Line Editing + Copyediting Service

A tomato plant growing within a gray metal tomato cage. There are abundant cherry tomatoes. Most are green, but some are beginning to turn yellow.

Image copyright Laura O’Gara

Line editing shapes and supports your work,
sentence by sentence,
helping it grow toward the light.

Copyediting cleans up old offshoots and blooms
so that it can bloom more freely.

A rose plant growing up a white fan-shaped trellis. A graying wooden fence stands behind it. The plant has abundant red roses.

Image copyright Laura O’Gara

Scope of the Service

This service provides the following, as appropriate for your manuscript:

  • Formatting it in standard manuscript formatting

  • Ensuring clarity and effectiveness of scene- and sentence-level structure

  • Identifying potentially overused words, phrases, and structures

  • Evaluating the role of vocabulary and sentence structure in creating mood and tone

  • Assessing the effectiveness of detail

  • Identifying repetition of imagery and/or ideas

  • Discovering and solving inconsistencies, such as plot holes and continuity issues

  • Revising redundancies and word echoes (where two similar-sounding words occur in close proximity)

  • Ensuring stylistic consistency and applying standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling guidelines

  • Fact-checking historical dates and events, potential anachronisms, basic principles of science and mathematics, and spellings of proper nouns (personal, place, and brand names)

  • Adhering to an existing style sheet, if present, or creating a new style sheet that collects your specific style preferences, manuscript-specific terminology, character descriptions, timeline, and setting-related details

Please note that because this service includes a line edit, my primary focus will be on higher-level issues. Although I strive to correct all mechanical errors in your manuscript, my error rate may be higher than if I were completing a plain copyedit. For this reason, I recommend an additional copyedit and/or proofread before your book goes to publication.

A closeup of a trellis, showing a center pole and a horizontal rope forming a crossbeam. A young green bean plant is growing around the trellis and is beginning to form blossoms.

Stages of the Service

1. Full editorial round

During this round, I’ll use Microsoft Word’s comment feature and tracked changes to make or suggest appropriate revisions. I’ll also complete an editorial report evaluating your prose style and discussing the changes I made. Lastly, I’ll create a style sheet that collects your specific style preferences and manuscript-specific terminology.

Unless you wish otherwise, I’ll explain my grammatical edits using comments. I’ll leave these comments on the first instance of a particular category of edit, so it’s likely that there will be many such comments toward the beginning of the manuscript and few toward the end.

2. Author review round

During this round, you’ll be able to respond to questions posed during the editorial round and make adjustments as needed. If you would like, I offer one hour of video, voice, or email support after you receive your marked-up manuscript, editorial report, and style sheet.

3. Reconciliation round

During this round, I’ll make any further edits necessary (for instance, correcting typos in material you’ve added or revised) and remove all comments and tracked changes. I’ll return this clean manuscript to you so that you’re ready for your next step.