Developmental Edit: Typically the first type of edit done after you’ve finished writing your manuscript. A developmental editor looks for “big picture” issues in your story, whether it’s fiction (where they might examine if your characters are complex, if your plot is tight, if your style is clean and not too overwhelming) or nonfiction (where they might look at whether the information is presented in the right order, if each section is as short or as long as it needs to be, and if it’s all making sense). A developmental editor does not correct misspelled words or add missing punctuation, but looks at the bigger issues only; and instead of marking up the manuscript, they tend to leave comments along the edges of the pages that say things like “Maybe you should think about…” or “Have you considered…” In fact, some developmental editors don’t leave comments at all, but rather prepare a five- to twenty-page summary of all their thoughts about the entire book put together at once. Often this edit results in some humongous changes, like eliminating an entire chapter, melding two characters into one, etc., so it’s best to do this entire edit and then do your revisions before starting a copy edit. I charge 1 cent per word for developmental editing.

Copy Edit: What most people think of when they think of “editing,” a close-up and slowly methodical look at that manuscript’s errors when it comes to what the industry calls GUPS (grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling). You sometimes hear people also talk about “line edits” and “content edits,” but those are actually enfolded into the “usage” part of GUPS, because they mean edits about the correct usage of (respectively) sentences and paragraphs. A copy editor assumes that you have already been through a developmental edit with someone else, and have already made all the big decisions you’re ever going to make about the characters, plot, story elements and style; they concentrate only on finding as many small errors as humanly possible. Most copy editors will use an app’s “track changes” feature when editing, which will let you review them afterwards and “approve” or “reject” each one. Ideally when this edit is finished, the manuscript is ready to be “locked down” and sent to the designer. I charge 1 cent per word for copy editing, or 1.5 cents per word if you’d like me to do both a developmental edit and a copy edit of the same manuscript.

Post-Production Proofread: After the “production” of the book is finished (that is, the conversion of the raw text into the laid-out pages of the finished book, plus the front and back cover art added), the pages as they will appear will be sent back to you from the designer as a series of PDF pages. A post-production proofreader checks these pages as the very last step of the publishing process, not only for any final missed typos in the manuscript, but also for errors in the front and back matter like the title page and copyright page, as well as the headers, footers and page numbers. This type of editor gives you no advice on the book itself; they are there merely to catch any last obvious errors still left. I charge 0.5 cents per word for post-production proofreading.

Complete Rewriting: This is a special “add-on” service I provide with other edits, like developmental edits and copy edits, in case a large section of text needs to be completely rewritten in order to make more sense. For example, some of my clients are romance publishers who hire ghostwriters, and those ghostwriters charge a large fee to do a round of revisions after a developmental edit, so for a smaller fee I’ll do those revisions myself at the same time I’m doing the developmental edit. You should think of this step in that way, as something I do to help further along a manuscript I’m already working on, and not a service I usually provide just unto itself. I charge 1.5 cents per word for complete rewriting.

Academic and Journalism Editing: I hold both a Basic and Intermediate certificate in academic copy editing from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the American Copy Editors Society (of which I am a paid member), and regularly do specialty academic editing for things like doctoral dissertations and medical papers. I am well-versed in the Chicago Manual of Style, the Associated Press Stylebook, and academic citations in APA, Bluebook and MLA. I charge 2 cents per word for academic editing, and 3 cents per word for traditional journalism.

Enterprise and Other Corporate Clients: I also occasionally do short-form editing for the needs of enterprise and other various corporate clients, such as web copy, memos, brochures, handbooks and the like. Please contact me directly, using the form below, to talk more. I charge 5 cents per word for enterprise and other corporate clients.

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