Services

Package deals of any of the following are available, as well as hybrid options. Get in contact for a quote and I will happily carry out a sample edit of 1000 words for no charge so you can decide if I’m the right editor for you.

Proofreading – from £3/1k words

In which all grammatical, typographical and punctuation errors are carefully spotted and fixed (according to your choice of style guide, or your own custom style sheet). Consistency of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, running chapter heads, extra spaces, use of en and em dashes, italics etc. are also checked and corrected. Any copyright issues will be raised, and there is minimal intervention in your work.

Copyediting – from £4/1k words

Where style decisions are taken according to your prevalent usage (or a style sheet you have provided, or standard style guide of your choice) and implemented universally across your manuscript, any sentence construction that feels off is meticulously pulled apart and put back together in as stringent a fashion as you require, ironing out any clunky phrases that may have crept in over the writing process and all grammar and punctuation errors are found and fixed, according to whichever style you have chosen. Headings and paragraph styles will be applied, and page breaks/section breaks added as required and where necessary. Typos will also get picked up and fixed, and continuity errors will be highlighted (and fixed if simple to do so).

Proof-editing – from £3.50/1k words

A mix of proofreading and copyediting, in which I will format headings, paragraphs and page breaks, as well as the usual error spotting of the proofread, and suggest changes to improve the flow of your text without going into as much detail as a copyedit. A budget-friendly option for self-publishing authors to save money which can be as customisable to your particular needs as you desire. Get in contact to discuss your options.

Line Editing – from £6/1k words

In which I carefully go through all your text, removing unnecessary adverbials and prepositions, tightening up your prose, moving clauses around in sentences to aid understanding, finding stronger verbs where it would help and generally polishing up your work while keeping your own unique voice intact. At the same time, I will point out continuity errors, and make comment on the story to whatever extent you wish – while bearing in mind that this is NOT a developmental edit. Using my line editing services entitles you to a discount on a final proofread (or copyedit, followed by proofread) afterwards with no obligation to use either service.

Developmental Editing – from £8.50/1k words

In essence, I’ll pull your whole story to pieces and give you options on different ways to fix the problems that come up as I go through it.

To properly understand your story, and make sure it both holds up to scrutiny and holds interest, I will read through your whole book at least three times, making suggestions on plot, narrative, characterisation, worldbuilding etc. etc. Alongside this I will give examples of how to tighten up dialogue, description and style, without losing pace, using Word’s commenting function and track changes. I will also write a detailed report for you making suggestions for bigger picture issues, while explaining in more nuance those things I have commented on in the main text.

At the dev stage, it is not useful to start correcting every little comma, semi-colon, verb agreement and unclosed bracket etc. so this service is very much looking at the whole book from a macro point of view. With this in mind, most of the small picture stuff is overlooked, since it’s not helpful to be so careful and thorough with sentences that are almost certainly going to get significantly rewritten (although I will make a note of any trend in errors in order for you to fix them in the next draft).

I will then happily answer questions and clarify my suggestions via email for no extra charge (within reason) to ensure that your next draft is as good as it can be. If you feel you need another round of dev edits after this, they will be less expensive (in most cases) than this initial round. If you have been through a developmental edit then you are also entitled to a discount on my line and copyediting rates, as well as a final proofread, and can use as many or as few of these services as you wish (for the same project).

 *All these rates are my base rates, and depending on the condition of your manuscript and how much work it needs, they may increase. Rest assured I will never increase them without discussing it with you first.

All work is carried out with track changes turned on in Word, with queries and limited explanations added using Word’s commenting function. I can also work by marking up your pdf, or use standard BSI markup on paper if you so desire.