The first draft reveals the art; revision reveals the artist.
Michael Lee
Book Editing and Proofreading – What’s Involved?
You have finished your book manuscript and now you are looking for a professional editor to bring it to polished perfection. What is involved in the editing process, and what should you expect from your editor? How much will editing cost?
Manuscript Appraisal
The first step is to reach out to a prospective editor and organise a manuscript appraisal. This gives the editor a chance to assess your work and determine the level of editing required before committing to the job. It also provides the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about what you are hoping to get from the editing process, what your budget is, and whether you are looking to self-publish or pursue the traditional publishing route. From there, your editor can provide a more detailed quote and an editing contract can be drawn up.
Developmental Letter
A cost-effective option for writers who feel they can tackle further revisions before engaging more intensive editing, but would like some objective feedback to bounce off, is the developmental letter – also known as an editorial letter. This is typically a 3-10 page document that carefully analyses elements such as story structure and pacing, narrative voice, character development, theme and overall readability.
Edited by Wilde offers developmental letters at a rate of $0.01 per manuscript word. To give an idea of approximate prices:
- 30,000 words = $300
- 50,000 words = $500
- 80,000 words = $800
*All prices quoted are in Australian dollars
This pricing structure takes into account the time required to make several close readings of your manuscript, as well as the care and consideration involved in producing a detailed letter that is specific to your book and your editing goals.
Structural Editing
Also known as substantive editing, structural editing is a hands-on approach that expands on the services offered in the developmental letter. Rather than simply making suggestions for the author to implement, the editor will take on the task of restructuring your novel, eliminating unnecessary sections, moving sequences around for better organisation and flow, writing or rewriting sections, and making detailed notes and suggestions to send back to the author. This is a collaborative process that requires extensive consultation with the author.
Structural editing rates are tailored to the level of work required for each manuscript, but as a guide, you can expect a quote of around $0.04 per manuscript word. This works out to around:
- 30,000 words = $1,200
- 50,000 words = $2000
- 80,000 words = $3,200
*All prices quoted are in Australian dollars
Copy editing
Also known as line editing, this stage of the editing process sees your editor go through your book manuscript line by line, addressing issues from style and clarity to spelling, punctuation and grammar. By this point, all the bigger picture elements of story, character, theme and structure should have been dealt with; now, the finer details of your writing come under the microscope. You will likely find a lot of comments in the margins of this draft, seeking clarification and providing explanation for changes to word choices (particularly where language choice causes ambiguity or upsets the flow of the prose), restructuring of individual sentences and paragraphs, and any idiosyncratic punctuation choices your editor might query.
Edited by Wilde offers copy editing at a rate of $0.02 per manuscript word, or roughly:
- 30,000 words = $700
- 50,000 words = $1000
- 80,000 words = $1,600
*All prices quoted are in Australian dollars
Proofreading
The final step before formatting your novel and sending it off for printing is proofreading. This involves going through your novel with a fine-toothed comb to weed out any spelling, grammar or punctuation issues missed in previous edits. Edited by Wilde recommends this step be done by a fresh pair of eyes – that is, if one person has provided developmental/substantive and/or copy editing, choose another person to perform the proofreading. This reduces the risk of errors being missed due to over-familiarity with the text: a fresh reader is more likely to pick up on mistakes.
Edited by Wilde offers a tiered fee structure for proofreading:
- Manuscripts up to 50,000 words = $300
- Manuscripts 50,000 – 85,000 words = $500
- Manuscripts 85,000 – 110,000 words = $750
*All prices quoted are in Australian dollars
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