Editing and Manuscript Critique Services

Don’t panic if you don’t know what to call the type of editing you want. There are a lot of editing styles; editors, publishers, reference books, and schools all use different names for them. Please read over the descriptions of our copyediting and manuscript critique services below and drop me a line. I’d love to connect with you about your book.

Introduction to Editing: $150

Consultation, manuscript critique, and line editing

If you’ve never worked with a professional editor before, or if you’d like to start small and explore the possibilities, our Introduction to Editing service is a great way to begin.

After I get to know you and your writing goals through a phone call, I’ll read and annotate your first 20 pages, then schedule a collaborative editing session online. In that one-hour Zoom meeting, we will go through your pages line by line, exploring revisions that improve your style, storytelling, structure, and more. You’ll leave with recommendations for your next steps and an understanding of how to strengthen your skills.

Initial consultation to discuss your writing goals and process
Annotations on your first 5,000 words (around 20 double-spaced pages)
One-hour collaborative editing session over Zoom
Recommendations for development

Manuscript Critique Services: $02.–$.03/word

Before you plunk down a pile of cash for copyediting, it’s important to make sure your book is ready. If you’re the only one who’s read it, if you’re not satisfied with it yet, or if you’re flat-out stuck and can’t write another word, you’re not ready for copyediting.

Our editorial assessment and comprehensive manuscript critique services help you see your book’s strengths and weaknesses more clearly and provide constructive critique that makes you a better writer.

Editorial Assessment: $.02/word

Story and style for fiction

Structure and sense for nonfiction

If you’re looking for big-picture feedback on how your book is working, our Editorial Assessment service will tell you. What would happen if you sent this out to agents right now? What kind of reviews would you get if you indie-published this tomorrow? We’ll help you understand how your work measures up — and how to get it to the next level.

An editorial assessment is an excellent way to see how your current draft would fare in the wild. What might happen if you sent this out to agents right now? What kind of reviews would you get if you indie published this tomorrow? An editorial assessment will tell you.

We’ll put ourselves in the mindset of your ideal reader and get ready to settle in for a good read. As we read, we’ll take light notes in the margin, and when we’re finished, we’ll write an editorial letter that addresses the challenges this draft is facing. We’ll deliver your editorial letter and annotated manuscript, then invite you to schedule a phone call to discuss the critique.

You’ll have a full hour to ask questions, troubleshoot problems, and work out a strategy for your next steps. When you’ve had a chance to dive into your revisions and are eager for notes on the progress you’re making, we’ll have an hour of consultation in reserve for you. You can send a revised passage, schedule a phone call, or both. We just want you to be confident that you’re moving in the right direction.

Initial consultation to discuss your writing goals and process
Lightly annotated manuscript
Brief editorial letter (3+ pages), including recommendations for development
One-hour strategy session over phone or Zoom
One-hour follow-up or line-editing session as you begin your revisions

Comprehensive Critique: $.03/word

Story and style for fiction

Structure and sense for nonfiction

Our comprehensive manuscript critique services take our editorial assessment to the next level. With a fully annotated manuscript and an editorial letter that examines your current draft’s challenges in depth, we’ll give you a crash course in writing, using your own work as the text. A series of one-on-one consultations before, during, and after your critique will prepare you to make serious progress in your writing practice.

We’ll read and thoroughly annotate your entire manuscript, giving you a window onto your reader’s experience. We’ll leave notes wherever we laugh, cry, jump, or groan. We’ll ask questions wherever they occur to us and let you know where we were confused. We’ll highlight material to consider cutting and point out places that the writing doesn’t serve the reader.

If the notes in the manuscript are the trees, the comprehensive critique letter is the forest. It’s a thorough analysis of how the elements of fiction are handled in this draft. We’ll examine plots and subplots, story world, character development, showing versus telling, mood, tone, and tension, structure, exposition, style, voice, and editing needs.

After you’ve had a chance to process your critique letter and annotations, we’ll meet online or over the phone for a strategy session. You and your editor are both experts on the manuscript at this point, so it’s always an interesting conversation. You’ll have a full hour to ask questions and explore opportunities for improvement.

And when you’ve started your revisions and want reassurance that you’re moving in the right direction, you’ll have up to one more hour of your editor’s time on reserve. You can send a revised passage, schedule a phone call, or both. Our goal is to get you going on your next draft with confidence and a plan. If you want a comprehensive manuscript critique and individualized follow-up that guides you deeper into your craft, this is the critique package for you.

Initial consultation to discuss your writing goals and process
Fully annotated manuscript
Comprehensive editorial letter (8+ pages), including recommendations for development
One-hour strategy session over phone or Zoom
One-hour follow-up or line-editing session as you begin your revisions

Developmental Editing: $50/hour

Story and style for fiction

Structure and sense for nonfiction

Developmental editing is a creative collaboration through the messy middle of the writing process. Some writers get stuck here for years, but it’s our favorite part of revision. If you want a guide through the gnarly wilds of your work in progress, this is the one for you.

We’ll start with a conversation about your goals and your project’s history. If you’ve had an editorial assessment with us, we’ll review your recommendations for development and talk about how things have gone since then.

For each deadline, you’ll submit 5,000 words (20 pages) of your work in progress to your editor. Your editor will annotate your pages and discuss them with you in a one-hour critique conversation. By the end of the conversation you’ll have clear goals for your revisions and your next deadline on the calendar.

Initial consultation to discuss your writing goals and process
Annotated pages and a one-page editorial letter for each 5,000-word submission
One-hour strategy session and/or line-editing session over phone or Zoom

Copyediting, Line Editing, and Proofreading Services

Copyediting + Proofreading: $03.–$.04/word

We firmly believe that every manuscript needs at least two separate sets of professional eyes on it, so our Copyediting + Proofreading service is a package deal. Every manuscript gets two passes: one by a senior editor, the second by a separate copy editor. If our rates here seem high, it’s because you’re getting two full editing passes by two expert editors.

We also strongly believe that every manuscript should go through critique before it’s copyedited. There are several reasons for this:

If your manuscript has been professionally critiqued, we can feel confident that any weaknesses in the story or content are either intentional or so dear to your heart that no one could convince you to fix them.
If your manuscript has been professionally critiqued, we can feel confident that you’re satisfied with the existing style, tone, and structure, and are not interested in exploring the improvements that line editing could introduce.
If we have professionally critiqued your manuscript, we are confident that we’re not about to start rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Copyediting is a painstaking, time-consuming process that’s part slog through the mire, part sacred duty — and it’s expensive, too. We want to make sure you’re investing wisely, so don’t be surprised if we encourage you to focus your efforts on earlier stages of the writing process instead of going straight for the final polish. Your writing will be all the stronger for it.

Read more about copyediting and proofreading here, then contact us to explore your next steps.

Collaborative Line Editing: $50/hour

Whereas copyediting aims to make a piece of writing clear, correct, and consistent, line editing goes deeper, seeking to improve the flow, rhythm, and style of the work. This is where the magic happens and your writing improves.

Our line-editing sessions create space for exploring what’s happening on the sentence level in your work. What would happen if you broke the line here, rather than there? What is this word really getting at? Is it effective to use imprecise language here? Did you mean to use variations of this verb three dozen times in your story?

If you’re interested in taking a deep dive into improving the sound, flow, sense, and rhythm of your writing, this is a great way to learn. There’s no need to have a complete draft or to be anywhere near making a plan for publication. All you need is a desire to deepen your understanding of how your words are working on the page.

One-on-one explorations of your work in progress designed to strengthen your writing style
Ongoing conversations about elements of craft as they relate to your current draft
Tailored recommendations for revision, development, and study