I am passionate about helping authors to polish their writing so that readers can focus on the story instead of on the words on the page. I seek to trim down on the number of reviews saying, “This had great potential, but…” and help your story stand out as a quality piece of work.
Services & Pricing
I offer line-edits for $4/page. Estimated time to complete is 1-7 days for a short piece (anywhere up to about 10,000 words) and 4-6 weeks for a book-length work (15,000-150,000 words).
I offer technical edits (copy-edits and proofreading) as an add-on for an additional $2/page. I do not offer technical edits as a standalone service.
I will edit fiction of any length, but I reserve the right to reject any project presented to me if I feel uncomfortable reading it or if I simply do not have time. I am most experienced in the fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian/post-apocalyptic genres.
$1 blurb review – For a flat rate of $1, I will review your back cover blurb. While I will primarily focus on editing for grammar and flow, I will also make note of places where your blurb could be more compelling and/or clear and concise. Please submit your blurb in the same format as specified for a manuscript.
Note on availability: I do not book work for December, nor do I promise to respond to queries during December. Booking is officially closed as of November 30th and will re-open January 1st. If you send a query in December, there is no guarantee it will be answered until January.
Samples & Payment
I will edit your first chapter or your first ten pages (whichever comes first) as a free sample to determine if I am the right editor for your novel or not. If you have a short story you would like me to edit, I will do the first two pages for free.
After the free sample, if you decide to continue with the full paid edit, I require a 50% up-front payment or a $200 deposit (whichever is smaller). Payment is made through PayPal invoicing and will be due within 10 days after the invoice is sent unless an exception is discussed. Payments more than two days outside of this window will incur a 5% late fee on the portion being paid (not the total editing price). Final payments are invoiced after I have completed and returned the project with edits. Recurring clients can get a 15% discount on the full editing cost.
If edits are delayed on the part of the author for more than 3 months after an arranged time, a 20% re-booking fee will apply. (Exceptions may be made for extenuating circumstances.)
“What Type of Edits Do I Need?”
Developmental editing is the largest-scale type of editing. This is the first kind of editing you should get for a book, and it will tackle the structure of your story (plot structure, character development, etc.). I do not offer developmental edits, so if you are still at this stage I will have to point you elsewhere.
Line edits are my personal favorite and my focus. With line edits, I will work at roughly sentence level and tackle any issues that might make your story unwieldy or hard to read. This includes cleaning up info dumps, drawing out description, making sure word choice is effective, and fixing sentence structure. I will also point out consistency issues and other small details to help make your novel as cohesive as it can be.
“Technical edits” tackle grammatical and spelling errors. This is the finishing touch on your manuscript, where I will help you pick out any pesky typos you might have missed.
I have experience editing both short stories and novels, including Sarah Rodecker’s Escape from Mathebos and Nicki Chapelway’s Harbinger of the End. Check out the testimonials below to hear what clients have said about my work.
Testimonials
Books I’ve Worked On
Ready to Hire Me?
Awesome! Just fill out this form and I will get back to you within two business days. If I accept your query I will ask for a Google Doc link to your manuscript (not an attachment) with sharing permissions set to “suggesting.” This will allow me to make comments and suggest edits without editing the document directly, so that you have the final say (particularly on issues of rewording). If you attach a Word document I will convert it to a Google Doc unless specifically requested otherwise. (I make sure to give the author editing permissions after converting a document, and you can download a Google Doc as a Word document with comments and suggestions.) For the sake of consistency in page count, please format your document in single-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman or a similar font.