I offer three levels of editing. In an ideal world, every manuscript would undergo each step separately with time for revision between. However, time and budget are not always ideal, so we can discuss the best compromise for your project. DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING Developmental editing (DE) is similar to the writing coach service, but it tends to be more straightforward. Generally a client sends me a complete manuscript and I read through it once. I construct a simple outline and character charts to help me gauge consistency and spot large-scale problems. In DE, I do not fix sentences, grammar, punctuation, or formatting. Instead, I make specific recommendations on plot, characterization, themes, point of view, balancing elements (ensuring that exposition, dialogue, actions, etc. make good feng shui), and whatever else I think needs to be improved. DE is about making a better story. Once I’ve completed my recommendations, I will send them to you with a cover letter that provides my overall impressions. After you make revisions, if you wish, I will review your changes and provide further feedback. LINE EDITING Line editing (LE) deals with sentences and paragraphs. Rather than focusing on grammar and punctuation, however, LE focuses on style. Don’t fret about your dangling participles, repetition, and lack of parallelism. A tweak here, a flip-flop there, maybe a few reorganized paragraphs–a hundred or thousand subtle changes can transform a limping manuscript into a well-oiled machine. Worry not that I’ll eliminate your individual voice. While I do “fix” things to make them correct or better, I pride myself on having a sensitive ear for tone and personality. Whether you have a scientific treatise or a purple-prose romance or sassy characters using urban slang, I will carefully fit my revisions into the tone you have already established. COPYEDITING & PROOFREADING Although copyediting (CE) and proofreading (PR) are two different things, I often do them simultaneously. PR deals strictly with typos, mechanical errors (punctuation, capitalization, etc.) and very light formatting issues (e.g., a carriage return in the middle of a paragraph). CE deals not only with grammatical correctness but also those issues you’ll find in a style manual, like which numbers to spell out or whether to abbreviate “United States” as “U.S.” or “US”. It’ll also explain why we normally put end punctuation inside quotation marks and why it’s correct that I didn’t in the last sentence. Due to the great variability in clients' writing needs, any fixed-price contracts will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. I will skim the manuscript and edit a sample of the writing in order to estimate how long it will take me to complete. My proposed price will be based on that determination.