Sample Project Estimate

To: John Doe, Director of Electronic Publishing
To: Big Packager
To: 1234 Street Road
To: Pretty City, MD 01234
To: voice: 123-456-7890
To: fax: 123-456-7891

Date: December 31, 2023

Re: Pricing for online copyediting of 400-book-page radiology textbook

Thank you for the opportunity to price this job. I have estimated my bill using the following parameters:

A word count of 250 words per double-spaced manuscript page
A manuscript-page-to-printed-book-page ratio of 1.5:1; thus, an estimated 400 book pages would be an estimated 600 manuscript pages
An editing rate of 6 manuscript pages per hour (Of course, if editing goes faster, my final bill will be lower.)
An hourly rate of $XX.00

Therefore, I estimate that I would bill $X,XXX.00 for this job (600 mspp. ÷ 6 pages per hour = 100 hours; 100 hours × $XX.00 = $X,XXX.00). Of course, should some chapter manuscripts be denser than 250 words per page or the total manuscript page count be higher than 600, editing time would increase. Should that occur, I would notify you immediately.

Assuming all front-matter, text, back-matter, table, and figure-legend manuscripts and artwork are available for editing at once, editing should take 3 weeks. As we discussed, editing would most likely begin at the end of January, dependent on when I finish an already-scheduled project and when you receive all chapter manuscripts. I can send edited manuscripts to you in weekly batches, if you wish. As you requested, I would send you one edited chapter as soon as possible for review by your customer and the chief editor. I would compile a style sheet, following AMA style and the customer's exceptions to AMA style.

Please review this project cost estimate and either email me regarding changes to be made to it or print it out, sign and date it to indicate your agreement with its contents, and email it to me.

I look forward to the chance to work with Big Packager.