Manuscript Line Editing Tips and Service for Writers
What is line editing, and how can it help my manuscript?
Manuscript line editing is a tool, like a wrench. A line editor is a manuscript plumber. I use the line editing tool to help your manuscript in these areas:
- Clarity: Manuscript line editing can help with the tricky task of transferring what's in your head, into the reader's head, through your manuscript. Your own knowledge can actually be a block to clear expression! Unconsciously, you assume the reader knows what you know.
- Smooth Writing for Easy Reading: Line editing can eliminate clumsy narrative and clunky dialogue in your manuscript, so your writing sounds as if it fell accidentally into the most felicitous arrangement of words. Ideally, the reader will be unconscious of the page. Your words will stand out of the way and let meaning through. I can smooth your writing, show you why one sentence works, and another doesn't.
- What about grammar and spelling, you ask? Yes, of course, manuscript line editing takes care of those. A spell checker won't tell you that you've mixed up "discrete" and "discreet". I can spot that.
Why should I pay for a line editing service?
Ideally, you won't pay for long. Line editing is a one-on-one educational tool. When you see the changes I make in your manuscript, and my reasons, and re-read your work with changes in place, you are training your mental ear.
What line editing is not
Manuscript line editing is not a salability assessment. I won't tell you whether your manuscript will sell, because my crystal ball's in the shop.
Specialties
I specialize in genre fiction, specifically mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy. Those are the kinds of writing my ear is especially tuned to, and I do a better job with them than with other types of fiction. I also edit nonfiction of a general nature, but I don't do technical, musical, or business administration jargon.
Rates and Payment
- $5.00 per page, up to 20 pages.
- $3.00 per page, if what you send me is over 20 pages, but under 100.
- $2.00 per page for manuscripts of 100 pages and over.
So, you ask, what is a page? It's simple: a standard manuscript page is 250 words, or about 20 lines of poetry.
If you print out your document in standard US format to send to a publisher, you'll have letter-size paper with one-inch margins, and your lines will be double-spaced. That means every line will have an extra, blank, line after it. (You don't do it yourself; you set your word processor to do it.) When you print a document that way, an average page is 250 words.
So, when I get your manuscript, I do a word count, and divide by 250. That's the number of pages.
A 1,000-word document is 4 pages, and costs $20.00 to edit. A 10,000 word document is 40 pages, and costs $120.00. 100,000 words make 400 pages, which cost $800.00 to edit. It's really pretty simple.
I take checks, money orders, and PayPal.
Method
You may e-mail or snail-mail your piece. It can be a whole story or essay, or part of one, one page or thirty, or three hundred, just as you like. It can be fiction or nonfiction.
Before you invest your hard-earned money, how about trying a free sample? Find out if you like what I do, before you pay for it. You might even learn something!
Questions?
Or a manuscript you're thinking of sending? Contact
BKEdits@BKEdits.com.
Or phone (216)486-4879; I'll be happy to talk to you.
- Home
- Never Trust a Spell Checker: Words Often Confused
- Line Editor Search & Destroy: Dialogue
- A Brief Look at Describing Characters
- Finding and Choosing a Writers' Group
- Writers' Critique Groups: Tough vs. Lite
- Previous Quotations
- Jigsaw Puzzles
- Free Editing Sample
Quotation of the Week
If you want to stimulate yourself into writing, amuse yourself in wordless ways. Instead of going to a theater, hear a symphony orchestra, or go by yourself to a museum; go alone for long walks, or ride by yourself on a bus.
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