalurga · Joined: 18 Oct 2007

Do it, Merk!
If it sucks, well, it'll be a good thing to have on a resume, regardless.

Unposter · Joined: 04 Jun 2006

Where are they marketing it? 10% royalties is fantastic! Ask them how many books they expect to sell. Then do the calculations.

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

Thanks again, a HUGE help!

Dave's is the place for instant advice!

venus · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Location: Near Seoul

Agree to it based on a payment per article / chapter / unit edited instead. That way the other probs psoters above listed are less likely.

Make sure you get paid after each article / chaper / unit and that way if you want to quit, there are no money issues.

6 mil up front sure would be tempting though...

Juregen · Joined: 30 May 2006

It's a general business practice in Korea that if they do pay a lump sum in advance, that afterwards all additional requests are considered within the lump sum paid.

So it seems that in the beginnings they pay a lot, but in the end they will squeeze you like a lemon Smile

.

I had the same with my interior, i was first flabbergasted at the asking price of the initial agreement. But afterwards i got a lot of extra stuff that made up the difference. without being charged a cent extra.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

PGF · Joined: 27 Nov 2006

I've done it and it can really overwhelm you fast. I agree that you should price it on a per page or at least, per chapter basis. And, unless they have some spectacularly talented Korean writers, you will probably end up writing most of the material. That's what happened with me anyway.

The first month I worked for a lump sum. The next 8 months I worked per piece and made a killing.

Good luck