Editing

Thorough, careful editing can make an enormous difference to the quality of your writing and the success of your manuscript. Unfortunately, most publishing houses do not have the time or resources to devote to your manuscript. As soon as they spot an unpolished, unedited work, they will refuse it. This is particularly true if you are an unpublished writer. The manuscripts that capture their attention are those that require only minimal amounts of work before they are ready for publication. Hiring an independent, strong editor prior to submitting your manuscript is the smartest thing a writer can do. Not only will it enhance the text itself, working with a professional editor will strengthen a writer’s skills immeasurably. Editing can be a difficult process that requires great effort from the author, as well as the editor, but it can also be an amazingly positive experience that the author will carry forward with them throughout their writing career.

A good editor will be able to coax even the most reluctant writer through the editing process. Although every manuscript is different, almost every one of them will require some work.

THE EDITORIAL CYCLE:

Where do I fit in as a writer? Isn’t my work perfect? Is it that bad? Can it be fixed? Following are the types of editing we do, in order of performance:

  1. Substantive editing—the entire manuscript is reviewed to ensure that the integrity of the content as well as its structure is above question. Substantive editing looks at the big picture—the entirety of your work and addresses issues of continuity, understandability, and believability.
  2. Stylistic Editing—where language is polished, jargon is eliminated and meaning is clarified line-by-line.
  3. Copyediting—concentrates on accuracy, formatting, spelling, grammar, syntax, and structure corrections the manuscript might need. The grammar, syntax and structure will be scrutinized to make sure that they aren’t jarring to the reader .Copyediting is perfect for the well-written manuscript that’s almost ready to be seen by the world but just needs a bit of finessing first.
  4. Proofreading—this is the most basic, yet meticulous, of editing processes. Proofreading lends a professional eye to a strong manuscript that may have occasional spelling or grammatical typos. Line by line, the editor will review the manuscript and point out any infelicities in the text.

How will an edit alter your carefully crafted manuscript? How much will it cost? We will perform a free sample edit of ten pages (see Manuscript Submission for proper formatting guidelines), including a projected estimate for the project. If you find those ten pages to be enhanced and improved, a full edit can commence.

To find out more about editors, click About Us.