Please reach out to discuss rates if you feel my services could be useful to you! I look forward to seeing what you’ve written and helping your stories reach a wider audience.
Developmental editing
I recommend this service if you’re looking for a big-picture critique of a first or second draft of a new manuscript. If you hire me as a developmental editor, I will write you a detailed edit letter discussing how you can improve your plot, character arcs, world building, pacing, and voice. I won’t comment on anything on a sentence level—most people do significant revisions after a developmental edit, and it’s not worth it to lovingly craft a sentence that might not even end up in the final draft—but I will insert smaller and more specific notes in the margins as I read. If you have further questions after you’ve read my letter, I’ll gladly exchange a few emails with you to brainstorm or clarify. If you have a list of things you’d like me to consider as I read, I’m happy to pay special attention to those, but I find that diving into a manuscript completely blind often works even better!
Editorial assessment
An editorial assessment is a developmental edit with a lighter touch. I’ll still write you a detailed edit letter as described in the developmental editing section, but I won’t leave any notes in the margins of your manuscript. I recommend this service if you want big-picture feedback on a very early draft but feel like the story is rough enough that you don’t yet want to think about small continuity issues or the nuances of what a character might be feeling during an action sequence.
Copy editing
I recommend this service if you feel comfortable with the big-picture elements of your story and want to give your manuscript a final polish before publishing it or submitting it to agents. If you hire me as a copy editor, I’ll return your manuscript to you with all spelling, punctuation, and grammar issues corrected in track changes. I won’t fully rewrite sentences for you unless you ask me to, but I’ll move clauses around for clarity and suggest ways you can rephrase something awkward or redundant. My superpower is tightening up my clients’ writing without eliminating any content; I recently cut twelve thousand words from a client’s book solely by deleting unnecessary clauses. If you’re working on a series, I’m happy to make you a style sheet to ensure that terms are consistent across all your books. I use The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster as my style guides.
Query package review
I recommend this service if you are about to start querying agents. If you hire me to edit your query letter, I’ll look at as many drafts as you’d like over the course of one week; I want you to feel 100 percent confident about your finished product. I’m also happy to edit your synopsis and provide feedback/a final polish on your first few chapters. It’s best if I’m not already familiar with your book; I like to approach a query letter with the same amount of information an agent would have, which is none! If I’ve already done a developmental edit or a copy edit on your manuscript, I can refer you to someone else to work on your query package.