Am I being impatient? (Waiting for rate quote)

Carrie in PA

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I finished the first drafts of my trilogy that I am going to indie publish. I know good editors fill their calendars well in advance, so I've been shopping for a developmental editor while I do revisions. I got some recommendations from my writers' group, and one of the editors was actually high on my list of people I'd found in my own organic search. I reached out via a form on her website and two days later, she emailed me, asking about the project, etc, and asked me for the first 20 pages of the ms so she could work up a quote. (No prices listed on her website.)

So I responded the same day, answered all her questions, and sent the pages she requested. This was on the 15th. (I got an auto-response, so I know she got my email.)

I haven't heard anything since.

To be clear, she's not doing a sample edit at this point, the pages were solely to work up a quote.

I've never hired an editor before, but it seems like it's taking a really long time just to get a rate quote? (8 business days)

It's entirely possible I'm feeling impatient because this is all new to me, so I thought I'd ask for a reality check here. ;)
 

cmhbob

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That feels long to me, but I've been using the same editor for a while, and helped her open her business, so I'm not sure I'm a good source.
 

Woollybear

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I'd be antsy. I suggest asking a few more.
 

cornflake

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Yeah, that seems weird to me -- as does needing to see the pages to work up a quote and not even providing like, a range or anything.
 

Carrie in PA

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Thank you all! :)

In typical fashion for the Universe, she responded about 2 hours after I posted this. LOL She began with an apology for the delay.

The rate she quoted is a little bit higher than I'd anticipated, at about 2¢/word. Her quote is actually a 2-page letter outlining the different options she'd recommend with details that show she really read my sample pages and she's enthusiastic about the project, so I don't think I'll write her off at this point.

Honestly, if I'd known her quote would be so detailed, I wouldn't have been antsy yet. I was expecting a far more generic response. I may try to negotiate the price a little bit and see if she has a some wiggle room, especially since it's a trilogy. I know that if we could work well together it would end up being worth the extra money across the 3 books.

We shall see. :cool:
 

Chris P

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For professional editing, $0.02/word is pretty good. About ten years ago I worked for an outfit as a copy editor/proofreader that charged roughly that (I got half and the service I worked for got the other). I could have made a lot more if I was freelance, but it was worth it to have the service deal with the clients, advertizing, etc. All I had to do was edit. I've never done developmental editing so I have no idea what the rates are for that.

As for the time, to get the quote, it is vacation season :) However if you had talked with her before it would have been courteous of her to let you she was going to be out of the office. It's hard to read into stuff like that.

ETA: The two cents a word was for shorter documents, and for novels (which I didn't do) it was less, but two cents doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Copy editing/proofreading at 1500 words per hour is $30/hour.
 
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Carrie in PA

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For professional editing, $0.02/word is pretty good. About ten years ago I worked for an outfit as a copy editor/proofreader that charged roughly that (I got half and the service I worked for got the other). I could have made a lot more if I was freelance, but it was worth it to have the service deal with the clients, advertizing, etc. All I had to do was edit. I've never done developmental editing so I have no idea what the rates are for that.

As for the time, to get the quote, it is vacation season :) However if you had talked with her before it would have been courteous of her to let you she was going to be out of the office. It's hard to read into stuff like that.

ETA: The two cents a word was for shorter documents, and for novels (which I didn't do) it was less, but two cents doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Copy editing/proofreading at 1500 words per hour is $30/hour.

Oh, it's definitely not out of line or unreasonable. It's just at the top end of what I've been running into for novels. What I'm seeing ranges from .008¢/word on the low end to 2¢/word on the high end. The majority {of ones I've personally researched, which I'm sure is a small drop in the bucket} seem to fall somewhere in the .012-.016 range.