Transform Your Pages

Amy offers a range of editorial services. Her passion is developmental and line editing, although she also offers copyediting, proofreading, and rewriting services. The following defines these services: 

Developmental Editing (also called a manuscript critique or substantive editing): This type of editing looks at the big picture of the book. What is or is not working with the story? Is the book compelling? What are the issues that need to be fixed? What redundancies can be cut out? What’s missing to make the content easier to understand? This type of editing also looks at the plot, characters, pacing, dialogue, and whether anything needs to be done to the beginning or ending of the book. 

Line Editing: In a line edit, the editor evaluates every single sentence, line, paragraph, and section of a book. The editor will check the facts in the book (e.x., checking to see when a historical incident happened), the spellings of names, inconsistencies in character descriptions or other elements, overused words, or language that is too flowery, bland, or obtuse, etc. The editor will also look at how the writing flows in the book and whether it can be tightened up or expanded on (this includes looking at how dialogue works in the book). A line editor will also look at scenes or transitions that are awkward or confusing.

Copyediting: Editing for grammar, punctuation, and syntax. A copyedit involves correcting typos and misspelled words, making new paragraphs to break up long ones, correcting errors in punctuation, formatting the manuscript (e.x., making sure sentences only have one space in between them), and using a consistent style for text (The Chicago Manual of Style is the style most often used in the book publishing industry). The copyeditor can query structural or organizational issues but doesn’t fix them.

Proofreading: Proofreading happens when the manuscript is in its final stage. It includes checking to see if there are errors in page numbering, name misspellings, URLs that don’t work, incorrect word breaks, etc.