With these skills, what am I worth?

July 3, 2018 1:27 AM

I prepare academic texts for publishing. I've done it professionally for 15 years with an International Journal and over 20 textbooks. But am I being paid fairly?

My work (usually) involves preparing a Word document to publisher standards (varies with publishers who include Springer, Palgrave, Allen & Unwin and Sense), ensuring that all chapters follow similar formats, making sure permissions are collected,low-res diagrams professionally redrawn (or designed from scratch: infographics, illustrations, logos etc) with design software files included, referencing fixed (in text and list to style guide), and what I would call minor editing: punctuation, dashes, captions, table formatting, acronym collection and use, indexing, spelling (US, UK, Oz), and occasional sentences that are unclear. I don't tend to make large changes with writing style because academics don't like it much, especially after they've been through peer review.

I am an expert in Word, APA referencing and Illustrator. I have a Bachelor in Multimedia Studies and a Grad Cert in Research Studies. Publishers have emailed my clients in shock that all their guidelines are met (I'm fussy) so I think I'm probably pretty good, and I have a combined skill set that makes me a one-stop shop.

However, most of my clients come from University A and their policies state that without a PhD, the maximum a Research Assistant can be paid at is $X. The most a graphic designer can be paid (at that uni) is $X + 5%. However, some proofreaders/editors are paid at the Senior Research Assistant rate which is $X + 33%.

University A has another policy: if you have casual employment with them, you can't choose to invoice instead. The other universities I invoice (in accordance with Australian government standards) but at the equivalent that Uni A pays me.

Average pay rates for formatters, editors, and graphic designers (according to Google) are less than $X but there's no pay category I can find for someone who project manages the whole book (including preparing an expression of interest and arranging blind peer review etc). Also, there's a general rule of thumb about how much a self-employed person's hourly rate should be compared to a employee doing similar work.

I have worked with academics from about half the unis in Australia, one NZ, and one Spanish uni. I telecommute well, I'm reliable, blah blah blah. I

If I stopped doing casual work and did it all through invoicing, what should I charge without pricing myself out of the market?

I did ask one of my clients at another uni, but she likes me and thinks I should charge $X + 33% (I've done 2 books for her already, and she wants me to do another 2 this year) without being able to tell me if there's much competition out there, which might lead to me being underemployed and currently I'm in the enviable position of not having to advertise (but this also includes theses, Weebly websites and high-end PowerPoints).

posted by b33j to Work & Money (6 answers total)

As a potentially useful datapoint, the American Editorial Freelancer's Association publishes their suggested rates here. I do similar work, and my experience is that their rates are fairly normal for academic publishing. Editing, project management, copyediting, layout, and permissions are all listed. Most of them range from $40-60 US an hour, with the notable exception of project management, which is listed at $40-90/hr.

Obviously those are American rates, but they might serve as a helpful point of reference--$40-60 US is $55-80 AU, and I'd argue that if you're billing a single rate for all the work you're doing, you should be charging at the upper end of that, especially since you have years of experience, are reputable, and are doing the work of several people, thus saving your employer a fair bit of effort.

That said, this is a difficult question to answer, and one that I struggle with frequently--I don't think that anyone can promise that you won't price yourself out of the market, because there are always going to be people willing to do a subpar job for pennies on the dollar. It's a shitty balancing game to have to play.
posted by mishafletch at 2:32 AM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Can you slowly raise your rates until you stop getting enough work, and then bring them back down? If your skill set is fairly unique and you do great work, above industry average rates may be worth it for many clients.
posted by metasarah at 6:02 AM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

You are undoubtedly worth more than you're being paid, but unfortunately so are the academic authors who are your clients. I am an academic and an author, and the amount of $ we actually spend to publish our work, if you consider all the labor hours and travel etc. against our actual salary, and then against the tiny royalties we make (especially since most of it gets online now anyway) is staggering to my friends in for-profit industries. We do not come out even. So, even if you're the best, and even if the authors want to hire the best and pay them what they deserve, many academics won't be able to justify the rates of the best. However, I would never consider indexing "minor editing." Here in the U.S., indexing is a separate big service, often. For example, when hiring an indexer this year, I was unable to use the professional academic indexer that was most highly recommended because they simply charged too much. They presumably were able to occupy a selective niche, but my university would not supplement to let me use them and I could not afford thousands more just to have a better service. The one I used was mid-priced and in the end I didn't think it made a difference. Maybe you could look into charging more for actual textbook manuscripts that might generate more profit than academic books that are sometimes used as textbooks? This is a U.S. perspective, YMMV.
posted by velveeta underground at 7:20 AM on July 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

i did exactly that as a self-employed person for medical publishing for a decade. by the end i was billing at about $50 USD an hour. you are NOT a research assistant. you are an "editor" or "project manager" or "managing editor"
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:37 AM on July 3, 2018 [4 favorites]

yeah you're not remotely down at a research assistant level, and you're handling legal permissions and graphic design too?

I used to freelance edit a fair amount in a specialty field, after working in it as a researcher (content was technical but non-academic and non-technological). "editing" for me also meant heavy rewriting and a lot of fact checking, but nothing else. US$50 was my friendly discount rate, $75 was my usual. people with negotiating skills made more. currency conversion is not my area but you ought to be at or well above this level, you're doing what would be the work of multiple people if they didn't have you.


Average pay rates for formatters, editors, and graphic designers (according to Google) are less than $X

add 'em all together and multiply by 1.5 is what I say
posted by queenofbithynia at 12:49 PM on July 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. You all made excellent points. Sadly, I remain indecisive.
posted by b33j at 5:55 PM on July 3, 2018