As a writer, I love getting into the flow and letting the words come easily to my fingertips. It’s a great feeling that I’m sure you’ve experienced. You get finished writing exactly what you want to say then go back to read your masterpiece.
You may catch an spelling error (especially thanks to spell check), adjust a few sentences, add a comma here, take one off there (is that correct?…it feels right), then send it out into the world.
And then someone replies that you used the wrong word here (like affect or effect), have a misplaced modifier there (what?), and your commas are all wrong! Your confidence takes a nosedive and you suddenly feel like deleting everything you’ve ever written and giving up. Maybe you weren’t cut out to be a writer after all?
Ok, let’s take a deep breath together. What you need isn’t a new goal, career, or to trash everything you’ve ever written. What you need is an editor to review your work before you publish it. Your strength may not be in grammar, punctuation, or the detail work. And that’s ok! Your writing is uniquely you and editors can help make your work shine.
My job as an editor isn’t to change your work, it is to identify what is keeping your work from making the impact it can on your readers. This includes general proofreading for grammar, punctuation, and spelling but then goes deeper. It includes something called copyediting.
Copyediting
Copyediting is an in-depth look at your work that goes beyond grammar and punctuation. Copyediting focuses on WHAT you are saying. This includes recommendations for changing your wording to make the meaning more clear to the reader, pointing out inconsistencies in formatting, and noting confusing or missing information that leaves the reader wondering what you’re talking about.
With copyediting, you may receive feedback on readability, suggestions for changes to sentence structure, and notes on initial reader reaction. This level of editing will help you identify areas where you know what you meant, but your reader is not sure or is likely to misinterpret your meaning. The real goal of copyediting is to make sure you are saying what you mean to say and that the reader hears and clearly understands what you are saying.
What does it cost?
Project pricing is based on word count with adjustments made as word count increases.
- Short projects of less than 500 words are $15.
- 500-25,000 words are $0.03/word
- Each word over 25,000 is $0.025/word
I know, it requires math and, as a writer, you may not love math. Here are a couple of examples.
- A 10,000 word paper would be priced at $0.03/word=$300
- A 30,000 word book would be priced at ($0.03*25,000 words) + ($0.025*5000 words)=$875
What is the process?
The process is simple. We talk, verify that we’re a good fit, confirm details, and get started!
- Discovery Call
- Explain what you need, your project, and your goals.
- We’ll confirm that your needs and my skillsets are a great match.
- Initial proposal
- Includes pricing, project details, scope of work, and deadlines.
- Review
- Confirm details are as discussed.
- Send me your document
- I get started!
Ready to get started or have questions?
Contact me to schedule a free discovery call. No strings attached.