BOOK & SCREENPLAY EDITING SERVICES
Let me help you check and improve your writing project, whatever you've written. I've worked on screenplays, stage plays, fiction books, text books, resumes, cover letters, legal briefs, law journal articles, and magazine articles. I am eager to work with you.
Types of Editing:
There are different levels of editing services, the most basic of which being proofreading. Proofing aims at finding errors, otherwise known as "typos" ... those little mistakes that everyone makes, and that are so easy to overlook. You may read and re-read your own work several times and still miss typos, for the simple reason that your work is already so familiar to you. It is important to fix typos, because even the smallest mistake in your finished publication can come across to your reader as an indication that you didn't care about your work, that you're sloppy, or even that you are unintelligent.
Proofreading is the final step, before publishing. The format, layout of the text, word choice, style, sentence structure, illustrations and so on have already been completed. Proofing is limited to finding and fixing mistakes in the presentation.
Copy Editing is a review of every word, for grammar, consistency (for example, making sure that "proofreading" is always written as such, and not sometimes as "proof reading" or "proof-reading"), punctuation and clarity. Copy editing includes proofing, in that a copy editor is also looking for spelling and word choice mistakes.
A copy editor will typically make changes to your Word file, using Word's "track changes" features so that you may accept or reject the changes.
Copy editing comes after an author has already finished and is happy with plot, story structure, characters, etc. A copy editor aims at polishing your work, not changing the content.
Line Editing is a broader review that considers how well the work flows, the author's verbosity, paragraph structure, and the like, without a full re-write. As with copy editing, line editing is done using "track changes" so that any author may agree or not with each suggested change.
Developmental Editing is a review of plot, story, characters, etc., and may amount to a full re-write. This is often done early in the process, after an author has rewritten the manuscript a few times and is looking for ideas and guidance before spending time on further drafts.
There are other types of editing, but these four are the most common. Others include for formatting, fact-checking, and indexing.
Pricing:
My pricing varies, depending upon what you want me to do. Proofreading is 1 cent per word. You'll find this is a standard way of pricing proofreading services, and the range is sometimes as high as 3 - 5 cents per word. While I am just proofing, I usually can't help but also make comments or suggestions about other things I see (things that would normally be part of copy or line editing, or even developmental), which is just an added bonus that I don't charge extra for. Your project must be in Word format already; if you have something else, please contact me.
Other types of editing are more time and energy intensive, which means there is no "per word" standard cost. We will need to agree upon a project fee, after I've seen your manuscript and have an idea of how much work it needs. If you Google it, you'll see people say the "market average" for proofing is $3/page, for copy editing is $4/page, line editing $7-15/page, and developmental $8-20/page. There is a wide swing in cost for line and developmental editing because (1) the amount of work each editor does can vary substantially, and (2) the amount of work each manuscript needs can vary substantially.
If you would like to hire me for anything other than proofing, I suggest you take advantage of my Free Offer, available for new clients only. I will edit 5 pages for free, and you can then judge for yourself the value of my work, and whether you want me to proceed.