The following explanation provides an overview of the editing services plus a price list at the end. Although written for authors of books, the information is still relevant for most editing contracts.
Editing Room for Books
Let’s face it, writing a book is a monumental task; finding a traditional publisher is almost impossible; becoming a millionaire from your debut novel is very unlikely.
At Viridian Earth Contracts we help you along the way, but we firmly believe that you, the author, should maintain control over your own book and the financial future it holds in store for you.
We offer five editing services delivered by experienced professionals:
Reviewing your manuscript
Have you been asking yourself questions such as: “Is my book finished?” “How will I know?” “Will I be taken seriously as an author?” We can help you find answers, but there are others who can, too.
You may hear talk of the “perfect reader.” That is not a fictitious person. Often, the perfect reader is a loved one, a friend or a mentor. It is someone you believe will enjoy reading your book and give you honest feedback. Many authors have a perfect reader and, in a way, it is for that perfect reader they write their manuscript.
Other authors are part of a writing group or circle and often that group of people has supported the author chapter by chapter.
But, what if you don’t have a perfect reader or a writing group?
At Viridian Earth we offer to read your manuscript and provide you with a review. That review will answer the above questions and provide suggestions for next steps. We literally act like your “perfect reader” and we give you our honest opinion.
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For the next four services, we usually use MS Word Track Changes. This allows you to see what changes we are suggesting. We can mark the text with comments full of possible alternatives, show where words are crossed out or altered. Best of all, you can choose what you keep and what you don’t. It is, after all, your book.
We are members of Editors Canada and follow the Professional Editorial Standards for each of the following:
Structural Editing
In its simplest form, you are conveying an image, a feeling, an atmosphere to your reader by stringing words together into a manuscript. But it may be that picture, feeling, atmosphere is lost in translation. Part of it may be disjointed, in the wrong place, yet work well in a different location.
Structural editing is the process of thinking of your manuscript like a jigsaw puzzle. We have a sense of the overall picture, yet we need to make sure each piece fits in its place. This is the heavy work of editing and often difficult for an author to do alone. We work with you to massage the pieces into place so that your manuscript transitions smoothly, giving your reader the best chance to grasp the image, feeling or atmosphere you are conveying.
Stylistic Editing
Who is your audience? With Stylistic Editing we match your writing to your intended reader, whether that be by paying attention to reading level or accessibility of language. Sentences, paragraphs and passages can be rewritten at this stage to clarify meaning and flow while maintaining your voice, meaning and intent. And, for anyone with statistical data or cumbersome facts (perhaps not in your average novel), we can help put these into tables or easy-to-understand formats so your reader does not yawn.
Copy Editing
Once the manuscript is arranged in a way that works well for the story, copy editing will catch and clarify unclear sentence structures. It will provide continuity to chapters and details (if a character wears glasses in chapter 10, that character wears the same glasses in chapter 14; if it is Tuesday in the first chapter, it is not likely Monday in the next) and catch incorrect facts or those pesky typographical errors.
Copy editing is a very important stage. It catches the trapdoors your reader may exit through as errors jump the reader’s eyes from the page and lift them permanently out of the story. Once the spell of word magic wears off, the reader is lost. We help you keep your reader reading from page one to the end.
Proofreading
No matter how many times you have read through your manuscript, we can guarantee there will be at least one error in the text. There always is, and often those errors can be found after publication, which is disheartening to say the least. So, proofreading is essential to provide a clean copy for your readers and something you can be proud of.
The proofreader works with the final manuscript just before it is sent to the printer. Typographical errors, missing captions on pictures, incorrect font use, wrong page numbers on a contents page, layout issues for the text…these are all things to be caught before the book is in your hands and ready for sale.
Prices (all prices are in Canadian dollars)
Reviewing your manuscript: $500 for between 40,000 and 75,000 words. Each additional word is charged at $0.01. If your manuscript contains fewer than 40,000 words, please contact us for pricing.
Structural editing: $0.03 per word. For example, a 75,000-word manuscript would cost 75,000 x 0.03 = $2,250.
Stylistic editing: $0.025 per word.
Copy editing: $0.02 per word.
Proofreading: $0.015 per word.
