Services & Rates|Strike the Write Tone

Communicate clearly

Educate thoroughly

Entertain joyfully

Inspire profoundly

Let me help you Strike the Write Tone.

Services and Rates

I specialize in nonfiction and creative nonfiction editing, coaching, and ghostwriting. I will proofread any manuscript, fiction or nonfiction.

Book Coach

Work with the writer to map out and complete a first-draft manuscript

$50/hour (open ended) or $480 for a 3-month package fee (includes one hour per week Zoom meetings or phone calls and weekly writing submission reviews)

As your book (writing) coach, I help you identify the most suitable and marketable theme for your manuscript. I will help you stay focused on your theme, keep your ideal audience in mind, and serve as an accountability partner. Please note that coaching does not include editing; however, I offer editorial guidance and feedback to improve your writing as you go.

Ghostwriting/Collaborating

Write your book in partnership with you

Fee negotiable, based on which service I provide

and the anticipated word length of the manuscript

Ghostwriter: I write a book for you and receive no byline credit (I remain invisible).

Collaborator: I write with you and receive credit, denoted by the word with or and in the byline.

Manuscript Assessment

Overall Analysis

$30/hour to read + $100 to write assessment

With a manuscript assessment, there is no editing. Instead, I provide a report. 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. I will tell you if...

you have fulfilled your promise to the reader.
the subject matter is thoroughly and accurately explored.
the style, tone, and approach are appropriate to each of the above.
how much editing needs to be done (see below).

EDITING SERVICES

Developmental Edit

Shaping Stage

$55/hour

A developmental edit has many nicknames: a deep-dive edit, a macro edit, or a big-picture edit. At this early editing stage, I look at the presentation of the material in the entire manuscript. This is an organizational edit. I might move chapters around, as well as large chunks of text within a chapter. I suggest how to plug holes in the material. I will...

make the chapter arrangement logical.
give the text a cohesive flow.
highlight jargon to be defined or eliminated.
check to assure the tone and language are appropriate to the purpose and audience.

Line & Copy Edits

Smoothing & Correcting Stage

$45/hour

It's hard to separate line and copy edits. These are paragraph- and sentence-level edits. I check the flow. I decide if every paragraph, every sentence, and every word is necessary. I make sure...

the text is clear, logical, and coherent.
the structure is consistent throughout and easy to follow.
the tone is appropriate to the material, audience, and purpose.
spelling, grammar, and punctuation are consistent and correct.
repetitious words are removed.
awkward phrasing is rewritten.
you've used active voice and you're showing not telling.

Proofreading

Quality-control Stage

$35/hour

The end of the line to make the manuscript the best it can be. It's the final review, after the manuscript has been typeset. A clean-up, looking for errors of any kind that happened during the typesetting process: checking for PUGS (punctuation, word usage, grammar, syntax), any inconsistency of font style, weight, and size, problems with page layout, numbered charts, graphs, and images, and widows and orphans.