PLEASE NOTE: I’m now fully booked for 2025 and will be booking into Jan/Feb 2026 for full edits and assessments.
Finishing the first draft (or even multiple drafts!) of your story is a huge accomplishment. What’s the next step? I can help you polish those pages and prepare them for querying or publication.
After the first draft has been beta read, subsequent drafts are for editing and revisions. Your manuscript needs to be as polished as possible before querying or publishing.
But how do you know what kind of edits you need? There are four main types of edits, and they might be a lot different than what you realize. For example, many people think a proofread is a once-over to make sure everything sounds ok, or that it covers all types of editing, but it’s something entirely different. Read on to find out what the differences are.
If you’ve already read the information below and know what you’d like to book, and/or we’ve discussed via email what your editorial needs are and have agreed on a fee and timeline, you can go directly to the booking confirmation form here. This form serves as confirmation of your booking (as well as the payment of your booking fee or full fee, depending on the project) and agreement to the terms and conditions.
I maintain a superior quality 5-star service across multiple platforms and my clients’ comments here are testaments to my thorough, professional, knowledgeable, and actionable feedback. Every project is different, so it’s important to assess your needs in order for me to give you an accurate quote and appropriate recommendations. I offer reasonable, industry-standard fees that are reflective of the excellent work I strive to provide, and I make every effort to give my clients thoughtful and helpful feedback.
If you haven’t worked with me before and you’re interested in booking a full edit service, I am happy to provide a free sample edit of up to 1000 words for a novel-length project or 1000 words for a novella-length project. This will enable you to get a sense of my editorial and communication style, and it will also allow me to get a better understanding of the scope of work involved and ensure you’re booking the right kind of edits. This is also available to returning clients who have previously worked with me but are submitting a new project (so that I can assess the needs of the project).
I provide you with in-depth, professional, actionable feedback and suggestions in four main areas of editing. Read about each one below to help you decide what stage your manuscript requires.
Types of Editing
Structural Editing is the first stage of editing to be done. It looks at the big picture and deals with things like plot holes, story arc, character arc, emotionality and interiority, tension, natural dialogue, character voice (especially in dual or multi-POV novels), show vs. tell, good flow, a good hook and inciting incident, pacing, a good balance of narration vs dialogue, etc. This is going to be the largest, most creative and complex component of the editing process. It’s a collaborative process and may include some back-and-forth communication during revisions, and it also includes a revision round. This is a really important step that often gets missed/skipped; if it’s skipped and you go right to line-level edits (below), and your editor identifies structural changes that need to be made, it can delay the editing process and become inefficient.
Stylistic Editing is tightening up long-winded passages, eliminating redundancy and repetition, ensuring a good flow of information, and generally making sure any confusing areas become clear and concise. It also ensures tone is being articulated correctly through language and word choices. A revision round is included. It is still on the creative side, since it looks at the creative structure on a line-level.
Copy Editing is, of course, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, but it covers much more: consistency (in words and in character actions, scene settings, etc.), sentence structure, syntax, accuracy, readability, and overall quality of the writing. This stage is less on the creative side and more rule dependent. A revision round is included. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the line-level writing, stylistic and copy edits can be combined.
Proofreading is your final step after all revisions are complete, and it’s much more detailed than it sounds. This is the stage that is most often misunderstood for covering all types of editing. It is where the polishing is done to catch any missed or newly-introduced errors in spelling, punctuation, consistency in capitalization and abbreviations, visuals, page numbers, headings and sub-headings, etc. It’s extremely important to do this after all big-picture and line-level revisions have been made and before it goes to print, especially if you’ll be self-publishing. This stage is typically a back-and-forth between the client and editor until all errors are resolved.
A note about proofreading: I can’t tell you how many requests I get for proofreading for authors that didn’t know what proofreading actually was. It’s so often misunderstood. And because it’s the final step in the process, I can’t provide proofreads for a project that hasn’t previously been through all other stages of professional editing. Otherwise, I’m attaching my name and reputation to something that isn’t ready to be published; this can negatively impact my business. If I’m booked for proofreading and I find that there are edits that need to be made first, I will contact my client to discuss shifting to the required edits. This will of course require a higher fee since the work is more time-consuming and requires even more effort. Please understand that editing is an expensive but very necessary part of publishing a book. It is essential to have good quality edits. If you aren’t willing or able to put the money into the edits, the book shouldn’t be published because it will negatively impact the potential success of the book and trickle down to future books, too. If you want editors to ‘just do the edits anyway,’ the editor’s name, reputation, and business will suffer, which is why a good editor will not take on proofreading unless they can be sure it’s ready for this stage. Remember: proofreading is not required if you are planning to query agents. Agents understand that it would be a waste of time and money. Focus on the structure and line-level writing for your best chance at landing an agent.
Investment
Being an author means running a small business, and investing in your manuscript is a smart business decision. You want to put your best out into the world so you can get the best return on your investment, and trust me when I say it takes a village to help you achieve success. Just like finding a superb book cover artist and doing marketing and promotion (ideally with a publicist), editing is essential. Having an outside, unbiased, professional perspective is key.
