Proofreading and Editing
If you are interested in producing writing of your own (books, website, articles) I highly recommend getting an external editor. It doesn’t have to be me – there are a lot of editors available online or through sites like fiverr – but have multiple sets of eyes review your work, and multiple minds evaluate it for grammar, spelling, clearness, correctness, and consistency.
I do offer a couple of different services for reviewing your work.
Proofreading
I charge $.005/word for proofreading (that is 1/2 a cent a word, based on the word count when you send me the manuscript). Proofreading is checking for spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typos. I will not make any changes for anything that is not a spelling, grammatical, or typographical error.
Editing
Does your main character change names 46 pages in? Is there a huge question left unanswered? Are there spots where a reader would sit and think, “What? That doesn’t make sense.” I’ll catch them. If they are easily and obviously correctable, I’ll do that for you. If not, I’ll let you know they exist so that you can decide what is best to do with them.
I charge $.01/word for basic editing. I don’t do developmental editing – that is an extremely involved process. I’ll do overall checking for consistency, clarity, completeness, and flow. Editing includes proofreading.
How This Works
Contact me. We’ll do most of our communicating by email. Explain what service you want, and how long your written work is. If it’s a multi-chapter book, I’ll do a test edit of the first chapter or ten pages, whichever is shorter. (Some people write very long chapters.) We will discuss price and come to written agreement of exactly what I will do, what your costs will be, and when payment will be submitted. Typically, I’ll charge half upfront, and the other half when the project is complete.
You can either mail me a paper copy, one-sided and double-spaced, on which I’ll make direct, handwritten editing suggestions, (return postage will be added to cost of services) email me your document, or open a shared googledoc. I’ll save the edited version as a separate document, so that you are able to see what’s been done. I’ll send the edited document back to you.