Line editing

Line editing streamlines your prose and grammar. We focus on paragraph and sentence structure, word choice, dialogue, and consistency of tone. The line edit also includes basic copyediting (attention to grammar, punctuation, formatting, and consistency in names, dates and other plot elements).

You should consider a line edit of your work when you feel it’s finished but needs a final polish. All writers can benefit from line editing, and it’s especially important before you submit to agents or editors.

We offer you a free sample edit. See Details for more information. (June 2010: please note that due to high workload volume, we are temporarily closed to sample edit requests. You are still welcome to submit your manuscript for an estimate if you wish to schedule a project.)

Developmental editing

Developmental editing addresses structure, pacing, plot, character development, thematic development, dialogue, description, prose style and general prose problems. We provide comments and detailed suggestions and examples for any element that needs revising.

You should consider a developmental edit if your work is routinely rejected by agents or editors, and you want help identifying the problems with your manuscript, as well as specific suggestions on how you can improve it. A developmental edit is also helpful for established writers who want fresh eyes on a draft that just won’t pull together.

Take a look at an example of our developmental editing work.

We offer you a free sample edit. See Details for more information. (June 2010: please note that due to high workload volume, we are temporarily closed to sample edit requests. You are still welcome to submit your manuscript for an estimate if you wish to schedule a project.)

If you are brand new to writing, we suggest you investigate seminars, classes or writing workshops before spending your money on any editing services.

Free sample edit

June 2010: due to high workload volume, we are temporarily closed to sample edit requests. We will begin offering sample edits again as soon as we can.

• The sample edit gives you a better sense of our editing style and approach. It’s absolutely free, with no commitment on your part. One to a customer, please.
• Email us the first 20 pages of your text in a Microsoft Word file. Please let us know whether you are requesting a sample line edit or developmental edit.
• We’ll return an edit of the first three pages of your text, with a brief summary of our response and suggestions. (We ask you for 20 pages of text to give us more context for the sample edit.)
• For our sanity, please make sure your manuscript is formatted double-spaced, in Courier 12-point, left-justified, with at least 1-inch margins. We may reject your manuscript if it is not formatted correctly.

Details

• Line editing will not fix fundamental flaws in your work. If you request a line edit, but we find as we review your manuscript that it has significant developmental problems, we will say so and encourage you to request a developmental edit. It’s not a good use of your money to polish a manuscript that is not ready for submission, and we’re not in business to take advantage of you.

Rates

• Line editing — 1.5 to 2.5 cents per word, depending on the level of attention needed. We will evaluate your manuscript and give you a final cost estimate before beginning the work.
• Developmental editing — 2.5 to 5 cents per word, depending on the level of attention needed. We will evaluate your manuscript and give you a final cost estimate before beginning the work.

Ready to get started?

• Please click here for more information on finalizing a job with us, making payment arrangements, and sending us your work.

Your mentor works with you to help you complete a draft of a book-length project (novel, short fiction or essay collection, memoir or nonfiction). Our goal is to help you improve your overall writing skills, and produce a draft of the highest quality writing you’re capable of doing right now.

For 30 weeks, or 400 pages (up to 100,000 words), you’ll have your mentor’s full attention and assistance. Every week, you email her pages; every week, she critiques your work, makes suggestions for improvement, helps you identify your writing strengths and weaknesses, offers encouragement, and helps you keep your eye on the big picture as well as the details.

If you’re new to book-length writing, or you’ve had difficulty finishing a long work, this program is for you — expert feedback helps keep your work focused and professional, and the structured commitment helps you keep your momentum going. If you are brand new to writing, we suggest you investigate seminars, classes or writing workshops before spending your money on this program.

To get the most out of the program, you need to be able and willing to accept professional critical feedback. It’s our job to help you write a good book. To do that, we’ll be honest, clear, and objective about where your book is not as good as it could be.

We offer a free sample edit. See Details for more information.

Free Sample Edit

As of May 9, 2010, we are temporarily closed to sample edit requests. This is due to vacation, and to work backlog. We expect to re-open to sample edit requests in mid-to-late June.

• The sample edit gives you a better sense of our editing style and approach. It’s absolutely free, with no commitment on your part. One to a customer, please.
• Email us the first 20 pages of your text in a Microsoft Word file. Please let us know whether you are requesting a sample line edit, or a sample full edit.
• We’ll return an edit of the first three pages of your text, with a brief summary of our response and suggestions. (We ask you for 20 pages of text to give us more context for the sample edit.)
• For our sanity, please make sure your manuscript is formatted double-spaced, in Courier 12-point, left-justified, with at least 1-inch margins. We may reject your manuscript if it is not formatted correctly.

