The First Step (Developmental Edit) - $0.014/word

So you have a first draft, but you know you need help with the plot, or the motivations, or the conflict. Maybe you’ve got two characters who are obviously attracted to one another, but their arguments for not being together are weak. Or perhaps your heroine’s main goal has sort of fallen by the wayside because you got too focused on getting your characters into bed (no judgement, we’ve all been there), and you need someone to help you bring it back to the forefront of her mind. Or maybe you just know that one of your main characters is way more developed than the other, but you’re stuck on how to punch up the other one’s development to balance it out (again, trust me, this happens to all of us!).

That’s where I come in. The manuscript doesn’t need to be polished at this stage—I’ll read it in its obviously-still-a-draft form and offer suggestions to fix whatever struggles you’re having with the story. I’m not looking at word choice and comma usage here; in fact, the document I send back to you likely won’t have any tracked changes in it at all. I’ll leave comments and will send you a nice long edit letter addressing any issues you specifically ask me to look at, as well as anything I notice or think of while I’m reading. This is a big picture stage, focused on the story versus the writing.

Once you’ve had a chance to digest my notes, we can set up a phone or video call lasting up to an hour to talk through anything you have questions on or still need help with, or if you prefer we can do it over text/messaging app.

For manuscripts up to 100,000 words, a developmental edit will take 2-3 weeks to complete.

The Sweet Spot (Line Edit/Copy Edit Combo) - $0.014/word

This is, as the name implies, my personal sweet spot as far as edits go. 

In a straight-up line edit, I wouldn’t be checking for things like punctuation errors, but that stuff is next to impossible for me to ignore; it’s just how my brain is wired. And in a plain old copy edit, I wouldn’t address things like sentence flow, keeping dialogue realistic, or streamlining passages that are cumbersome or awkward—things that it pains me not to address if I notice them.

But if I combine the two, I can tackle everything listed above and more. You moved a chapter up from where it originally was, and now the characters are talking about something that hasn’t happened yet? I’ve got you. Weren’t sure if em dashes have spaces on either side of them so you just did whatever and figured your editor would fix it for you? I sure will. Mention something so many times that in hindsight it ends up being overkill? Yep, I’ll delete the superfluous text for you, no problem. All while making sure typos are fixed, commas are properly comma-ing, and if there are only two people in the scene pronouns do the brunt of the work to identify who’s talking (as opposed to naming the characters on every line). 

I will request a sample of pages from the middle of the manuscript to determine the amount of work and length of time involved, but typically a line edit up to 100,000 words will take 3-4 weeks to complete.

The Final Bow (Copy Edit/Proofreading) - $0.008/word

And here is where I focus solely on typos, grammar, punctuation, and all the little nitty-gritty things. At this point you’ve likely had an editor, friends, and beta readers look at the story enough to have addressed anything major, and you just want a cleanup. I’ll take out any extraneous “and then”s, touch up punctuation, make sure there’s a space on either side of the ellipses every time (or no space, if you prefer that—as long as it’s consistent, that’s all that matters), confirm there are no double spaces after periods, etc. For some authors, this will be more of a proofread, with very few tracked changes because it’s already had so many eyes on it there’s not much left to catch. For some, it’ll be more of a copy edit, because even if seventeen beta readers have read all forty-three versions of the book, if this is the first time anyone is focusing on spelling, grammar, and punctuation there will likely be things no one has caught yet.

For manuscripts up to 100,000 words, a copy edit/proofread will take 2-3 weeks to complete.