SERVICES

PUBLISHERS & PRESSES

For established publishers and presses, my services comprise all industry-standard levels of editing, from developmental and substantive work through line editing, copyediting, and proofreading. I work directly with managing editors, book designers, and authors at all points in the pre-publication process.

SCHOLARS & INDEPENDENT AUTHORS

I am delighted to collaborate with scholars and independent authors on projects at all points in their development, from rough first drafts of books and dissertations to finished manuscripts needing nothing more than a final polish. I offer three levels of editing: developmental editing (sometimes called substantive editing), copyediting (which can be further defined by the depth of edit sought—light, medium, or heavy), and proofreading.

Developmental editing is the most conceptual of the editorial processes. Here’s where we take your rough manuscript or your project concept and shape its ideas, arguments, and narrative into a cohesive whole.

Copyediting takes an already developed manuscript and refines its interrelated components; this is the level of editing most often requested and required. During copyediting, I’ll review stylistic issues of language, syntax, voice, and flow and check mechanical issues such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation. In a heavy copyedit, I’ll also review citations, notes, and references; make sure that bibliographies are accurate and correctly formatted; confirm heading levels; and fact-check where appropriate. In general, copyediting is all about clarifying intent and expression in the service of the dynamic transfer of ideas. Sometimes, all that’s needed is consistency and a bit of refinement to ignite the alchemical reaction that transforms the spark of idea through words to mind.

Proofreading is the final step of the editing process, often done after typesetting and layout are completed (when the book is “in pages”).  Here’s where I put your completed and copyedited manuscript under the editorial microscope, correcting those last, pesky details—page numbers, tables of content, line breaks, orphaned or widowed words, reference numbers, and index references. In proofreading, issues of structure, content, style, and grammar are generally not considered (though I will point out such errors if I discover them during my proofing). In proofreading, it’s all about the fine details.

Οΐος ό βίος, τοΐος ό λόγος.