By the time you have completed the final draft of your manuscript, you have been over it so many times it is hard to see your own mistakes. You can test this by setting your manuscript aside for a couple of weeks, then going over it again. Believe me, you will cringe at the mistakes that jump off the page.
Why is that? Because, as the writer, you are too close to your work. Writing which seems clear in your mind is quite often confusing to the reader.
Editors watch out for the basics, such as awkward run-on sentences, grammatical and spelling errors, and other run-of-the-mill writing issues. They also look for the overall structure of the piece, such as flow and readability. You might have buried the lead or mixed metaphors. Your third paragraph might be more suitable as your opener.
Editors keep their eyes peeled for accuracy, fairness, redundancy and taste. You know, in your head, what you want your story to accomplish. A good editor will help you shape what’s on the page so the reader sees what you intended them to see when you wrote it.
Besides picking up on inconsistencies in argument or plot, and fallacies of logic, the editor will point out text that needs to be rewritten to improve the page-turner quality of your work.
It is so easy to fall in love with your own writing. An editor is the cool head that can make the tough decisions for you. Believe me I know the pain of having to cut a beautifully written paragraph that I lovingly caressed and massaged into being, only to realize my story was better without it! An editor can take most of the emotional pain out of the pruning.
The reason an editor can do this is because he or she is an impartial and experienced observer of prose. No matter how good a writer is, most will benefit from having their work edited.
Professional editing is the frosting on the cake that brings out the best in your work.
NOTE: In the editing process you always remain the final authority of what stays or goes. Nothing is changed, cut or added without your approval.
If you self-publish, and want your book to be comparable to commercially published books, you definitely need a professional editor!
My Areas of Expertise
- Memoirs
- Autobiographies
- Inspirational/Motivational
- Spiritual
- Self-help
- How-To Manuals
- Non-Fiction
- Business books to position the author as the leading expert in their field
What Kind of Editing Do You Need?
Copy Editing? Structural Editing/Book Doctoring?
COPY EDITING
I go through your manuscript line-by-line looking for, and correcting:
1. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
2. Style errors: if the manuscript say “okay” in one place, “OK” in another and “ok” in another, you need to pick one and stick with it throughout your manuscript.
3. Detail errors: make sure details are consistent. If a character has blue eyes in Chapter One they must not be brown in Chapter Twenty-Two.
STRUCTURAL EDITING/BOOK DOCTORING
While copy editing focuses on details, structural editing/book doctoring focuses on the manuscript as a whole. I am looking at how your story is put together. Does it have a firm foundation? Are the supporting elements holding your story together? Is your “voice” consistent throughout? Does your story flow in a way that each chapter captivates the reader to want to know what happens next, making it a “page-turner.”
This is accomplished by moving blocks of text around that keeps your reader interested and avoids confusion. I also make it more readable by breaking up sentences and paragraphs that are too long, with the focus on improving the general appearance and readability of your book
Anything that doesn’t either clarify or move the story forward is cut, and major points are elaborated to keep your reader interested.
How Does the Editing Process Work?
First we need to find out if we are a “fit” to work together. You start by contacting me to see if it fits in my area of expertise, if it does I will request an emailed copy of the first fifty pages of your completed manuscript (in Microsoft Word document form). That will give me an idea of what it will take to edit the entire manuscript. If it looks like a project I’d like to work on I would like to have a phone chat to see if
If you wish to go forward, you will receive a written agreement for the project. If the agreement is acceptable to you, you will make a 50% deposit to start the process with the remaining 50% balance due upon delivery of the edited manuscript.
Once I have completed the editing I will return your marked up manuscript with complete explanations of what needs to be eliminated, added to, or revised. My focus is looking for anything that could keep your manuscript from being seen as professional in all ways.
If you carefully incorporate all of the edits in my assessment, your manuscript will be good to go with no need for any additional editing.
Does This Sound Good?
If you like what you’ve seen, this is your next step. Go here to get a FREE No Obligation Price Quote.
I will reply within 48 hours. If your work is a fit with my expertise, I will ask to see your complete manuscript.
Upon receipt of your manuscript I will evaluate your manuscript format and content. If it fits within my criteria I will respond with a Flat Fee quote.