Fees for full edits are based on a per-project basis, so it will depend on what kind of edits you need and what your word/page count is. See this article for a guide on the average cost of editing services through Reedsy. (Note I have confirmed with Reedsy that the rates listed are in USD; at the time the article was published, it did not specify a currency.) And this article by editor Janey Burton really helps put editors’ fees into perspective so authors can understand why it’s such a costly part of publishing books. This guide from the CIEP (in the UK) explains what minimum rates should be for 2025.
And according to Reedsy’s calculator, average rates for an 80,000-word manuscript based on more than 200,000 recent quotes are:
- $2720 USD for developmental edits
- $2000 USD for copy edits
- $1440 USD for proofreading
Many editors charge on a per-word basis. My industry-standard fees begin at a range between averages of $.018 USD per word for proofreading to $.025 USD per word for stylistic or copy edits to $.034 USD per word for structural edits. These rates are based on the time, effort, and quality that goes into my work as well as the average industry rates shown in Reedsy’s example above. I include administrative time in my fees to provide a detailed editorial letter outlining areas done well and areas that need attention. Editorial letters give specific examples and suggestions and are in addition to the feedback notes and edits made in the document itself. These fees include one revision round. If more than one type of editing is required, I am happy to discuss package rates.
Style Sheets are available for an additional $200 USD. These are documents that show when a style decision is made to ensure consistency throughout the manuscript. If you hire a stylistic/line editor, for example, and then a proofreader, it’s important that the proofreader can see what style decisions were made to make the proofreading process smoother. General rules are followed according to a style guide (such as the Chicago Manual of Style) and/or the publishing house’s style guide, as well as the preferred dictionary, and anything that is not specified in either of those guides or in the specified dictionary must be decided upon in a logical manner by the editor, then consistently followed through in each round of edits. Areas include numbers and dates, spellings, use of proper nouns, the physical appearance of characters, timelines, etc. They take time and effort to build for each document I edit and are usually several pages long.
It is recommended to book your editing time as soon as possible (i.e. don’t wait until you’re finished and ready to hand it over) so that you can secure the time you’d like. I typically get booked quite quickly and am currently booking full edits 5-6 months out across multiple platforms.
Genres
I typically read and edit Adult or YA in the following genres: domestic or psychological thrillers, domestic suspense, gothic fiction/horror, historical and historical fantasy, supernatural/paranormal, some book club fiction, and some rom coms. I’m great with dual or multiple POVs and dual timelines. Please note that epic/high fantasy and things like space operas and alien worlds are not typically genres I read heavily, although I have edited quite a few fantasy manuscripts (that are under 110,000 words). Structurally, my areas of expertise are in the above-mentioned genres. Stylistic and copy edits can be booked in any genre (unless the story contains any of the Hard No elements listed below).
Hard No stories: extreme gore and ruthless violence from the beginning to the end of the story, explicit/repeated assault, erotica, highly religious stories, heavy politics, or stories where animals or children are harmed (intentionally) on the page. Please note: I will never work on manuscripts that have been generated by AI, nor will I ever work on manuscripts that are showing support for Trump and/or his followers. Period.
If I haven’t listed your genre, please feel free to reach out about your story to discuss the genre and content if it falls into one of these three genres.
I particularly love twisty, jaw-dropping thrillers, haunted houses, ghosts, ancestry, time travel, witches, and anything to do w/ soulmates/soul connections, reincarnation, and past lives. I’m happy to provide edits on a wide range of word counts, but generally speaking, in those genres, novels are typically under 100,000 words (especially for debuts!).
At this time, I’m currently only accepting fiction projects for full edits.
NOTE: If you are booking a query package critique or a short/flash fiction critique, I am happy to accept any genre (except where there is the noted graphic content above). If you’re not sure if your genre would be a good fit, please don’t hesitate to reach out here to inquire about your project’s genre, word count, elements, and overall editing needs.
Book Your Edits
If you already know which service you’d like to book, and/or we’ve already discussed your editorial needs and have come to an agreement on fee and timeline, you can book your edits with me by filling out the booking confirmation form at the link here, agreeing to the terms and conditions, signing, and clicking Submit. When your form is received, I’ll send an invoice to the email address provided for the non-refundable booking fee (or full amount, depending on the project). Remaining payments, if any, are outlined in the terms and conditions in the form unless otherwise agreed to in writing.
I use forms instead of website-direct bookings so I don’t get overwhelmed with bookings; this allows us to discuss the timeline based on your anticipated deadline and my availability. I’m typically booking 5-6 months away for novel-length projects (sooner for smaller projects and usually within a week or two for query-related material), so be sure to book your edits as soon as you can.
Repeat clients who book full edits through my website receive 15% off future full edit bookings! (Cannot be combined with other discounts.)
Please be advised that full edits, query packages, and assessments will be taken on a limited basis during the summer months and Christmas/New Year’s holidays.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or would like to check availability before booking. Thank you for trusting me with your work!