| Type of Work | Estimated Pace | Range of Fees |
| EDITING | ||
| Editing, basic copyediting | 5–10 ms pgs/hr | $30–40/hr |
| Editing, heavy copyediting | 2-5 ms pgs/hr | $40-50/hr |
| Editing, website copyediting | $40-50/hr | |
| Editing, developmental | 1-5 pgs/hr | $45-80/hr |
| Editing, substantive or line | 5-10 ms pgs/hr | $30-80/hr |
| FACT CHECKING | $30-40/hr | |
| INDEXING | 8-20 pr pg/hr | $30-40/hr |
| LAYOUT | ||
| Layout, books | 6-10 pgs/hr | $45-85/hr |
| Layout, newsletters | 1-4 pgs/hr | $40-100/hr |
| PROJECT MANAGEMENT | $9-30/pr pg $40-90/hr | |
| PROOFREADING | 9-13 ms pgs/hr | $30-35/hr |
| RESEARCHING | $40-75/hr | |
| TRANSCRIBING | variable | $3-5/pg |
| TRANSLATION | 300-500 wds/hr | $40-50/hr |
| WEB DESIGN | $50-75/hrr | |
| WRITING | $9-30/pr pg $40-90/hr | |
| Writing, fiction | $40-50/hr 20¢-25¢/wd | |
| Writing, ghostwriting | $50-60/hr 26¢-50¢/wd | |
| Writing, grants/proposals/sales/PR | $50-60/hr 30¢-95¢/wd | |
| Writing, journalism | $40-50/hr 20¢-50¢/wd | |
| Writing, medical | $60-70/hr 80¢-95¢/wd | |
| Writing, nonspecified | $40-100/hr 20¢-$2/wd | |
| Writing, technical/trade | $50-60/hr 45¢-55¢/wd |
Book cover design varies. For covers that look like Penguin, Harper Collins, Random House, and Pearson quality, you should expect to pay $500 to $1200.
For something more affordable you can pay anywhere from $100-400.
Cost for simple conversion ranges from anywhere from $199 (text) – $1000 (illustrated).
Distribution
If you want someone to distribute your book to the various retailers, that will cost you around $79 to have someone distribute to Amazon, Kindle, BN, Kobo, Smashwords.
Translations
Looking for a translator for your book? Prices vary, but expect your work to fall in the range of $.08 to $.50 a word or $20-$50/hr.
How to price an indie book
A lot of people ask us what the right pricing is for an indie book. We urge you to experiment with this and not price too low. According to a study done by Smashwords, an online indie retailer, $2.99 to $5.99 yields the most profits for self-published titles. For illustrated books you might want to price higher.
Total spend
Creating a professional book that looks like it’s from a publishing house is hard. But it can be done. According to David Carnoy of CNET, you should be prepared to invest at least a few thousand dollars in your book.