How much to charge for Professional-level English Proofreading?

[jellicle]

Hi guys, I'm in a bit of a hurry, but hopefully not too much
I've been doing professional writing, editing and proofreading for a Japanese company for a couple of years now, and I decided to try freelancing with a company (that is not a conflict of interest for my current relationship with my company). My current company handles English learning- materials, and the company I'd like to work with handles mainly magazine content and/or advertorials.
I haven't negotiated my fees yet, and before I do so, I'd like to see if I can get some input.
Does anyone know a standard base rate to set for proofreading services? It can be per hour, per word, per page, etc.
Often, I propose all 3 rates and them recommend them to choose different payment methods depending on the situation/type of work. In my current company, there are standardized rates for all sorts of situations and often if the assignment looks to be harder, a more appropriate payment method will be suggested by someone and sometimes when it turns out to be easier than expected, I might even bring up the lower rate even if it doesn't benefit me as much in the short-term.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
J

 

[undrentide]

I think it really depends on what kind of proofreading service you offer. You can find a lot of companies that are offering proofreading or cross-checking services on internet. They'll give you some idea how much in average people pay for such services.
Here are some examples:

(1) Proofreading of thesis
Normal (just to check if the languge is correct grammatically.) from JPY6/word
Advanced (to improve the quality of the whole thesis) JPY12/word
英文校正サービスのプラン::英文校正比較・英文チェック・英文添削・英語論文校正・英文校閲のエナゴ

(2) Proofreading of various documents
Normal documents: from JPY10/word
Technical/engineering documents, contracts: from JPY15/word
Patent: from JPY20/word
http://simoncurrie.wordpress.com/和文英訳料金/

(3)
Proofreading: JPY700/page (1 page = 200 words)
Cross-checking, editing, rewriting: JPY4,000/hour
校正作業料金 (プルーフ、クロスチェック、ネイティブチェック)

(4)
Proofreading: basic fee JPY1,500/page
*1 page = 200 words
*Minimum = JPY3,000
英語 プルーフリーディング 料金表

 

[Glenski]

I assume that by "proofreading" you mean merely checking spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Anything other than that constitutes editing or copyediting. I do all 3.

the company I'd like to work with handles mainly magazine content and/or advertorials.

Kind of hard to understand what "magazine content" means, but if it's non-technical material, it's probably pretty short, too.

I would suggest going by a per-page fee up to a certain word count or page number, and thereafter going on a per-hour basis (with increments of 1/4 hour). You should also consider what you will do if you get a second draft to work on. In my case, it's all technical material, and I charge a flat per-hour charge for second drafts.

For "advertorials", I'm not even sure what that entails. It might mean a flat rate fee per project, depending on what you are expected to do.

 

[manik11]

The fee is charged at 0.009p per word of the original document (ﾂ｣9 per 1,000 words) if under 30,000 words.. I think so..

 

[jellicle]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their ideas. I was able to make myself a "standard fees for services" spreadsheet for myself based on everyone's help.