Editing Services
Line and Copyediting
Is your piece finished? Does it have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Have you taken a stab at self-editing? Have you had anyone else read or critique it?
I can find and fix a variety of issues:
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consistency of expression—is your character named Maryanne or Mary Ann? do you indicate hours of the day as AM or am or a.m.?
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grammar and syntax—are you using the right words and putting them together properly?
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misspellings
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word choice—affect or effect? flammable or inflammable?
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factual errors—incontrovertible, objective errors in things like history, or measurement, or geography
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punctuation—commas, semicolons, quotation marks, dashes, hyphens, ellipses, etc.
Proofreading
Has your piece been copyedited? Have you put it in PDF form? Everyone involved with this version is confident it's ready to be printed?
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I can also find and fix these:
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typos
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widows and orphans (words and phrases left alone on the line and/or page)
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margins too big or too small
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poorly-placed hyphens
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page numbers that don't match the table of contents
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misspellings
No author or copyeditor catches every single one of these, while others are only generated after the content has been laid out.
What I Don't Do
If you've got big picture concerns and questions about your work, if you have questions about plot and pacing and scene-setting, if you think you need substantive developmental assistance, I am not the right person for you. You want a "developmental" or "substantive" editor or even a "book coach."
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Editing is like a funnel, with those big picture issues at the topmost part. Once those have been taken care of, you flow further down the funnel, into line editing, copyediting, and, finally, proofreading.
Not sure what you need?
Send me a sample! I will give you a free evaluation to determine if we are a good match for your needs and my skills.
Freelance Editor ~ Freelance Proofreader ~ Website Editor
