RATES

What are Sarah’s service-level rates?

Industry standards for professional editorial services can be found at the Editorial Freelancers Association website with a range from $45 to $60 per hour in 2026. The good news? Potential clients will find Sarah’s editing rates to be refreshingly below the industry standard, especially for a gold-level editor! Customized quotes are provided to clients after Sarah has assessed the scope of the manuscript, website, or project.

Service-level rates are typically as follows: $.035 per word for substantive editing, $.025 per word for copyediting, and $.015 per word for proofreading. Visit the Editor and Writer web pages for descriptions of what each level of service includes. For a project where a word count is not appropriate, Sarah’s hourly editing rate is $40 per hour.

Sarah’s copy writing rate may vary, depending on the scope of the particular project, but typically her writing services will be $.15 per word or $50 per hour when a word count is not appropriate.

How should payment be made?

Clients may submit their payment via personal check, Zelle, or Venmo. They should make the check payable to “Hayhurst Editorial, LLC” and mail it to the address provided.

For small projects, either method of payment is to be paid in full within 15 days after delivery of the completed project/date of the invoice. For larger projects and manuscripts, a $250 nonrefundable deposit will be required before the work is scheduled on Sarah’s editorial calendar. This deposit will go toward paying 50 percent of the estimate when the work commences with the remainder of the balance to be collected upon delivery of the completed project.

Repeat customers plus referrals equals my business. You can read some of my clients’ or employers’ testimonials throughout this website. A big thank you to my awesome clients . . . I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing people! —Sarah

Disclaimer: Please remember that nobody is perfect, but Sarah will give 100 percent effort to do her best possible work for each client, willing to go the extra mile. Sarah does read each manuscript several times. However, even after reading a manuscript ten times, one may still find something to change. Ultimately, the author or client is the person responsible for the content and for saying exactly what he or she intends to communicate. The client should review all editing work and comments, providing his or her own stamp of approval before publishing or distributing the edited manuscript or project.