Figuring out how to price your proofreading services can be one of the biggest challenges when first starting out. There are many factors to consider and obstacles to overcome when it comes to setting proofreading rates. In this blog post, we take a look at a number of them and discuss how you can determine the right rate to charge your clients.
Understanding your value as a proofreader
Before we get to setting rates, however, we need to discuss value. After all, if you don’t understand the value you provide, you will have a harder time determining—and selling—your rate.
You (or a potential client) may think that proofreading isn’t worth a lot of value. After all, a program like Grammarly is free and just as good, right? In fact, this is not true at all!
Proofreaders bring a lot of value to the table. Just a few examples of the benefits proofreaders provide are:
- Cleaning up/polishing content by finding and fixing mistakes, typos, etc.
- Spotting and addressing inconsistencies in a text (e.g., alternating between two equally “correct” spellings like grey and gray)
- Eliminating unnecessary words for tighter prose
- Providing a sanity check to help ensure the client’s copy makes sense
As you can see, this goes far beyond a simple run-through looking for a few misspelled words. Proofreading is a specialized skill that requires expertise and, in turn, provides value to clients who can’t or don’t want to do this kind of work themselves.
Understanding current market rates for proofreading
Knowing that proofreading is a specialized skill that has value, the next step is to research existing rates. Thankfully, there are people who already keep tabs on this sort of thing. The market rate for proofreading and editing work in the US is between $20 and $40 per hour.
Keep in mind, however, that this is the full market rate—the rate you can expect to charge as an established proofreader. At the beginning of your journey, you may not be able to command rates this high. Especially as you are just starting to grow your portfolio and client base, you may find it necessary to come in under market value and slowly raise your rates over time.
In order to see real-time data about proofreading rates (or at least rates clients are expecting to pay), you can check out job postings on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or Indeed. You can use search terms to narrow down your search and begin to get a feel for the going rates for those types of proofreading jobs that interest you (e.g., fiction, legal, business).
Considerations for setting proofreading rates
With this background knowledge, you can now begin to work on establishing the rates you are going to charge. The goal, of course, is to charge as much as possible without going overboard. You don’t want to set your rates too low and leave money on the table or too high and miss out on landing new clients. Instead, you want to find the “sweet spot” that exists somewhere along the spectrum.
Factors to consider
This “sweet spot” is not necessarily a specific number, however. In fact, there is no “right” answer when it comes to how to price your proofreading services. The market range ($20-$40 per hour, as listed above) gives you the “reasonable” range, but the exact amount you charge will depend on various factors, including:
- Your existing work history. If you only have a few clients or a small portfolio, you may not be able to charge as much as someone with a long history of satisfied clients.
- The type/size of the client. A student or independent author will almost certainly not be able to pay you as much as a large business. You may need to consider adopting a graduated fee schedule to account for small, medium, and large clients.
- The quality of the content to review. If you can preview the content you’ll be proofreading, take advantage of the opportunity. You will be able to see how good (or bad) the actual writing is you’ll be proofreading. The worse the copy, the longer it will take you to correct it, and this should be factored into your rate.
- Your expenses. While you may have to work your way up at first when it comes to setting rates, you need to make it your goal to cover your expenses as soon as possible. Make sure your rates are in line with this goal.
The role of psychology
Another extremely important factor to consider is your own psychology. We all tend to undervalue our work. This makes us too quick to charge too little for our services, which is not a good strategy!
Because of this, it’s critical to lean into setting uncomfortably high rates.
When opportunities arise to work with clients, think about the highest rate you feel comfortable charging. What is the rate that seems about right and doesn’t give you any pause? Now, take that rate and add 25%-50% to it.
This should make you nervous, and you may even doubt the client will say yes, but this is the rate you should propose because it takes into account the money you subconsciously subtract by undervaluing yourself.
Experimentation is okay
On a final note, you can also experiment with your rates. Propose different rates to different clients and see which contracts you get. You may find that the rate clients are willing to pay you is higher (or lower) than you thought, but in either case you will find the answer soon enough.
Communicating your pricing to potential clients
After taking some time to consider the above information, you should have an idea of what price to charge for your proofreading services. (And this is an iterative process, by the way.) But once you’ve established your baseline rates, it still remains to communicate them to potential clients. Below are a few key insights.
Be professional and direct
First, always present your pricing in a straightforward manner. Be simple, professional, and direct. For example, here’s how to respond to a client inquiry:
“Thank you for reaching out! For a 20,000-word book like yours, I would charge $200 for proofreading. Let me know if you are interested in proceeding.”
This type of response gives the client the information they need to make a decision, and it allows them to accept, negotiate, or reject it as they see fit.
Don’t be apologetic or tentative
Second, whatever you do, do not apologize for your rates! If you have done the work and set reasonable rates, then own it. As a professional, be clear that this is what you charge for your services. Most clients will be willing to pay what you ask, but some won’t—and that’s okay.
Here’s an example of what not to say:
“Thank you for reaching out! For a 20,000-word book like yours, I would probably charge around $200, if that was okay with you. I totally understand if that’s more than you want to pay, so feel free to say no—I won’t be offended.”
You may feel this way—and that is completely normal—but a response to a client like this is all but asking to be rejected. Instead, communicate with confidence.
Learning how to price your proofreading services is a challenging endeavor. It can be difficult to understand the value you provide, assign a monetary value to it, and overcome your own psychology working against you. But by doing your research and experimenting, and then having confidence in the results, you can find the right rates to charge your clients.
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