Developmental Editing
This is usually the first stage in the editorial process. It’s what you need if you’ve finished a draft of a book and are looking for a professional perspective on the manuscript and guidance on how to revise it. I will read your manuscript and provide a thorough critique in the form of both marginal comments and a detailed editorial letter. My feedback will include both an assessment of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and concrete suggestions for revision. Developmental editing focuses on large-scale issues such as structure, plot, character, and pacing. I offer developmental editing for fiction and memoir.
Manuscript Evaluation
I will read your manuscript and write you an editorial letter laying out my assessment of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and my major recommendations for revision. The feedback addresses the same types of issues a developmental edit would but in less depth because an evaluation doesn’t include comments on the manuscript itself. This can be an alternative starting point if you’re unsure of what you need or you’re not ready to invest in a full developmental edit. It can also be useful if your manuscript has already been through significant editing or revision but you still feel something isn’t working. I offer manuscript evaluations for fiction and memoir.
Line Editing/Stylistic Editing
You should consider this type of editing if you’ve revised your manuscript to the point that you don’t expect to make any major changes to structure or content but you still need help polishing the writing. I will go through your manuscript line by line making edits and suggestions related to style, clarity, tone, etc. I offer line or stylistic editing for a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. If it makes sense for a particular project, I will sometimes combine line-editing and copyediting services (see below).
Copyediting
Copyediting takes place after all substantive revisions have been completed. It involves editing a manuscript for correctness, consistency of formatting (e.g., italics, capitalization, and hyphenation), and errors in continuity or logic. I copyedit for publishers, self-publishing authors, and authors who want to make sure they are sending out a clean manuscript.
Query Letter and/or Synopsis Editing
If you’re seeking traditional publication, you need a strong query letter and, often, a synopsis to send to agents and publishers. But describing your book in a concise and appealing way can be incredibly challenging, and many authors are unsure what agents and editors are looking for. I will edit your query letter and/or your synopsis to give them the best chance of catching agents’ and editors’ attention. For queries and synopses, I do two rounds of editing, the first to address big-picture issues and the second to polish the final draft.
