The Workshop: Line Editing
In our workshop, we sharpen your manuscript line by line, with special attention to grammar, style, clarity, repetition, and word choice. This might involve reordering paragraphs and rewriting sentences, as well as trimming and cutting as required. We will also add notes where additional clarifications or descriptions are needed. Above all, we aim to maintain your voice as we refine your prose.
After your editor has finished, you will receive two copies of your manuscript. One will include all changes tracked with comments added to the sidebar. The second will be a clean copy with comments removed and all changes accepted. Also included in this service is a customized style sheet. This is an editorial map for anyone else who works on your project, such as proofreaders, agents, and publishers. The style sheet is also helpful for future manuscripts, especially within a series.
Rates range from $0.02 to $0.03 USD per word.
(Your editor will determine a rate based on a preliminary assessment of your project.)
Industry Professionals & Award-Winning Authors
Our editors are industry professionals and award-winning writers. We have team members in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Philippines, and India. To check out our roster of top fiction and narrative nonfiction editors, click here.
You name it, we've worked on it: literary fiction, memoir, own voices, SFF (science fiction and fantasy, including dystopian and magical realism), historical fiction, romance, horror, thriller, mystery, suspense, women's fiction, contemporary fiction, young adult (YA), middle grade (MG), and more.
Line Editing vs Copyediting
Not everyone agrees on the definitions of these two services, so let's zoom in. Copyediting (sometimes spelled as two words—copy editing) is often used as a general term for sentence-level editing (spelling, grammar, punctuation, and consistency). So in a general sense, a copyedit is like a deep proofread. A line edit goes even deeper with attention to voice, rhythm, word choice, and flow.
However, some people define the role of a copyeditor to include more of a research element. While a line editor will fact-check details that seem questionable, their fact-checking is usually limited. If you would like your line editor to devote more time to verifying research, please let them know ahead of time.
The typical workflow is to start with a developmental edit, then move on to a line edit (once all structural revisions are complete), and conclude with proofreading. Some clients add a final stage of beta feedback from readers in the target audience.
