Editing

From Light Copyediting to Intensive Revision

I enjoy editing a wide range of genres and formats including:

  • Natural health, medical research and innovation, sustainable lifestyles, green-building, not-so-big homes, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, outdoor narrative, natural history
  • Contemporary literary fiction, historical fiction, genre fiction (romance, westerns, fantasy, etc.)
  • Survivor and “thriver” memoirs—especially if your story is focused on recovery and rebuilding
  • Books, eBooks, articles, blogs, press releases, websites, educational manuals, film/video scripts, and just about anything else you can think of!

I also have provided editing at every stage of a project, from the concept-development stage to final draft polishing.  The only editing level I avoid is pre-press proofing.  Those folks are a special breed!  I have several incredible proofers whom I refer to regularly.

Developmental Editing & Content Reviews: For book manuscripts and large websites. This is NOT typo editing, rather the focus is to flag major revision issues and overall challenges in the work’s flow, voice, and reader connection.  At this content-development stage, feedback focuses on the over-arching issues like moving or removing whole scenes or chapters, content additions, and major character rewrites.

Line Editing: Once developmental editing issues are addressed, the work is ready for intensive line-by-line editing of grammar, sentence structure, and typos. Edits are communicated via Track Changes in a Word document.

Copy-editing: The purpose of final copy-editing is to catch any final typos that may have occurred while the writer implemented line edit requests. Clients in the business world also ask for basic copy-editing on short in-house projects.

My goal is always to bring your article or manuscript to a submission-ready level—whether it’s a 200-word news brief or a 200-page book. I use Microsoft Word in “Track Changes” mode to communicate edits.  Most people have access to this software, and the Track Changes mode gives you the option to accept or reject edits as you see fit.  Please familiarize yourself with this application BEFORE we begin work on your submission.  Read my FAQs to learn more about how to prepare to work with an Editor.