Details

• The program ends after 30 weeks or after your mentor has critiqued 400 pages of your manuscript, whichever comes first. If she reviews 400 pages for you before the 30th week, the program ends at that point. If you produce fewer than 400 pages for her to review in 30 weeks, the program still ends at that point.
• 400 pages is generally assumed to be 100,000 words (250 words per page is the industry standard). If your project is longer than this, and you want to extend the program limit to include the whole project, we can negotiate an extension rate for you.
• The 400 pages includes new work or pages that you have revised based on mentor feedback. If your mentor reviews the same 100 pages for you four times, you will have reached your 400 page limit, and the program ends.
• This is a highly self-directed approach. It’s your choice whether to focus on generating as much new work as possible, or to work and rework a smaller section of your text. We’re happy to talk with you before the program begins about the best approach to help you get as close to possible to completing your draft.

Rates

• $3,000 prepaid to work with an individual mentor.
• $4,500 prepaid to work with Nicola and Kelley as a mentoring team.

Schedule and Refund Policies

• You’ll be scheduled with whichever of us is currently available, based on our current program and editing workload.
• We’ll agree in advance on the schedule, including scheduled breaks (such as 2 weeks over the December holiday/New Year period, scheduled vacations, or other pre-negotiated extensions). Otherwise, the program runs 30 consecutive weeks. Please don’t stop working in the middle and then later return and request an extension of time: you will not get it.
• If you discontinue the program before week 15 or 200 pages, you’re entitled to a 50% refund. If you choose to discontinue after week 15, there will be no refund. If you must discontinue due to an emergency, we may negotiate a future credit or other arrangement.

Ready to get started?

• Please click here for more information on finalizing a job with us, making payment arrangements, and sending us your work.

Our coaching approach is to focus on clear, specific goals and agree on a timeline for working together to reach them. Your coach works with you by phone or in person to help you set a specific goal, develop a plan, and follow it through. Your coach asks tough questions, helps you find your own answers, and offers expertise, suggestions, encouragement and practical resources to help you reach your goal.

Writers at any stage can benefit from coaching.

Coaching can focus on any aspect of your writing life, such as:

• Clarifying your vision and setting your personal goals for your writing and your career, whether you’re a beginning writer or an established writer who wants to move to the next phase of your professional life.
• Improving general writing skills through individual mentoring, writing exercises, critiques of your work, and other learning tools.
• Working on a specific short-term writing project.
• Making space in your life for writing and finding your best writing process.
• Developing networking skills and making new professional contacts.
• Finding an agent.
• Self-publishing your work.
• Establishing a freelance print or online writing career.
• Learning to give dynamic and effective readings.
• Marketing and promoting your work.

 
We offer a free 30-minute coaching conversation. Please see Details for more information.

Free coaching conversation

• This 30-minute conversation gives you a better sense of our coaching style and approach. We’ll talk about how an effective coaching relationship works, clarify what you’re hoping to achieve with coaching, and discuss a timeline. It’s absolutely free, with no commitment on your part. One to a customer, please.

Details

• Each coaching conversation is held by telephone or video relay service (for Deaf clients) and lasts one hour. We’ll use email to summarize those conversations and provide you with additional resources and guidance.

Rates

• $60 per hour. Each session must be prepaid, including charges for any reading or editing work we’ve done on your behalf to prepare for the session.
• We will bill any manuscript reading or editing that we do as part of the coaching arrangement at the hourly coaching rate. All other preparation work, as well as any email we initiate regarding additional ideas, resources, etc., is included free in the service.

Ready to get started?

• Please click here for more information on finalizing a job with us, making payment arrangements, and sending us your work.

We assess your manuscript as an agent or acquiring editor would. Is your work clear and coherent? Do you understand how to tell a story? Is your writing up to professional standards? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this work, and what are the most important improvements you need to make?

We send you an evaluation letter detailing our response and suggesting what aspects of your text you should work on, including any resources we think might help you. The evaluation letter is typically 1-3 pages for short fiction or single essays, and 7-10 pages for book-length fiction or nonfiction. We do not make any editorial comments or specific suggestions within your manuscript: please see our editing services if you are looking for that level of work.

No independent editor can tell you whether your manuscript will be accepted or rejected; only individual agents and acquiring editors decide that. It’s our job to give you our opinion of where your text does or doesn’t meet professional writing standards. We don’t judge the commercial potential of your ideas, and we don’t suggest specific markets for your work.

Manuscript assessment is useful for writers who want an objective assessment at draft or polish stages. However, if you are brand new to writing, we suggest you investigate seminars, classes or writing workshops before spending your money on a manuscript assessment.

Details

• This is an assessment only. Please request one of our editing services if you wish us to make specific suggestions, comments or edits within your manuscript.

Rates

• 1.3 cents per word

Ready to get started?

• Please click here for more information on finalizing a job with us, making payment arrangements, and sending us your work.