I provide professional editing and proofreading that polishes your writing while maintaining your choices and style. My goal as an editor is to give your readers the best possible experience of your unique voice, because writing is not just about what you say—it’s about how you say it!
That’s why there’s rules, understand? So that you think before you break ’em.
Terry Pratchett
Every writer and project is different, and I firmly believe that a one-size-fits-all-treatment simply will not do! I have done enough writing, enough tutoring, enough editing, and enough reading to know that rules and style guides are just that: guides! The Chicago Manual of Style is a valuable resource, but it is not Holy Writ. Are you using comma splices and sentence fragments to demonstrate a character’s state of mind? Great! Do you want to use the archaic spelling of just one word throughout the manuscript? Fantastic! We’ll work together to bring your literary vision to life while keeping it accessible to your audience. If you break the rules knowingly, I’ll be there to help you swing the hammer, and if you want nice, clean, traditional text, I’m here for that too!
Copy Editing
The copy edit is one of the final steps of the process, coming after substantive drafts and edits, but before proofreading. It focuses on tidying up the prose after the content has been finalized.
Copy editing is a page-by-page, line-by-line process that centers on correctness, clarity, and consistency. The focus is mostly on spelling, syntax, punctuation, and grammar, but a copy edit may also involve small substantive suggestions and the rephrasing of sentences. That said, the first rule is Do No Harm, and I strive always to preserve your voice and style.
A copy edit can be light or heavy, depending on your budget and what you’d like done.
A light copy edit will look only at mechanical issues, such as missing words, misspellings, word or phrase usage, missing or superfluous punctuation, and so on.
A heavy copy edit (also called a line edit) will look at sentence structure, language, and flow in addition to mechanical issues.
The Process
Before starting, we will agree as to what type of edit you want, a time frame, and your preferred manual of style and a dictionary (for most books, I use the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. and Merriam-Webster, 11th ed.). I will provide a Statement of Work for you to sign, then begin work on the initial sample edit (this usually consists of 20 pages or 1 chapter of your manuscript). Once you have reviewed the sample edit and agreed to continue, I will begin the complete copy edit.
I work in Microsoft Word using track changes and prepare a redlined document and a style sheet that outlines the edits made to your text.
Unless agreed otherwise, you’ll receive an initial edit in a redlined document and the style sheet to review, along with a covering letter outlining the kinds of edits made. At this point, you may call the project complete, or return the reviewed document with your feedback to me for cleanup. If the latter, I will clean out the markup, apply all the agreed-upon changes, and send you a clean file along with the updated style sheet.
Specifics
- Catch spelling and punctuation errors
- Correct grammar and syntax issues
- Eliminate redundancy/repetition
- Search for missing or repeated words
- Create consistency of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and hyphenation
- Create consistency in the usage of numerals vs. spelled-out numbers
- Highlight confusing or incorrect word choices and suggest substitutions
- Highlight confusing or overly complex phrasing and suggest edits
- Query potential errors or inconsistencies in the text
Time Frame and Pricing
A manuscript of 100,000 words usually takes three weeks to a month for the initial pass plus about a week for a final cleanup pass after author review. My usual rate is $0.02 per word for fiction, $0.025 per word for trade nonfiction, and $0.035 per word for academic works in the humanities. However, the timeline and pricing can differ from project to project depending on the kind of edit you want and the condition of your manuscript/text. The figures and timelines above should be taken as ballpark ranges until we get a chance to talk! To get a more precise idea, use the contact form to get in touch and send in a sample of your project so I can give you a quote!
Proofreading
Proofreading is the very last thing to have done before publication. All other editing, copy editing, formatting, and styling is complete, and this is the final read-through to catch any lingering spelling, punctuation, or formatting errors and ensure that the text adheres to the style sheet and everything looks as it ought to.
The Process
Before sending your document, we will briefly discuss the project and anything that you specifically want me to be on the lookout for (e.g., there are a lot of foreign words and terms, so please double-check they’re all italicized properly). I will then send you a Statement of Work to review and sign.
Upon receiving your manuscript PDF (and style sheet, if there is one) I will read through and mark any lingering mechanical errors, make sure everything adheres to the style sheet or your otherwise stated preferences, and generally ensure that everything in the document looks the way the final product should look. I will then return a redlined PDF showing any errors, corrections, or queries along with a covering letter outlining what I found.
Specifics
- Catch typos, punctuation errors, and spacing issues
- Identify formatting and design inconsistencies
- Double-check cross-references
- Confirm consistent, sequential chapter titles and numbering
- Confirm consistent, sequential figure and table numbering
- Confirm consistency between text and style sheet
Time Frame and Pricing
The timeline and pricing for each project vary depending on length and the type of document being proofread. That said, my usual rate is $0.01 per word for fiction, $0.02 per word for trade nonfiction, and $0.025 per word for academic works in the humanities. Use the contact form to get in touch and send in a sample of your project so I can give you a quote!