Services
All services include two 45-minute meetings. The first meeting happens before I read your work, to get a sense of your goals for your project and your concerns at this stage of the process. The second meeting happens after you receive my editorial letter, to discuss any questions you might have about my comments, and to get a better sense of your next steps in revision. (I ask that these follow-up meetings happen within 2-4 weeks of receiving my feedback, so your manuscript is still fresh in my mind.)
01 — Manuscript Assessment and Revision Plan (.05 per word)
This service is most appropriate for authors who have completed a draft of a manuscript and are seeking feedback on the work as a whole before making a full round of revisions.
The term “draft” can mean a variety of stages here: it could be a first draft where you are seeking feedback before revising on your own, before submitting your manuscript to a publisher. It could be a copy of the draft you already sent to your publisher. (If this is the case, it is usually advisable to wait for peer review / reader reports before engaging in further revision.) It could be a copy of a draft you revised after receiving your reader reports, that you’d like another set of eyes upon before submitting your revised manuscript to your publisher.
In any case, the manuscript should be complete enough that the overarching argument can be discerned from what you’re sending me. If it’s missing a chapter, or parts of a couple of chapters, that can usually work, but if it’s missing more than that, it’s probably not yet ready for developmental editing.
This assessment engages the manuscript at the big picture level, focusing on how the author develops, structures, and supports their argument throughout the manuscript. It also addresses how each chapter or section develops its own argument and supports the overarching argument of the work as a whole. This service includes an editorial letter with a review of the full manuscript, detailed chapter-by-chapter comments, and a revision plan. (The letter is usually around 20 pages for a book manuscript.)
02 — Line Edits (.07 per word)
This service is most appropriate for authors who have a relatively polished draft and who are seeking feedback at the paragraph- and sentence-levels of the manuscript. With line edits, I comment on the manuscript directly in the text through comments and track changes, attending to issues such as unclear phrasing, areas that need more explanation, paragraphs that can be cut down or rearranged, excessive use of jargon, or shifts in tone and voice.
This is not copyediting or proofreading—this is a close reading, with commentary and suggestions for changes, that the author will execute themselves. This service includes an editorial letter with an overview of the issues I found and a general plan for revision, and a copy of the manuscript with my comments and tracked changes.
03 — Both Manuscript Assessment and Revision Plan + Line Edits (.12 per word)
Authors who have a completed draft can request both of the above services and types of feedback at once. This combination of both the Manuscript Assessment and Revision Plan plus Line Edits is most appropriate for authors whose work is beyond the first draft stage, to ensure there are not such significant revisions at the big picture-level that they would nullify the work at the paragraph- and sentence-level.
This service includes the editorial letter as described above in service 1, as well as a copy of the manuscript with my comments and tracked changes as described above in service 2.
04 — Book Proposal Assessment ($600)
The book proposal assessment includes feedback on an author’s book proposal in the form of an editorial letter and revision plan, as well as comments and tracked changes on the proposal as appropriate.
For authors also seeking feedback on sample chapters, that feedback is a service you can request separately from the book proposal assessment via the services described above.