I WILL HAVE YOUR BACK
I specialize in the four editorial services below. Our working together starts with a discussion about your project and deadline to ensure I am available and can meet or, as I always strive to do, exceed your expectations. If you are a prospective corporate client, then you likely have a contract and paperwork requirements. I will fill those out. If you are an individual or have never worked with a copy editor before,
I have a basic contract we can customize to our mutual satisfaction.*
PROOFREADING
COPY EDITING
FACT-CHECKING
VERIFYING CHANGES
I am your fresh pair of eyes. You have been working on your content for weeks, maybe months. Or at least hours. At this point, it’s wise to get an outside perspective. The material is probably in or close to the shape you want it. It might have even gone through corporate approvals, so you aren’t looking for major edits or changes. I review your content for grammar, typos and consistency.
This is a deeper dive than proofreading. In addition to reviewing for grammar and editorial style consistency, I suggest where you can smooth out sentences, eliminate redundancy, reduce jargon (depending on your audience), tighten writing and resolve ambiguity. Copy editing usually takes place in Microsoft Word files before the material is handed off to an art director for design. The copy should be as clean as possible before it goes into design. We will discuss what level of copy editing you desire.
I confirm names, dates, events, basic math (sorry, no tangent half-angle substitutions), medical terms and procedures, and historical and geographical references through credible, reputable, mainstream sources online or from documentation you provide. Fact-checking can be combined with copy editing in one assignment. If you are the author of a book, you are responsible for quotations from your interviews, the representation of your interviews and research, and the portrayal of events and claims.
Before your precious words are sent to a printer or uploaded, there may be one more quality check that is worth your time: double-checking that earlier changes were entered correctly. After you have poured your heart into your project, it would be a shame for a last-minute mistake to survive for the world to see. I can compare marked-up documents with the final version to ensure all is well. This service can be combined with final proofreading.
* Are you wondering why the letters are backward in the images? The photos are of vintage metal type used in letterpress printing.