Editing Services

Manuscript evaluation/critique:

Includes reading and evaluating the manuscript (can be fiction, nonfiction, short story, essay, or any type of business document) to identify its strengths and weaknesses. I provide the client with a full report that includes suggestions for improvements where needed (organization/design, plot, characterization, use of conflicts, setting, dialog, point of view, general format, grammar, etc.).

Comprehensive Editing:

Includes whatever is needed to develop organized, accurate, and logical content that is suitable for the intended audience. I analyze the manuscript and edit for pacing, voice, tone, flow, and clarity, as well as check for redundancies, clichés, shifts in agreement, and point of view. This service includes copyediting (see below). I work closely with the author during the process.

Copyediting:

Includes checking for consistency of style, spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

Proofreading:

Final examination of already edited document, checking for any remaining errors and inconsistencies.

Pricing:

FREE, no-obligation estimate provided.

I charge a modest fee of $48 per hour and provide an estimate of the number of hours needed for the type of editing requested. To provide an estimate, I need to examine the first several pages of an article or two chapters and a synopsis of a book. There is an additional charge of $5 per hour for expedited/rush requests.

For more information or to send a sample and receive your estimate, attach it to an email and send to: editingservices@amberstarfire.com

Readers sometimes ask how much I edit my own writing. I edit until each paragraph has lost the ten pounds it gained over the winter. I edit until each sentence can survive three days in the wilderness on its own. My father taught me to look at a sentence and, if it didn’t deserve to live, shoot it between the eyes. ~ Sy Safransky (The Sun Magazine, May 2011)