Please feel free to contact me for an estimate on your individual manuscript.

I write regular posts on what you can expect from your relationship with an independent editor. I want you to feel comfortable and confident about the relationship before you even think about hiring one for your own manuscript.

I post these brief Sample Edits.

I run periodic Free Edit specials such as this one in August, 2009, on novel HOOKS and this one in February, 2010, on novel CLIMAXES.

And I make testimonials from clients and professional authors available.

I want you to know what you get when you hire me.

Never hire an independent editor with whom you do not feel comfortable
or without knowing what you’ll get for your money!

Rates

My minimum charge is $50, or one hour of work, and I offer an additional free hour discussing developmental editing and/or querying to each new client.

• Copy and Line Editing: $.05/word, or $50/hour at 1000 words (4 pages) per hour.
  
  This is Copy and Line Editing in-line. Choose this option if you feel fairly sure of your plotting and characterization skills, but you want your voice to be as polished as it can possibly be.
  
  For a manuscript of 60,000 words this comes to $3,000.
• Developmental Editing: $.025/word, or $50/hour at approximately 2000 words (8 pages) per hour.
  
  This is one or more Developmental Editing letters and a discussion over email. Choose this option if you feel fairly sure of your writing skills and voice, but you want your plot to be constructed as powerfully and your characters developed as three-dimensionally as possible.
  
  For a manuscript of 60,000 words, this comes to $1,500.
• Copy, Line, and Developmental Editing: $.066/word (yep, that’s less than .05 + .025) up to 20,000 words, or $50/hour at approximately 750 words (3 pages) per hour, and $.055/word for anything above that.
  
  At 250 words/page, this means $16.50 per page for the first 80 pages and only $13.75/page thereafter. This includes Copy and Line Editing in-line, Developmental Editing letters, and a discussion over email. Choose this option if you want to be certain your novel is the very best it can possibly be.
  
  For a manuscript of 60,000 words, this comes to $3,520.

My rates are based on an estimated $50/hour. And I always work longer hours than I charge for. I have to keep that a secret, though, or potential clients think I must not know what I’m doing because I charge so little. The truth is I have a personal—OCD—investment in your manuscript being as good as it can get, which is why I have such amazing client testimonials. If your manuscript takes less time than this, I’ll offer you credit. However I’ve never had to offer a client credit yet.

For comparison, please see The Editors Freelance Association standard rates. You’ll notice my page/hour rate is low according to industry standards.

Also, just so you know, ALL editors charge per word of original manuscript, not just the edited words. I recently heard from a client about a self-publisher being vague on this point. Yeah. Nothing vague about it. The potential for fraud in anyone claiming to only charge per edited word is spectacular, to say the least.

• But what about editors offering rates of $6/page or $.024/word?

  At the standard rate of $75-100/hour?

  You can do the math. That averages out to 12-16 pages/hour, which means spending 3.75-5 minutes on each page. I don’t know about you, but I can spend several minutes just absorbing a page for analysis, much less editing it, analyzing it, and writing out seriously useful advice on how to improve it. Even at $50/hour, the surface cheap rate is still only 7 1/2 minutes/page, or an hour and fifteen minutes to do the whole works on a ten-page chapter. Try it. That’s not very long.

  Skimming can be a real hazard in this industry when you’re hustling to make a living wage. These cheaper rates, whether they’re called copy-editing or just “editing,” could only mean very light copy-editing.

  That’s not what I do.

• So why do I only charge $50/hour?

  I keep my rates low because I want to be able to offer quality editing to writers who could not otherwise afford professional services. I make Developmental Editing comparatively less expensive in order to encourage you to do it. And I spell this all out for you in detail here in my Services page rather than make you send a query for an estimate because I think independent editors should be completely transparent in their dealings with potential clients.

  It’s your money. You get to make the decisions about how to spend it.

  My goal is to personally improve the state of literature in the world (and also to eat occasionally).

I also offer special rates to old and current clients as of October 1, 2009. If that’s you, contact me for details.

