What Are Industry Rates for Editing and Proofreading? A Guide to Pricing an Edit

Editors charge a wide range of rates for editing. The industry is unregulated, so in principle, anyone can claim to offer these services. This means you have to choose an editor carefully if quality is important to you.

So how much does quality editing cost? In this blog post, I'll share figures in UK currency, but the vast majority of editors (myself included) work for clients all over North America as well, so the market is roughly the same.

Trained proofreaders and editors with substantial experience, who work full time and edit as a career, usually charge at least the CIEP suggested minimum rates, which are updated every year in March. Here are the 2025 suggested minimum hourly rates:

Proofreading: £30.75

Copyediting: £35.75

Substantial editing, rewriting, development editing: £41.10

Note that these are for industry definitions of proofreading and copyediting. This means that, unless the text has already been professionally edited, an edit for a self-published author would fall under substantial editing (line editing) – not copyediting or proofreading!

These are simply suggested minimum rates. Many editors charge significantly more than this. For example, my rates work out at £50 to £60 an hour for fiction editing, and they never drop below £41.10.

The average editor can edit for around five hours a day, and maybe complete one or two hours of admin, marketing, etc. So even with my slightly higher rates, I earn £250 to £350 a day, which is by no means extravagant in the UK or USA, given years of training, writing and publishing experience, PhD training, publications, etc.

Now let's take a look at different parts of the market!

Developmental editing services for fiction authors

The editorial marketplace

Budget editing

If a price is too good to be true, run for the hills! There are unqualified editors out there who will simply put your text through a spellchecker or AI software. Editing takes time. Here are some average speeds, which are fairly typical:

Heavy copyediting/line editing	1150 words per hour
Light copyediting for publishers	2250 words per hour
PDF proofreading for publishers	3000 words per hour

If you are on a budget and want something approaching professional quality, consider looking for a new editor in training, and expect them to charge at least a living wage! (And wages aren't comparable with employed hourly rates, as freelancers need to pay themself a pension, holidays, sick pay, etc. from those rates).

Standard editing

Standard means professional – so typical industry rates for editing and proofreading apply. Pick an editor from a professional editorial organization, such as the CIEP or EFA. That won't guarantee quality, but it will give you more security, as they are accountable to that organization, and you can complain if the editor behaves highly unprofessionally or ghosts you, for example.

Premium editing

The upper end of the market typically charges up to around $100 or £75 per hour. There will be outliers who charge higher too, of course. You can expect better customer service at higher price points, and typically better editing, although you can find great editing at lower price points too.

I would argue that there is an upper limit on what people are prepared to pay for editing because the profession has been historically devalued and feminized as "women's work." People are also willing to pay more for services that deal in ideas (such as developmental editing or consulting).

Now, the rest of this blog post will answer a few common questions that crop up.

How to price an edit: What will it cost me?

Most editors charge per 1000 words or per project, so they can present a fixed project sum for an edit. Some charge per hour. Take a look at the average speeds mentioned above and do the math!

For instance, I charge anything from £20 to £40 per 1000 words for line editing. Non-fiction is generally slightly more expensive because it takes longer to edit.

What are industry rates for editing and proofreading in the USA?

In the USA, the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) publish median rates based on a survey of their membership. You can find the 2024 median rates here.

Why is editing so expensive?

Editing can seem expensive, especially to authors who don't expect to make a profit from their writing. The reason for this is that editing is a highly skilled service. A good fiction editor will check for issues with perspective and continuity, not "just" spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

And when you hire an editor, you're effectively paying their salary for each day they work for you. Editing a novel can take anything from one to four weeks. Given that an average UK professional editor's salary is in the £35K–£45K range, and an average UK senior editor's salary is in the £45K–£55K range, a few weeks' salary can work out at several thousand pounds!

It's also worth bearing in mind that the CIEP minimum rates for professional editing are comparable to entry rates for junior copywriters, and you'll find that very experienced editors will charge substantially more than this.

Have you ever received an editorial quote that has made your eyes water? Or shocked you at how cheap it was? Share your thoughts in the comments below:

Developmental editing services for fiction authors