COPYEDITING

Are you publishing a book and looking for someone to check your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and more? Or maybe you have an academic dissertation or thesis with so many requirements and bibliography entries that you can't make sense of it all. Could you just use a second set of eyes to polish a cover letter? Are you submitting a journal article to a publication with its own style guide? Then look no further! 

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When copyediting, it is my intent to keep the author's original voice while assessing trouble spots and addressing whatever you are hoping to get from the editing process. As a writer, you might think that hiring a copyeditor isn’t necessary—after all, words are your forte! But hiring a copyeditor allows you, the writer, to focus on the telling of the story while a copyeditor looks at your manuscript from the point of view of the big picture, sentence structure, and errors like spelling, punctuation, grammar, and consistency. 

What copyediting entails:

My role is to correct spelling, grammar usage, and punctuation; check references; prepare style sheets that guide consistency and accuracy across the manuscript. There are varying levels of copyediting. At its most basic level, copyediting entails proofreading, catching typos, fixing grammar, removing repetition, and making any comments on anything that is not clear that the author could fix.

For manuscripts in need of a heavier edit, copyediting entails in-depth, comprehensive line-editing where many sentences will be rewritten for clarity, word choice, grammar (such as avoiding dangling modifiers, passive voice), as well as a look at the overall structure of the book and whether any plot points are inconsistent. For non-fiction, this might mean seeing if arguments are thorough and supported by citations or basic fact-checking. For this kind of edit, you will receive a manuscript back from me with many comments and suggestions through track changes. While this can be a bit discouraging at first, know that these changes are all made to help your manuscript in the long run. 

No matter the level of copyediting, my initial price includes thoroughly reading over the manuscript and making suggestions and comments in track changes and sending it back to you. An optional third read after you’ve incorporated those changes and written comments back is available for an additional fee.

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For a great overview of what copy editors do and don't do, check out this great article, "Eight Myths About Editors and Proofreaders."

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