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Copy Editing

Ensuring Your Writing Meets Professional Standards

You’re a story-teller. You want your readers to be entranced by your characters, enchanted by your plot. You definitely don’t want them to be confused by awkward sentences or ambiguous phrases. 

Copy editing clarifies meaning, smooths language, and checks for correctness, consistency, and completion. And yes, embarrassing typos too. It makes sure your work is clear and professional.

Copy Editing Addresses

  • adherence to a style guide
  • sentence and paragraph length
  • tone, mood, style, and voice
  • grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage errors
  • plot, timeline, and character description inconsistencies
  • text inconsistencies (capitalization, hyphenation, spelling etc.)
  • basic point of view issues
  • basic formatting issues (consistent chapter and heading styles)
  • incorrect or inappropriate word choices
  • awkward or ambiguous phrasing 

How It Works

1. Make Contact

When you are ready for copy editing, get in touch with me. Once you tell me a bit about your project and I see a sample of your writing, I’ll provide a quote with details about price, how long editing will take, and when I am available.

2. Book Me & Send Files

When you agree to go forward with the edit, I’ll ask for a deposit and book you into my calendar. You’ll send me the full manuscript and any supplementary files by our agreed upon start date.

3. Have Your Manuscript Edited

I’ll get to work and edit your words using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes tool (so you can see the changes I make) and the Comments feature (to ask questions and provide explanations or suggestions). When I finish, I’ll send you the edited manuscript, a style sheet (a reference document that includes a record of style decisions and spellings), and an editorial letter explaining the kinds of changes I have made, along with the final invoice.

4. Follow Up And/Or Book Further Services

If you require help integrating the changes or need clarity about any of my changes of queries, you may follow up via email. If you’d rather have me integrate all the changes or if you think you need more copy editing after writing in your own changes, we can start this process again for a second round of copy editing.