Fiction – Editing Your Books

Content Edit

Every manuscript requires a content edit, whether by the author or from a professional. We will read through your manuscript with a big picture view. We are looking for those areas that make your story work well, or not so well. We will examine the plot, the story goal, and your characters. We will look for plot holes, and make sure that what you write moves your story forward. No matter what the genre of your story, we will make sure that your story world and setting is believable and complete.
Once we finish with this big picture edit, you will receive back your manuscript with comments listed in the Word document, along with pages and pages of notes detailing strengths, weaknesses, and ideas on how to move your story forward.
With our recommendations, you will be able to rewrite and revise your novel. At this point you will be ready for the next step which would be the line edit.
The content edit cost is 3.5 cents per word. (Sample price: a 70,000-word novel would cost $2,450.)

Once you as an author feel that your plot, characters, and story are strong, the line edit would be next. A line edit is exactly what it sounds like. We go through your manuscript line by line. We will read through your manuscript with a more detail-oriented view. We are looking at descriptions, narrative, dialogue, point-of-view, showing versus telling, pacing, overuse of words and more. We want your words to be specific, detailed, and clear, and we’ll help you polish your story to be the best it can be.
Although we may fix a few spelling and grammatical errors, this is not a copy edit. That is a separate category.
Line Edit Cost: If we have not already completed a content edit on your manuscript, your cost would be 2.5 cents per word. (Sample price: a 70,000-word novel would cost $1,750.) If you have already completed a content edit from us and decide that you would like this line edit, the cost is 1.5 cents per word. (Sample price: a 70,000-word novel would cost $1,050.)

This edit includes both the Content Edit and the Line Edit. We believe that every manuscript should have this comprehensive edit completed before submitting your manuscript to an agent or publisher.
In this edit, you will receive all of the above-mentioned services. We read through your manuscript using our big picture view, as is described under the Content Edit. Then you take our comments and ideas and rewrite your manuscript. You send your updated manuscript back to us, and we then do a Line edit with a detail-oriented view, as described under the Line Edit.
Sometimes after the manuscript is finished with the Line Edit, there are some revisions that need to be made by you, and we may check over the manuscript one more time, but that does not often happen.
This comprehensive edit does not include a copy edit, which checks for spelling and grammatical errors. That is a separate category.
Comprehensive Edit cost is 5 cents per word. (Sample: a 70,000-word novel would cost $3,500.)

Sometimes you just want an overview of your story to get you headed in the right direction without a complete edit.
We will read through your entire manuscript and provide you with 2-5 pages of notes and direction that will guide you in your novel writing.
This is not a complete content edit, just a partial one to move your story ahead.
Manuscript Review cost is 1 cent per word. (Sample: a 70,000 word novel would cost $700.)

What if you are not sure that our editing will fit your style? You can hire us to edit the first 3,000 words to get a feel for how we edit and how we can help you write a great novel.
In this edit, we will take about two to five hours to read through your first 3,000 words. We’ll be looking at dialogue, pacing, story goals, character development, narrative, and other topics that we do in the Comprehensive edit, looking for strengths and weaknesses in your writing. We’ll provide you with detailed suggestions and comments within the document, which can help strengthen your writing skills and story.
First 3,000 words edit cost is $150. If you like our style and want to pursue a another type of edit, we will deduct the first 3,000 words from your total word count when calculating the price of your subsequent edit.

A copy edit can be different things to different people. Some include looking at plot and inconsistencies in storyline in the copy edit. But because we are assuming that you have already had a comprehensive edit done by either us or someone else, our definition of copy edit follows a different line.
This is the very last step before your book goes to print. We will examine your manuscript for mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax. We also will correct internal inconsistencies, such as calling a character blond in one chapter, but brunette in another chapter. We will make sure that your em dashes and ellipses are used correctly. If you don’t know when and where to use them, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Copy edit cost is 2 cent per word. (Sample: a 70,000-word novel would cost $1400.)

Once you figure out what type of editing you need, here’s what comes next.

Read through our “About Us” so that you can get to know us as editors. If you think we are a good fit for you, then take the next step.
Fill out the contact form.
We will respond by email asking for your first 10 pages of your novel (probably about the first 2500 words). We do this to verify that we will be a good fit for your editing needs.
Once we accept your manuscript to edit, we will call you or email you to discuss what type of editing needs you have.
We will make up a contract with pricing for you to approve by email.
Once approved and digitally signed, we require a 25% deposit before we can begin working on your manuscript.
The balance of the fee will be due when our edit is complete. All of this will be written up in the contract.