What are Sarah’s qualifications?
I have a degree in English, I am an award-winning author, and I work full time for a division of USA Today. I’ve edited a variety of books and papers and have had several clients return for subsequent projects.
What do her clients say?
“Sarah does such excellent work. Her developmental edit affirmed me and what I’ve written. She called out things that I’ve done well, while also giving me suggestions for possible improvement. The way she refers to the author takes away any sense of judgment on me as a person and focuses in on the writing and the message itself. She helps think about where there might be possible hurdles to my reader, anything that might cause them to put the book down and not pick it up again. With the developmental edit, she’s giving me suggestions on ways to make the information even more reachable and digestible for my readers. Sarah’s developmental recommendations for my book were very rich, and I found myself going back to the document as I made edits. She left space for me to take the edits or not, without feeling any sort of condemnation. I highly recommend working with Sarah.”
Rachael Needham
What does an editor do?
The answer to this question will vary a bit from one editor to the next, but I offer three levels of editing. Which one you choose should be informed by the current state of your document and your publishing goals. I will gladly help you decide what kind of editing would be most helpful for you.
Proofreading
I go through the document correcting grammar, syntax, spelling, and formatting errors using the Track Changes feature in Word. You receive the corrected document and answers to any follow-up questions you may have about the changes. Think of this as the final once-over before the book is ready to publish. I recommend a round of proofreading to be the very last step in the publishing process, even if line edits or developmental edits were done previously.
Typical rate: 2 cents/word*
*If I’ve already done line or developmental editing on this manuscript, the proofreading rate will be discounted.
Line Editing
At this level, I will assume the substance of the book is solid. The author is happy with the overall structure of the book and does not intend to make any further changes on a large scale. The edits you’ll see here are sentence-level, as opposed to word-level as with proofreading. I’ll make changes that improve the flow of a paragraph, the ease of a transition, the impact of an important point. I am putting on my writer’s hat and offering new turns of phrase and removing any text that is redundant. You receive a document with tracked changes, and if you make a major change to the text in response to my suggestions, I will read the changes over for you, if you’d like. I will be available for one 30-minute call to talk through any feedback you’d like further explanation for.
Typical rate: 3 cents/word
Developmental Editing
This is a totally different experience from the other editing types. I am more or less ignoring sentence structure, grammar, and other sentence- and word-level issues, and instead I analyze your book as a whole. Can the chapters be rearranged to maximize impact? Are chapter and section titles catchy and accurate? Are there topics that require special care for reasons of inclusion and diversity? Will any passages alienate a subset of readers? Can the overall tone be adjusted?
After developmental editing is complete, you may or may not receive tracked changes in your draft. The meat of the information I give will be in a separate document of multiple pages elaborating on above-mentioned topics and more. I will be available for two 30-minute calls, before, after, or during edits (at your request), to discuss any concerns you might have with the book or editing process.
Typical rate: 4 cents/word
I understand that this is a considerable investment. As a published author myself, I also understand the amount of *you* that has already been invested and that you want this work to be the best it can be. I’d be honored to partner with you in making that reality, and I never want cost to be a reason someone doesn’t work with me.
To that end, I’m happy to split my fee into a payment plan or discuss other ways of handling it. I am able to take credit/debit, Venmo, Cashapp, and Paypal, which also allows for interest-free payment plans. Usually, my clients pay a chunk up front and the remainder when I return their edits.
Turnaround time:
The amount of time needed to make your edits will vary with editing type and word count, but edits on a non-fiction book of fewer than 50,000 words will generally take a month. Book editing is my passion, not my day job, and I complete edits after hours and around my family’s schedule. If you need a quicker turnaround, let me know and I’ll see if I can make it work. I will not take on a project unless I am positive I can meet your deadline.
If you have questions, feel free to email me at any time.