Book Editing Cost

The average cost for book editing runs from $30 to $60 per hour or $0.012 to $0.24 per word, depending on what type of editing you need.

According to the Editorial Freelancers Association, basic copyediting costs 1¢ to 3¢ per word, heavy and website copyediting costs 3¢ to 10¢ per word, developmental editing costs 4¢ to 22¢ per word, and substantive or line editing costs 3¢ to 24¢ per word.

Type of Editing Cost Per Hour Cost Per Word Cost Per 1,000 Words
Basic copyediting $30 to $40 $0.012 – $0.032 $60 – $160
Heavy copyediting $40 to $50 $0.033 – $0.10 $165 – $500
Developmental editing $45 to $55 $0.036 –$0.22 $180 – $1,100
Substantive or line editing $40 to $60 $0.027 – $0.24 $135 – $1,200
Proofreading $30 to $35 $0.009 – $0.016 $9 – $16

As you can see, the cost of editing a book can vary considerably.

Professional book editing prices should fall within the ranges in the table above. Any more than this and you are getting a bad deal, unless the editor includes extras in the price that make it more attractive, such as a housekeeper for a year or free tacos from Torchy’s for ten years. I digress.

Average Cost for Book Editing

To get a clearer picture of the average cost for book editing, I’ve taken the highest and lowest numbers and divided by two in the table below.

Type of Editing Cost Per Hour Cost Per Word Rounded Cost Per Word Cost Per 5,000 Words
Basic copyediting $35 $0.022 2¢ $110
Heavy copyediting $45 $0.067 7¢ $335
Developmental editing $50 0.128 13¢ $640
Substantive or line editing $50 $0.134 13¢ $670
Proofreading $32.50 $0.01 1¢ $50

So there you have it.

Basic Copyediting or Book Editing Costs by Genre

Based on an average word count:

  • Novella – 30,000 = $660
  • Middle-grade novel – 35 ,000 words = $770
  • Nonfiction/self-help – 50,000 words = $1,100
  • Young adult – 62 ,000 words = $1,364
  • Memoir – 80 ,000 words = $1,760
  • Women’s fiction, romance, mystery, or thriller novel – 90,000 words = $1,980
  • Science fiction or fantasy novel – 105,000 words = $2,310

If you’re sitting in a puddle of tears because there’s no way you can afford to have your book professionally edited, I totally understand. At one time, we were the couple with two kids on one low-wage paycheck, and our big excitement was when we had saved up enough small change to share two McDonald’s Happy Meals.