Match the Edit to the Book
Every manuscript needs a different level of care. We match the edit to what it actually needs, nothing more, nothing less.
Most manuscripts get polished at the sentence level before anyone checks whether the structure holds. We start at the level your draft is actually at.
From the whole book down to the comma.
The bar shows how much of the book each level looks at.
Developmental Editing
Structure, pacing, argument
Line Editing
Flow, tone, style
Copyediting
Grammar, consistency, clarity
Proofreading
Typos and formatting
Developmental Editing
Does the argument hold, does the story move, is anything out of order. You get an editorial letter, not a marked-up file.
Line Editing
Repetition cut, slack tightened, tone made even across chapters. Your voice stays.
Copyediting
Grammar, punctuation, tense, spelling, house style, checked for consistency throughout.
Proofreading
The final pass on typeset pages: typos, bad breaks, stray spacing. Levels combine when a book needs more than one stage. One revision round is included at every level.
The same paragraph, edited.
It was at that particular point in time that I personally came to the realization that the business that I had been building up over the course of many years was, in actual fact, not really the business that I had originally set out with the intention of building in the first place.
That was when I realized the business I had spent years building was not the one I had set out to build.
A typical edit, shown to illustrate scope rather than a specific manuscript.
Start where your draft actually is.
First draft, or the structure still feels wrong.
Developmental
Solid structure, uneven or over-long prose.
Line or copyedit
Edited and typeset, days from print.
Proofread
Not sure? Send the manuscript and we’ll read a sample and tell you honestly.
See the edit before you commit.
Send your first 1,000 words; they come back edited in two to three business days, with a note on the level we’d recommend.