Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A What is a reasonable rate for proofreading a manuscript in terms of sales percentage?

If someone asked me to proofread in return for a percentage, I'd turn them down, because I'd want to be paid as soon as the work is done, and I wouldn't want how much I get paid to be dependent on ...

posted 7y ago by micapam‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-22T13:31:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26887
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:09:40Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26887
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:09:40Z (over 4 years ago)
If someone asked me to proofread in return for a percentage, I'd turn them down, because I'd want to be paid as soon as the work is done, and I wouldn't want how much I get paid to be dependent on sales of copies.

However, if you want to take them up on it, I guess you should first work out the flat fee you'd be willing to work for, then work backwards from there.

Where _n_ is a reasonable estimate for number of copies the book is likely to seel, _p_ is the net profit on each copy of the book, and _s_ is the minimum sum you want to be paid, then the percentage you should ask for is _s / p \* n \* 100_.

The tricky bit is _n_, as you can't know for sure, but you could look at sales figures for similar titles in that subject area and correlate it with sales of the author's previous titles, maybe?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-23T01:47:21Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 4