“A person who wrote badly did better than a person who does not write at all. A bad writing can be corrected. An empty page remains an empty page.” ― Israelmore Ayivor, How You Can Write Your Dream Book
Editing
Free sample edits available
Content
Line editing $30/hr.
Developmental editing $300
Proofreading
$12/1,000 words
Your Hard work deserves to look good, too
Bestselling authors would never dream of attempting self-editing a book. It’s nearly impossible, yet every author needs it. The best advice is to hiring an experienced book editor. Book editors do more than make sure your I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed. Investing in an editing service is the best way to make sure your writing is perfectly polished before it’s in print.
We offer different options for authors: Line Editing, Copy Editing, Proofreading and Developmental Review. These different types of editing services cover everything from basic grammar and misspelling and sentence structure to review of the story development, story narrative, and characterization.
Affordable book editing – tailored to your needs
Need an affordable price, but want premium book editing? Our editors are highly trained. Self-published authors, now have the opportunity to work directly with these highly experienced book editors.
Choose the book editing service you need:
Copy Editing: $7 /1000 words
- Correction of awkward constructions and suggestions to make sentences crisper and tighter by fixing redundancy.
- Review of key aspects of the manuscript—the narrative, vocabulary, structure, characterization, style, and development.
- Editor’s notes and overall comments.
- Estimated editing time: 8 to 10 business days.
- Check for typographical and spelling mistakes, consistency aspects, correction of grammatical and linguistic errors, and attention to punctuations.
- A review to ensure accurate and consistent usage.
- Estimated editing time: 6 to 8 business days
Line Editing: $30/hr (about 9000 words)
Line editing is an intensive structural edit that focuses on the finer aspects of language—the flow of ideas, transition elements, tone, and style. Your line editor will take a critical look at your manuscript’s writing flow, language usage, character development, and more, and make suggestions that ensure that you’re communicating your story effectively while maintaining your voice.
Copy editing is a basic word-by-word edit that addresses grammar, usage, and consistency issues. Your copyeditor will correct continuity issues in your story and ensure your manuscript is free of technical problems or major loose ends that’ll confuse your readers.
Proofreading: $3 per page
Proofreading is the vital last step of the book editing process. After your manuscript has received its professional edit, your book proofreader will perform a final review to fix any remaining mechanical and grammar issues before your book is printed and published. Proofreading is not a structural edit and instead focuses on eliminating minor mistakes and inconsistencies.
- Correction of misspellings, punctuation, capitalization, verb tense, and grammar issues.
- Estimated editing time: 6 to 8 business days.
Not sure what type of book editing?
1. Proofreading
Proofreading gets its name from the “proofs” typesetters produce before the final print run. The text has been laid out into pages, complete with photos, diagrams, tables, etc.
Proofreading comes at the end of the publication cycle. It’s the final check before the book is printed or, in the case of eBooks, before it is published and sent to distributors.
For this reason, proofreading is intended to pick up the final typos and spelling mistakes and to correct inconsistencies, like making sure the word “proofreading” is always spelled as one word and not “proof-reading” or “proof reading.”
In the case of printed books, proofreaders also look for awkward word splits at the end of a line and ensure there is no ugly single line left at the top of the page from the previous paragraph (known in publishing as a widow) or at the bottom of the page, which really belongs with the paragraph on the next page (orphan).
2. Copy Editing
Copy, in the publishing world, refers to the text. So, copy editing could just as easily be called text editing. It’s a word-by-word edit that addresses grammar, usage, and consistency issues. Copy editors will check for typos and spelling errors along with correcting grammar, language, and syntax errors. They will also pay particular attention to punctuation such as commas, semicolons, and quotation marks.
Editors work on a copy of the author’s manuscript, usually a Word file, using the track changes function and adding comments to explain any changes or make revision suggestions. The author can then go through each of the changes and accept or reject them one by one and make any revisions where necessary.
Only when the author is completely satisfied with the plot, story structure, characterization, settings, etc. is the manuscript ready for copy editing. And nobody, no matter how good, gets all that right with a first draft.
3. Line Editing
Line editing is a more intensive structural edit that focuses on the finer aspects of language – the flow of ideas, transition elements, tone, and style. Line editors expand their efforts to suggest changes to make sentences crisper and tighter by fixing redundancy and verbosity issues, while improving awkward sentence and paragraph construction without a full rewrite. Editors will look at the manuscript using a holistic methodology with a review of key aspects of the manuscript: the narrative, vocabulary, structure, characterization, style, and development.
4. Developmental editing
Development editing should happen first. It means that the book gets a substantial, structural, developmental edit. This will often include everything that’s involved in proofreading and copy-editing, plus a detailed critique of the essential elements of the story (in the case of a novel), which include:
- Timeline
- Plot
- Setting
- Story structure
- Characterization
- Pacing
While the author is still in the drafting stage, the developmental editing will help the author make sure there are no significant errors. The manuscript will have been rewritten a few times before it’s ready for this edit.
Feedback from competent beta readers or a discerning writing group can be enough to iron out all the wrinkles in the book’s structure, so not every book needs a professional editor for this step. But don’t skip it!
The developmental edit will usually include a separate document detailing, often chapter by chapter, the changes the author could make to improve the elements listed above.
Let’s Review:
- Though most books (not all) need developmental editing, if should come early in the writing process, usually after a few drafts.
- Line editing and copy editing happen when the author is satisfied with the book after several rewrites. Every book should be copy edited.
- Proofreading is necessary for only the final, formatted book, right before publication, and every book needs proofreading.
You need to decide how much or how little editing you would like. You might not want the editor to interfere with the format, for example, and you might have your own ideas for a particular style issue (always The Beatles, not the Beatles). An editor can help the author avoid embarrassing errors found by the reader in any of the elements discussed here.