Edit Choices

The Full Monty

Obviously, the most thorough choice is a Copy, Line, and Developmental edit on your entire manuscript. This is an excellent choice for those seeking publication, as it enables you to present your manuscript in the best possible light to a literary agent or acquisitions editor.

For a 60,000-word manuscript, this works out to $3,520. You should expect the process to take between six to eight calendar weeks from the time I start on your manuscript, and I offer one hour of free consultation to each new client.

The Almost-Half Monty

For the budget-minded, a popular edit choice is a full Copy, Line, and Developmental Edit on 2500 words so you can get the gist of the Copy and Line Edit issues in your writing, with a purely Developmental Edit for the rest of the manuscript (you do your own Copy and Line Edits on that part).

For a 60,000-word manuscript, this works out to:

$165 for 2500 words
$1500 for 30 hours of developmental editing
$1665 total

I can usually get these done in four to five weeks, but be sure to contact me for scheduling details. I offer one hour of free consultation to each new client.

The Short Story Special

Short stories from 5000 to 12,000 words are what many people use to break into publishing. By my price schedule, the cost for a full Copy, Line, and Developmental Edit would thus cost between $330 and $1122. However, I offer a 15% discount on short stories, bringing the cost down to $280-950 cost for a full Copy, Line, and Developmental Edit. That’s $212-510 for a Copy and Line Edit or $106-255 for a Developmental Edit.

Plus I offer one hour of free consultation for each new client.

The Query and Synopsis Special

Virtually all query letters should fit into one page of 12-point type single-spaced, including a paragraph for your author bio. And, unless an agent specifically asks for either more or less, your synopsis should be fit into three pages of 12-point type single-spaced. However, both these essential tools in the writer’s toolbox also have their own specific formating requirements.

I offer a special Edit for query and synopsis: a one-page query and maximum 1500-word synopsis for $150, for which you get a Copy, Line, and Developmental Edit, plus one hour of free consultation for each new client.

The Minimum Edit

I offer a special Minimum Edit for my minimum charge of $50. This includes one hour of my time, which can be spent on a Developmental Edit of 2000 words, a Copy and Line Edit of 1000 words, or a full Copy, Edit, and Developmental Edit of 760 words, plus a free hour of consultation for new clients. Many of my clients choose this route first to see what I provide and then move on to a more thorough edit. You can also use a Minimum Edit to get help writing a query letter. I offer one hour of free consultation to each new client.

Partial Edit

You can request a partial edit of any amount of your manuscript. Maybe you’re pretty certain your story’s done, but you’d like some help making your first and last scenes as classic as possible. Or you’ve devoted all your energy to the beginning and ending, but the middle (as middles so often do) sags. Or you’re happy with your descriptions, but you want help with dialog. Or vice versa. Or something else. We can negotiate any form of partial edit that works for you. This can be either a full Copy, Line, and Developmental Edit, a Copy and Line Edit, or a Developmental Edit. And I offer one hour of free consultation to each new client.

Editing Terminology

But what’s the difference between copy editing, line editing, and developmental editing? I’m glad you asked.

Copy Editing

Copy Editing refers to grammar and punctuation. (Sometimes both Copy Editing and Line Editing are referred to as Copy Editing, but they are in fact two different things.) Copy Editing is just following the rules. Very little of it is a judgment call. I do Copy Editing in-line, meaning I write right in or on the manuscript.

Line Editing

Line Editing refers to sentences. It’s correcting for sentence flow, paragraph structure, clarity, forward movement, and readability. It’s also about voice, tone, and language-related techniques. It’s generally a judgment call, but since mine is based on thirty years of practice, it’s also pretty straight-forward. When authors read the edited versions of their manuscripts, they are generally both shocked and thrilled. I also do Line Editing in-line.

Developmental Editing

Developmental Editing refers to plot. This involves not just structure, but also advising the author on character development and motivation, theme, subject matter, tension, pacing techniques, and the author’s own search for the truth. Your truth? Yes, your truth. There are rules to plot that, while not enforced through venerable documentation like grammar and punctuation guides, are enforced by readers who put down badly-structured or -imagined books and walk away.

