Behold the renovated ZachEverson.com

If you’ve visited this site previously, you’re probably noticing a few changes. In the past few days I’ve

• changed the template (the default WordPress one, while simple, was getting tiresome)
• added tags to all of the posts, making it easy to find entries about similar subjects
• posted links to popular RSS readers in the side bar so you can subscribe to this blog (yes, this editor now makes house calls)

So if you see any German text (a German created the template I used) or if there are any other problems, please post a comment or send an e-mail to zach@zacheverson.com. Thanks!

Giving an estimate: word count versus page count

Recently a writer I’ve worked with on a few projects was submitting a proposal and included me as an editor. When he was determining how much it would cost his client, however, he wanted me to break down my services by the page (I assume the request for proposal gave the report’s expected length in pages and not words).

While I usually estimate based on words (typically 500 to 750 words an hour, depending on the amount of work needed), some people do estimate based on the number of pages. It’s a lot harder, however, because a page could have a large graphic or be all text. When I do estimate based on the number of pages, I approximate 250 words per page, although I ask if there will be a lot of tables and figures and adjust accordingly.

Just to confuse matters, however, tables often can require more editing than text does.