Services and Rates
EDITING SERVICES
I specialize in nonfiction and creative nonfiction editing, primarily memoir and personal essay. I will proofread any manuscript, fiction or nonfiction.
No firm definitions of the different levels of editing exist. Even professional editors cannot agree on the precise definition of each level. So these are the services I provide at each level of editing.
Manuscript Assessment
Overall Analysis
With a manuscript assessment, I will provide a multi-page report. I will not change or alter any part of your manuscript (ms). Since I work in nonfiction, prior to the assessment I will need to know your answers to these questions: Who is your audience? What is your purpose? What promise does your ms make to the reader? I will tell you what works and what doesn't. In my report, I tell you if...
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you have fulfilled your promise to the reader.
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the subject matter is thoroughly and accurately explored.
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the style, tone, and approach are appropriate to each of the above.
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how much editing needs to be done at each level (see below).
$150-$250 depending on ms length
Developmental Edit
The Shaping Stage
A developmental edit is a deep-dive edit. In a developmental edit. If I have not done a ms assessment for you, I will ask these questions:
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Who is your audience?
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What is your purpose?
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What promise does your ms make to the reader?
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Do you fulfill this promise?
$45/hour
Line Edit
The Smoothing Stage
With a line edit, I check sense and flow. I decide if every paragraph, every sentence, and every word is necessary. It's about paragraph-level readability and clarity. I make sure...
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the text is clear, logical, and coherent.
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the structure is consistent throughout and easy to follow.
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the tone is appropriate to the material, audience, and purpose.
$35/hour
Structural Edit
The Restructuring Stage
With a structural edit, I move, reorder, and restructure your ms. I work with you to correct and improve the ms. And...
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make the chapter arrangement logical.
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give the text a cohesive flow.
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highlight jargon to be defined or eliminated.
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make tone and language appropriate to the purpose and audience.
$40/hour
Copy Edit
The Correcting Stage
A copy edit is a bridge between a line edit and a final proofread. In a copy edit, I make sure spelling, grammar, and punctuation are consistent and correct.
$30/hour
Proofreading
The Quality-control Stage
The end of the line to make the manuscript the best it can be. It's the final review, strictly a clean-up, looking for errors of any kind: checking for PUGS (punctuation, word usage, grammar, syntax), any inconsistency of font style, weight, and size, problems with page layout, misnumbered charts, graphs, and images, etc.
$25/hour
