When I was writing on a freelance basis, I tried to calculate my overhead, add that to what I thought I should be earning, and from there figure a fair hourly rate, remembering that a substantial part of a 40- to 60-hour week is occupied with marketing, essentially an unpaid activity.

As an editor, I aim to earn $60 an hour, which is about what I earn at the university day job if you figure in all the health insurance, matching 403(b) contribution, and the office overhead. Actually…if you figured the office overhead, it would be more than that, but it would be hard for an individual to estimate exactly how much more.

I never tell a client that I’m trying to charge $60 an hour, as this would cause cardiac arrest. Instead I use a page rate calibrated to my estimate of the work’s difficulty. The harder the job, the more I propose to pay per page. If I figure my time right, I can usually get $50 to $60 an hour. The client, however, sees a flat rate, which a) may look fairly reasonable and b) is a lot less scary-sounding than some unknown number of hours at a rate that is more than many of my clients earn.

I try to avoid accepting jobs that pay less than my time is worth…tho sometimes I do miscalculate!