FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Never. I am a professional editor and have trained and worked in this field for over ten years. There are some hard and fast rules with editing, but there is also a lot of subjectivity. My focus is to make the text as smooth as possible. If it is fiction, this means keeping the reader in the story and in the world you, as the author, have created. An awkwardly phrased sentence will pull a reader out and break the flow. All that to say, my editing style is one that places readability above being a grammar Nazi. (However, I do use spell check at the very end to catch any extra character spaces I may have missed!)

Proofreading involves catching errors. The in-depth editing service includes this, plus improving readability (a sentence may be technically correct but sounds awkward—I will fix these with the in-depth service). I will also offer suggestions for overall improvement when necessary.

That depends. A full-length novel typical goes through a few rounds of editing before it is ready to publish. Depending on where yours is in the process (am I the first person to look it over?), it may require another round of editing.

My computer cannot open Pages. Word files are best (.doc or .docx), but I can also accept .odt files.

Sure. You will need to make sure your document is public so I can gain access. You will also need to turn on the editing feature, so it will track my changes, allowing you to see what I do to improve your document. I will not edit large projects in Google docs, because there is a bit of delay within the program, making the work far more tedious on my end.

It depends. Smaller projects (under 3K words) are usually returned within 3 days. Larger ones depend on the length. A 100K-word proofreading project will typically take me 4 weeks. Be sure to message me for a custom order if you have a set deadline. I am flexible and can usually accommodate.

No. I don’t offer any formatting services, such as font selection and size, paragraph spacing, etc.

I don’t offer content creation services, but I am happy to take what you have and make it better (improve readability).

This is not a service I provide. Please make sure all your links work and your reference section matches whatever style guide you choose to follow.

In-depth editing! This includes catching errors and improving readability (smoothing out awkward sentence structure, etc.).

No. I don’t do any drastic changes, nor do I rearrange paragraphs. If I feel a major change would benefit the text, I will simply add a comment to the document and give you a suggestion to consider.

I make changes using the track changes feature in Word. This allows you to see my changes easily in the track file. I will also deliver a final clean version, which has all the changes accepted.

That is easy: because I love what I do! You will not only be hiring a professional editor (I have over 3500 5-star reviews from my online platform), but you will also be hiring someone who enjoys this kind of work immensely and will truly put thought, time, and effort into your project.