Copyediting

Your manuscript is written. You don’t want to make any more big changes to it.

Your text is ready to be prepared for your reader by a professional editor.

When you hand over your book for copyediting, I take the strain off you.

When you need a copyedit

You are confident that your manuscript is pretty much the best you can make it so far as content and structure go.

In the past few weeks, you might have spent hours poring over it, tinkering with bits here and there, wondering whether you would ever be able to tell when it was Finished.

That’s the time to hand it over to a copyeditor.

Scary!

Your book, about to go out into the world.

To be read by people who don’t know you. Who won’t make allowances. 

Like all good writers, you are honest with yourself.

To err is human.

You have a niggling doubt that you might have misspelt or misused some words.

Maybe you don’t feel 100% confident that you have used commas or hyphens consistently.

Let alone understanding the difference between an M-dash and an N-dash and how they are used differently for US and UK readerships.

Or maybe you worry you have overlooked some fundamental errors. We all make them. 

The difference between a copyedit and a line edit

In line-editing, we look at the style of writing, page by page, paragraph by paragraph. We make sure the right style, words, and tone are being used.

Copyediting is more granular: it looks at the way words are spelt, and whether phrases are grammatically correct and sentences properly punctuated.

The rule I adopt in copyediting a client’s work is: don’t mess with it. If the language is correct and clear, it doesn’t need improvement.

As a writer, you don’t want someone changing your words because they think it “sounds better”.

You want the things that are actually wrong or confusing to be put right.

You want the grammar, spelling, and punctuation to be correct. 

You want accuracy and consistency.

No mistakes to distract the reader.

That’s the way to make sure they will enjoy what you’ve written. 

Would you like to understand the process?

Click here to read how I carry out a copyedit.

Find out if I have availability

Message me to tell me what you need.

I will email you back to ask any questions I have and let you know what sort of timescale we would be looking at.

Message me