"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
Muhammad Ali

My rates vary according to the type of work you require. Please use my rates as a general guideline until I have seen a copy of your work (if it’s editing or proofreading) or you have briefed me on the scope of your project (if I am going to be ghostwriting for you), and I am in a better position to determine the amount of work required.

All rates are in South African rands (ZAR), so please use them as a guide if you are visiting my website from outside South Africa. I work with clients all over the world, from the UK to the USA to Africa to Europe to Australia to New Zealand and beyond, so please feel free to use a currency converter if you would like to gauge an approximate cost for your particular project.

2024 RATES

PROOFREADING

Your manuscript/article/thesis/blog (etc.) is good to go and has already been professionally edited and requires a final check for minor typos before publishing:

– Proofreading Magazines: 25c per word (ZAR)
– Proofreading Fiction:  25c per word (ZAR)
– Proofreading Nonfiction, Textbooks and Technical Documentation: R55 per page (ZAR)
– All work to be submitted in electronic format

For a rough cost estimate of what it might cost you in South African Rands (ZAR) to have your manuscript proofread, drag the slider below to the right (or, if you're on a desktop, press on your right arrow key) until it matches your manuscript's word count.

Word Count: 0 words

Estimated Cost: ZAR 0.00

COPY-EDITING

Your manuscript/article/thesis/blog (etc.) is well-written and complete but requires a thorough review to check for grammatical errors, unnecessary verbosity, spelling errors, punctuation issues, and general flow and readability before being submitted to a proofreader for a final proofread:

– General documents: 45c per word (ZAR)
– Fiction: 45c per word (ZAR)
– Government documents: 45c per word (ZAR)
– Website copy: 50c per word (ZAR)
– Nonfiction, Textbooks and Technical Documents: 50c – 55c per word (ZAR)
– Academic theses/dissertations and related documents (excluding reference checking): 50c per word (ZAR)
– Children’s books under 6000 words: R500 per hour
– All work to be submitted in electronic format

For a rough cost estimate of what it might cost you in South African Rands (ZAR) to have your manuscript copy-edited, drag the slider below to the right (or, if you're on a desktop, press on your right arrow key) until it matches your manuscript's word count.

Word Count: 0 words

Estimated Cost: ZAR 0.00

SUBSTANTIVE (CONTENT) EDITING

Your manuscript/article/thesis/blog (etc.) is in its first draft stage and requires an in-depth review, proofread, and possibly even a full or partial rewrite (especially when it does not read well, the use of the English language is questionable, or there are obvious errors in terms of your plot or use of characterisation) before being submitted to a copy-editor or proofreader for final checks.

From 55c – 60c per word (ZAR)
– Children’s books under 6000 words: R600 per hour
– All work to be submitted in electronic format

For a rough cost estimate of what it might cost you in South African Rands (ZAR) to have a substantive (content) edit done on your manuscript, drag the slider below to the right (or, if you're on a desktop, press on your right arrow key) until it matches your manuscript's word count.

Word Count: 0 words

Estimated Cost: ZAR 0.00

GHOSTWRITING

My basic ghostwriting rate (excluding editing, proofreading, publishing, cover design and typesetting) starts at R600.00 (ZAR) per hour but will vary according to the type of work involved and if long-distance travel is required.

Our information gathering sessions are a critical part of the ghostwriting process, so it is important that you have all your ducks in a row. From a budgeting perspective, the more prepared you are, and the less you stray from the topic, the better. My recommendation is to set aside a minimum of 20-30 hours of recording time, bearing in mind that our time together can increase significantly depending on the nature of the material being covered.

Transcribing the audio recordings to text is time-hungry and can take up to 5 hours per 1 hour of recorded interview time.

AT MINIMUM, the entire process, from start to finish, can take in the region of between 250 and 320 hours for a 220-page book (with 200 to 220 words per page). If additional research is required, or a longer interview time is necessary, or if the content is complex to work with, the hours can increase exponentially. This is often the case with anything that isn’t biographical in nature.

You would, therefore, need to budget a bare minimum of between ZAR180,000 and ZAR220,000 for a completed 220-page, 45 000-word manuscript, if that’s the size book you’re aiming for. To date, however, most of the books I’ve worked on have come in between R250,000 and R350,000 (with several coming in significantly higher than this). My suggestion is always to budget high. If I can come in lower than your budgeted amount, I most certainly will, but a realistic budget linked to a fair energy exchange definitely helps manage expectations from both sides.

In terms of my billing cycles, I will invoice you in advance for the first 40 hours’ work, and then bill you in advance for every subsequent 40 to 60 hours, based on your budget. This will give you full control over the amount of work that is being done at any one time and ensure that you keep within your budgeted amount.

INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Before I can work with you to get your book independently published and internationally listed in e-book and/or paperback format, your book must be print ready – in other words, it must have passed through the editing and proofreading phase and been professionally typeset (in PDF format for your paperback and ePub for your e-book). It must also be accompanied with a full-wrap cover (front cover, spine, and back cover), or just a front cover, if you’re only going the e-book route.

My fee to list and independently publish your book (complete with extensive keyword and genre research and competitor analysis) ranges from R2250 to R3900, depending on which platforms you would like to publish on, in which formats you would like to publish (e.g. e-book, paperback, or both), and how wide you want your reach to be. For example, you might only want to make your paperback and e-book available to Amazon customers, or you might want to make your book available on as many platforms as possible – or you might want to sit somewhere in the middle. My advice is to go as wide as possible (Publishing Package #10), but if your budget is limited, I would suggest Publishing Package #3 (Amazon only).

These are the different publishing packages I have on offer:

Publishing Package #1
R 2,250 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Amazon Kindle only
Publishing Package #2
R 2,250 Once-off
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP only
Publishing Package #3
R 2,500 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Amazon Kindle
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP
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Publishing Package #4
R 3,100 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Amazon Kindle
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP
  • Publish e-book on Draft2Digital (to sell on all digital platforms other than Amazon)
Publishing Package #5
R 3,500 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Amazon Kindle
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP
  • Publish paperback on IngramSpark (for international distribution into bookshops and other online retailers)
Publishing Package #6
R 2,250 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Draft2Digital only (to sell on all other digital platforms other than Amazon)
Publishing Package #7
R 2,500 Once-off
  • Publish paperback on IngramSpark only (for international distribution into bookshops and other online retailers)
Publishing Package #8
R 3,200 Once-off
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP
  • Publish paperback on IngramSpark (for international distribution into bookshops and other online retailers)
Publishing Package #9
R 3,400 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Draft2Digital (to sell on all digital platforms other than Amazon)
  • Publish paperback on IngramSpark (for international distribution into bookshops and other online retailers)
Publishing Package #10
R 3,900 Once-off
  • Publish e-book on Amazon Kindle
  • Publish paperback on Amazon KDP
  • Publish e-book on Draft2Digital (to sell on all digital platforms other than Amazon)
  • Publish paperback on IngramSpark (for international distribution into bookshops and other online retailers)
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CONSULTING

If you’re feeling your way around and you’re not sure where to begin (or you’re stuck somewhere in the process and require guidance to get you over the finish line), we can set up a Zoom consultation session to discuss your project in more detail. If being in front of the camera is not your thing, I’d be happy to chat over the phone using WhatsApp.

My consulting rate is R650 per 40-minute session.

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