Services and Rates

I specialize in nonfiction and creative nonfiction editing, coaching, and manuscript assessment.

I offer a FREE 1250-word sample edit or FREE 30-minute phone chat or Zoom meeting. Contact me!

Wherever you are on your writing journey, I'll be there with you.

Writing Coach

Expert-level Coaching

My primary goal is to guide and support you to a completed first-draft manuscript.

Help you identify the most suitable and marketable theme for your manuscript (nonfiction and memoir).
Help you stay focused on your theme and target audience (nonfiction and memoir).
Help you outline, plan, and schedule next steps (nonfiction and memoir).
Help you choose subjects and/or stories that offer evidence in support of your theme (nonfiction and memoir).
Serve as an accountability partner (everyone).
Offer storytelling writing skills development (memoir primarily).

One-on-one personal coaching.

Monthly retainer: $100. PLUS $100/hour or $60/30-minute session.

Billable services include:

Review and critique of submitted writing
Zoom meetings
Writing exercises and recommendations for links and resources to enhance writing skills

Manuscript Assessment
Overall Analysis

Read manuscript and write detailed report.

$300 for a partial manuscript evaluation (up to 25 double-spaced pages), $1000 for a full manuscript up to 60,000 words. For manuscripts longer than 60K, it is $200 for each additional 10,000 words.

With a manuscript assessment, there is no editing. Instead, I provide a detailed 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 manuscript make to the reader?

I will tell you what works and what doesn't, such as:

Is a clear theme (argument) maintained consistently throughout?
Have you fulfilled your promise to the reader?
Is the subject matter thoroughly and accurately explored?
Are the style, tone, and approach appropriate to each of the above?
For memoir, what is the overall quality of the storytelling, including plot, characters, description, setting, and dialogue?
What level of editing needs to be done (see below)?

Free 1250-word sample edit.

Editorial Services

Developmental Edit
Shaping Stage

$60/hour

Also called deep-dive edit, macro edit, or big-picture edit. This is an organizational and structural editing stage. I might suggest moving chapters around, as well as large chunks of text within a chapter. I work with the writer to suggest how to plug holes in the material. For nonfiction, 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.

For memoir, I will...

comment on plot and character development.
analyze the effectiveness of the theme.
comment on scene development and dialogue.
analyze the suitability of the material based on the ideal audience.

Substantive Edits
Idea Development
& Clarity Stage

$55/hour

A substantive edit addresses the flow of ideas within a chapter or sections within a chapter, the clarity of the ideas and information, and the quality of the prose. I make sure...

the work has smooth transitions between chapters.
we fill in missing content.
the prose is clear and appropriate for the target audience.
the prose uses an active voice and engages the reader.

Line & Copy Edits
Smoothing & Correcting Stage

$50/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

$40/hour

This service is only offered to my clients for whom

I have edited the manuscript.

Quality-control Stage

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.