What is it?
Copy editing is a thorough review of your manuscript to correct errors, and identify and fix confusing sentences or paragraphs. It’s a line-by-line tidy-up of your draft. The kind of questions addressed here include:
• Is the meaning of the sentence clear?
• Can the paragraph be expressed more concisely or more clearly?
• Are sentences too long, too short or too complicated?
• Does the text or narrative flow well, or are there transitions missing?
Copy editing is a very labour intensive process that demands far more effort and concentration than a simple read through. As such, it is charged at a higher rate than manuscript assessment or proofreading. I will use MS Word’s ‘track changes’ facility to make corrections to the manuscript. I will make additional suggestions and comments in the margin where necessary. I read through the manuscript three times. The corrected manuscript and a report will be returned to the author.
Try before you buy.
For manuscripts of 20,000 words or more, I offer to undertake a sample copy edit of 2,000 words. If the author is not happy with the work and does not wish to proceed with the job, no charge will be made for this.
$15.00 administration fee plus $7.26 per thousand words. Word count is based on the word count estimated by MS Word. All prices quoted in Australian dollars.