Looking at the subject, that could be interpreted a couple different ways. 😀 But what I mean today is that I’ve decided that with the way the economy is currently headed, it might be best for me to continue to offer individual authors a discount on my hourly rate for full-manuscript developmental edits. I think it helps out all of you who I’m working with to be able to afford an editor’s help if you feel you need it, and it helps out me as I’m working on the next stage of this transition in my career. If you’re interested in getting a critique, check out the details on my website. The $50 fee for a 3-chapter/cover letter critique will remain the same, however, because I already usually end up spending more than one hour on each of those.

Speaking of that, time management is one of my biggest challenges as a freelancer. I love giving detailed feedback to everyone that I work with, and try to do the best job possible for each and every project. So sometimes I end up spending entirely too much time on a project. If you’re curious how I manage that, one incentive that I give myself is capping the amount I’ll charge on a full manuscript at a certain number of hours. I give each author an estimate based on the word count of the novel and a sample (either one that I’ve already seen via the submission packet critique, or one that the author sends for me to glance over as I decide whether to take on a project). I will give a range of hours (for example, something like 20-25 hours) and then give a dollar estimate based on my hourly rate. While I may (miraculously) come under the estimate, and charge less accordingly, my policy is to cap the total at whatever the high end of my quote was.

So, if that helps reassure anyone worried that perhaps an edit of your book might take more time than originally estimated, and that you may be required to pay more than you’ve budgeted, believe me, I know how you feel. This is my way of making sure that your costs and my time are kept in check.