A Word About Pricing
Each service outlined below has a price range rather than a set price. This is because the price varies depending on time constraints, the scope of the service, and the condition of the manuscript. These price ranges are not exhaustive, but they give a good indication of how you’ll need to budget for your project. For more accurate and precise pricing, shoot me a message, and we can talk!
Beta Reading
You’ve written a story and done a couple of editing passes, and it’s looking pretty good! But what will other people think? Your family and friends like it, but what about strangers? The central argument/magic system/timeline is a bit complicated; will people get lost? How can you make sure readers will like it before you invest time and money in copyediting, formatting, cover art, advertising, and all the other things that go into a book launch? Enter the beta reader.
What’s Included
I receive your manuscript along with any questions you want me to be thinking about as I read, and then I sit down in a comfy chair with my highlighters and my notebook, and start to read. As I go through the book, I make note of questions I have; what I like and what I don’t like; problems I have with the characters, the plot, or the research; and any strong reactions I have to plot points, arguments, characters, or prose.
At the end, you’ll receive the receive a report detailing my reading experience of your work. I’ll go over any weaknesses, plot holes, anachronisms, major inconsistencies, or pacing issues that bothered me as a reader, and any lingering questions I have after finishing the work. You will also receive a copy of your manuscript annotated with specific thoughts and questions that I had as I read.
Essentially, what you get is reader feedback you can act on instead of the sweet but utterly useless “It’s really good!” that tends to come from friends and family. And you get it before shelling out to copyedit words you may end up cutting.
“No beta, we die like men” may sound metal, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a little feedback and reassurance before throwing your word baby to the mercies of the reading community.
Cost
Fiction/Nonfiction: 0.4–0.8¢/wd
Copyediting
The book is done! You’ve outlined, drafted, edited, consulted friends, family, beta readers, and developmental editors, drafted again, edited some more, and it’s finally done! Sort of. No matter how careful you were or how good your best friend is at spotting typos, your manuscript isn’t ready for publication yet. That’s where copyediting comes in.
What’s Included
Copyediting broadly falls into three categories:
Light
- Catch and correct grammar, punctuation, and syntax errors
- Check for missing or repeated words
- Create and enforce consistency in capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation
- Create and enforce consistency in the usage of numerals vs. spelled-out numbers
- Highlight incorrect or confusing word choices and suggest substitutions
- Enforce compliance to the chosen style guide while maintaining author preferences
- General consistency, including setting descriptions, name spelling, and character appearances and attributes
- Check cross-references
- Alphabetize bibliography, works cited, etc. (does not include indexing)
Standard
Everything in a light edit, plus:
- Eliminate repetition and redundancy
- Query potential errors or inconsistencies in the text
- Highlight confusing or overly complex phrasing and suggest edits
- Check and correct the formatting of citations
- Check and correct the formatting of bibliography and works cited entries (does not include indexing)
- Suggest cuts or added clarification at the sentence level
Heavy
Everything in a light and a standard edit, plus:
- Reworking awkward or clunky sentences and phrasing while maintaining the author’s voice
- Minor substantive queries of confusing or inconsistent story content and character development
- Suggest cuts or added clarification at the sentence and paragraph level
After the first edit, regardless of the level and scope of editing, you will receive an edited manuscript with all changes tracked using Microsoft Word track changes. In addition, you will get a report briefly outlining my findings and the general actions taken, and a style sheet detailing all the styling decisions made about the manuscript along with character and setting descriptions, word lists, and special characters appearing in the text. A clean copy of the edited manuscript without the changes tracked is also available upon request.
In addition to the initial edit, an optional cleanup pass is available, wherein all author feedback on the edit is addressed and implemented, all changes to the manuscript are accepted, and the style sheet is finalized with the author preferences. You will then receive the final style sheet and a clean manuscript ready for typesetting.
Cost
Fiction: 1.8–2.5¢/wd
Nonfiction: 2.6–3.6¢/wd
Academic: 3.0–4.5¢/wd
Proofreading
You’ve finished your book. It’s been edited, reread, beta read, edited again, copyedited, typeset, and formatted. It even has awesome cover art! But what if you missed something? What if an error got introduced during typesetting? What if something in the formatting has gone wonky and you haven’t noticed? You don’t want to find out that your scene divider graphic is taking up two-thirds of the page in chapter 14 after 156 preorders have shipped! That’s where my proofreading services come in.
What’s included
I go through your accepted, edited text and compare it line by line to the typeset manuscript, making sure nothing got dropped, added, or otherwise changed. I check that the headers and text are all in alignment, that scene breaks look the way they’re supposed to, that there are no weird word breaks at the end of lines, and that any decorative text appears where and how it should. I keep a copy of your style sheet with me while I work and make sure nothing deviates from the rules set down in it, from capitalization to spelling to hyphenation. While I’m at it, I also look for any typos, missing words, repeated words, or bad punctuation that managed to slip past the previous edits.
At the end, you’ll receive a report briefly outlining my findings and explaining my proposed edits, along with a PDF file with everything I found clearly marked so you can take care of it prior to publication.
Cost
Fiction: 0.8–1.6¢/wd
Nonfiction: 1.5–2.5¢/wd
Academic: 2.2–3.4¢/wd