Benchmarks for Estimating Editing Speed – Update

I was happy to hear my article “Benchmarks for Estimating Editing Speed” will be discussed in Heather Severson’s workshop “The Mercenary Writer’s Guide to Setting Fees: How to Bid a Project in 5 Minutes or Less” on Tuesday, April 17, in Tuscon, for The Arizona Chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association.

Heather was kind enough to list the article as a resource, on her Mercenary Writer blog, too. (Thank you, Heather!) Check it out!

If you’re an editor, please take a look at the article and e-mail me your “personal word processing speed” – how long it takes you to edit at heavy, medium, and light levels of detail.

Here’s a snip from the article:

The trick to estimating is to identify your brain’s preferred rate of word processing – not the optimum, two-espresso brain speed, but something more comfortable and sustainable. Just as you are unique, so must your estimates be unique to your skills and the constraints imposed on you. Once you’ve determined your personal word processing speed, you’ll find it easier to schedule your work when the ideal amount of time your estimate calls for is compressed by an external party’s deadline. Shifting out of heavy-editing mode should become easier for you the more you’ve measured yourself in the other modes.