First Steps
I work with authors who are writing non-fiction books, including memoir and self-help, and shorter articles. My clients have included writers who are looking to reach a general audience as well as those who want to reach out to academic readers in the social sciences, humanities, and education.
When you get in touch, I’ll ask you about your project, and we’ll have a conversation about what kind of editorial help you’re looking for. I’ll take a look at your writing, if you have a sample to share.
We can work together at any point in your writing process when you need some help figuring out specific next steps to take. It can be when you’re:
- planning what your project will be;
- working on a first draft;
- looking for guidance on a finished draft;
- responding to feedback from other readers; or
- reworking something you’ve already published.
After our first conversations, I’ll give you a written recommendation about what kind of editing services I think will best fit your project.
My Editing Services
Onetime Coaching Session
If you’re at the very early stages of your project, this is the option I’m most likely to suggest. I get to know the project you have in mind and suggest possible formats for your writing, along with concrete next steps for you to take to complete your first draft.
Use the contact form at the bottom of my Home Page to set up a free mini-coaching session that will focus on your next step in completing your manuscript.
Manuscript Review
You have a first draft, though it may be in its early stages. I review it and send you a detailed written review of both the manuscript’s strengths and those areas where I think it needs more work.
My feedback includes specific suggestions about the next steps you can take to strengthen your manuscript.
Structural Edit
I look at a draft of your document to consider how easily your intended readers will be able to follow your points.
Does the document have a clear beginning, middle, and end and does it flow smoothly within each part and between its sections?
Can a reader coming to your writing for the first time get your point easily and clearly?
A developmental/structural edit is usually the first step in preparing any writing project for publication either in print or electronically.
For a structural edit, I send you both a written review of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses as well as detailed comments embedded in the text itself. My comments always include specific options for changes where they might be necessary.
Together, we determine how many passes through the document I will make on a structural edit.
Some authors are confident continuing on their own once they have received my feedback. Others prefer to revise the manuscript based on my first round of comments and then send it back to me for another round of editing.
A structural edit can be combined with a copy edit.
Copy Edit
You have a manuscript and are happy with its structure and flow. In this option, I review your document line by line to ensure that it is consistent and reads smoothly on the paragraph and sentence level.
A copy edit checks that your documents conforms to general expectations for word usage, grammar, spelling and punctuation.
A copy edit ensures that your document has a professional appearance and resolves problems at the paragraph and sentence level that would keep your message from being understood.
As with a structural edit, we determine how many times you will want me to review the document.
If you are confident acting on my suggestions on your own, one pass will be enough. If you prefer that I review the your changes, I can do a second edit or as many subsequent rounds as you would want.
Setting Up a Plan
Once I’ve reviewed your needs and before we start working on your document, I’ll send you a written response that will include an estimate of how long I think the editing process will take, how many passes through the document we will have, what the cost will be, and any other details pertaining to your specific needs.
If we determine together that we need to change this plan as we work on your document, we’ll update the plan in writing.
Many people using an editor for the first time have concerns about how much it will cost. In general, I follow the Editorial Rates guidelines set by the Editorial Freelancers Association.
When I give you my estimate, if the figure doesn’t match your budget, that’s not necessarily the end of the conversation.
We can figure out how I can help you improve your manuscript with the budget you have.