Because Developmental Editing involves trimming, re-writing, rearranging, and the writing of new material, I do not do a Developmental Edit in-line. I send the author a letter discussing Developmental Editing issues, and the author generally uses their free hour talking to me about it in person (by email, phone, or IM). On long projects like full novels, my clients and I discuss Developmental Editing issues by email throughout the editing process.

“Nuts & Bolts” vs. “Compassionate” Edits

You can request either a “nuts & bolts” edit or a “compassionate” edit.

The different types of edits are different only in the way I present the edits, not in the quality of the finished product. I don’t insult either the writer or the work, either way. Just so you know.

Also just so you know, there’s no real difference to me in which one I do. Myself, I’d generally go for the compassion edit. I’m a wimp.

Nuts & Bolts Edit

The “nuts & bolts” edit is for the writer who feels they can take a ‘hard’ critique without wincing.

Compassionate Edit

The “compassionate” edit is for the writer who would just as soon not need editing at all, but realizes that it’s necessary and hopes, as with surgery, that they’ll be given a teeny-tiny bit of anesthesia.

Sample Edits

Sample edits can be found, reasonably enough, on the Page Sample Edits.

Also, just so you know, I make my sample authors up. I actually write the samples myself, putting in a variety of the most common errors. I give the authors names in order to both make the samples more realistic and amuse myself.

Confidentiality

I observe strict confidentially of my clients’ work, as do all creditable editors.

Scheduling

It takes four to five weeks to do a purely Developmental Edit on a 60,000-word manuscript, without Copy or Line Editing and with the full manuscript in hand. I can usually turn a 60,000-word manuscript of Copy, Line, and Developmental Editing around, without additional Developmental Editing and with the full manuscript in hand, in about six to eight weeks, once you’re on my schedule—so long as I’m not swamped. My schedule itself varies widely, depending upon the time of year, proximity of holidays, upcoming writing contests, my own writing commitments, and random meteorological occurrences. Contact me to find out how it’s looking.

Handling Manuscripts

My clients and I typically exchange these partial and full manuscripts through email (”softcopy”), although we can also do it through the regular mail (”hardcopy”). Never, ever send anybody the only hardcopy of your work, except maybe your mother, and even then make sure beforehand that she knows not to bronze it and put it on the mantelpiece.

Softcopy and Hardcopy Editing Tools

Softcopy

Softcopy means on the computer. If we work in OpenOffice or Word, I turn on Track Changes, and you can see both the in-line edits and how your manuscript looks if you accept them all. For other editing tools, such as this webpage, I use some variation on the editing system in the Sample Edits. I use OpenOffice for my stuff. It can be downloaded free.

Hardcopy

Hardcopy means actual pages on which I actually write with my actual little ballpoint pen. I use standard typesetting markup for hardcopy editing. I’ve been both newspaper editor and typesetter in my past life, back before desktop publishing, when we did all this stuff by hand. I’ve been using typesetting markup on my own manuscripts since I was about 18. I enclose a standard typesetting markup legend with your hardcopy edit, for your convenience.

The Editing Police

Do you really have to accept all of my editing suggestions?

Of course not. I mean, it’s your manuscript. And it’s not your only hardcopy, right? Right? I don’t live with you (and before you ask, yes, my husband does have to accept them, every single one, and he has to make it snappy). There’s nothing to stop you from using my suggestions to paper the bottom of your birdcage, although I can pretty much guarantee you’re not going to get any closer to publication that way. You use whatever’s helpful and return the rest. I’m kidding, of course—please don’t try to return any unused suggestions. I don’t have a birdcage.

Payment

You pay me through PayPal. My account is gotheca@mcn.org.

If you don’t want to do PayPal, you can pay me upfront by check when I start on your manuscript. Some authors prefer to work in chunks—even when we’re aiming to get through a complete +60,000-word manuscript—if they pay by check per chunk.

So that’s how it’s done.  Please feel free to drop me a line to discuss an edit of your manuscript anytime.