Have you noticed something about the world’s best performers? They all use a coach.
An editor’s no different, putting the final polish on your expertise and talent.
You may not always need material written from scratch. As an editor, my first duty is to save authors from embarrassment through incorrect facts, poor grammar, spelling and punctuation, inappropriate ideas and language, and woolly presentation.
Four levels of editing services
- Substantive (developmental) editing: I examine your manuscript for relevance, meaning, direction, style, accuracy, attribution, and general effectiveness of communication. This may include re-writing or suggestions for improvement. It also includes attention to grammar, typos, and literals.
- Copy-editing: I scan your text for basic style and effectiveness of communication. Then I run a highly tuned error detector over your manuscript for grammar, typos, and literals.
- Basic editing/proof-reading: I run my error detector over your manuscript for grammar errors, typos, and literals, and if needed, for any blunders in typesetting and layout if you have proceeded to that point.
- Indexing: The most valuable index rests on the editor understanding the work and listing entries according to a plan. It begs for the skills and intuition of an indexer rather than the automation of a computer.
Testimonial
‘I have great news to share.
Yesterday, Lucy Raymond, the commissioning editor from Wiley, rang me in Toronto to say they want to go ahead with my book!!! Yipeeee. It was an amazing series of coincidences, their meeting was brought forward, Lucy had nothing to present apart from my pitch which the amazing Roger helped me with. And the team loved it. The fact that the manuscript is already done was a huge bonus.
Many, many thanks for editing my book and doing such an amazing job. A pleasure to work with you; your intellectual rigour, command of the language, and brilliant editing skills were all much appreciated. Thank you so much.’
Yamini Naidu, Director, Yamini Naidu Consulting