LINE AND COPYEDITING
After you've had a developmental edit carried out, your next task will be to have a line or copyedit carried out by a professional book editor. This looks at the technical side of your fiction writing and focuses on clarity and consistency.
As your book editor I will:
- Collaborate with you - I am not here to tell you what you've "done wrong", but rather to help you address any issues which allows you to focus on what you do best: storytelling
- Assess the effectiveness and necessity of each word and sentence
- Highlight any inconsistencies or issues with point of view
- Adopt the old adage of 'show don't tell' to make your writing more engaging
- Trim off any unnecessary 'fat' to keep your writing as lean as possible
- Highlight any issues with passive voice
- Ensure dialogue and narrative are consistent with character voice
- Ensure tone is consistent throughout
- Check your manuscript for any inconsistencies with spelling, hyphenation and capitalisation
- Correct grammar and punctuation
- Identify any inconsistencies with characterisation or timelines
- Address anything else you specifically want to work on
- Provide you with a full and comprehensive report and style guide
To find out more about fiction editing costs, please visit my 'Prices' page.
PROOFREADING
The necessity of a final proofread should never be underestimated. There will always be mistakes which will be missed in an edit and so, before you self-publish or submit to agents, you will want to make sure you are submitting as polished a manuscript as possible in order to get those sales and good reviews or the possibility of a contract with a publisher.
In order to carry out a successful proofread, I will need:
- The manuscript fully formatted to the agent's request if you are querying
- The final PDF of the manuscript before you upload it to self-publish
This will catch out any nasty errors caused by the formatting that wouldn't have been noticed before.
As your proofreader I will:
- Correct any errors in punctuation, grammar and spelling
- Highlight any issues with the formatting
- Check sentence structure
- Provide you with a style guide
To find out more about my proofreading costs, please visit my 'Prices' page.
FORMATTING
Before you send your manuscript to your preferred agent(s) you will need to have it formatted according to their exact specifications. Agents receive hundreds of manuscripts each week and yours could be the best book they've read in a long time, but if it isn't properly formatted it will likely end up in the slush pile. If you would prefer to stick to the writing side of things or you are short on time, I can do this for you.
As your formatter I will:
- Ensure page and section breaks are used appropriately
- Format chapter headings consistently using Styles in Word
- Use widow/orphan control as appropriate
- Format the main body of text with the correct spacing and font size
- Ensure margins are correct and consistent
- Insert and format page numbers
MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUE
Before sending your manuscript out to beta readers, agents or publishers, you might benefit from a personalised critique from an industry professional. Perhaps you want to know if your story comes across in the way you intended, or whether you've used punctuation in the correct way, or whether your characters are believable. Receiving this level of feedback before proceeding with it any further could save you a lot of time and money, and it might be all you need to banish that imposter syndrome once and for all!
As your critique partner, I will:
- Provide a detailed report on all aspects of novel writing
- Let you know what you're doing well as well as what you might need further support with
- Use examples from your text to show what works and what requires improvement
- Be kind, friendly and supportive
- Offer constructive feedback and examples demonstrating how to make improvements, if any are required
Get 10% off your first line or copyedit when you subscribe to my email list!