EDIT
Wendy works with a team of professional editors, qualified through the UK’s Society of Editors and Proof Readers, to provide: book manuscript assessments in the form of Reader Reports; Film/Television Assessment Reports from manuscripts; full developmental, content and line editing; and proof reading services.
Commissioning and investing in a Reader Report for your completed manuscript is a critical step in the Write: Edit: Publish process and informs your manuscript, as well as your Advance Information Sheet and your PR and Media Strategy. Reader Reports assess the commercial viability of your written works and focus on the following aspects of your completed manuscript.
Reader Reports
- Synopsis
- Narrative strength and reader engagement
- Plot, tension and character development – fiction
- Unique selling points and offering – non fiction
- Author’s voice, clarity and purpose
- Target audience and readership
- Structure, balance, flow and pace
- Critical impact of first sentence and chapter openers
- Grammatical accuracy and consistency
- Comparable books, market and genre
- Routes to market and publisher recommendation
- Front matter pages: Acknowledgements; Dedications; About the Author; Foreword; Praise From Other People; Contents List; and Chapter Titles.
- Back matter pages: Terminology Lists; Maps; Bibliography; Research References; and Recommended Further Reading, etc.
- The critically important, outside back cover marketing blurb.
The Editing Journey
Wendy’s team of professional editors and proofreaders specialise in a range of genres and have combined skills across fiction and non fiction. Wendy matches the most suitable editor to each written work and decides which level of editing is required, before agreeing the best way forward for your specific book.
The editing process is conducted in three layers, with a first and second edit in track change mode; a third and final edit; and a proof read as a clean copy document.
Professional editing services provided – depending on the requirements of each individual written manuscript – include each of the following steps.
- Content or Developmental Edit: to support the writer develop the book’s final content to be the best it can possibly be. Focuses on the overall aspects of your written works, including your: title; message; theme; plot; characters; book and chapter structure; chapter pace; flow; balance; any Readers Call to Action. Content editing is a subjective process and includes making suggestions for manuscript improvements, as opposed to copy or line editing and proofreading, which is a rules-based process.
- Line or Copy Edit: to ensure the author’s written quality. Focuses on the finer details of the author’s style, grammar, syntax, sentence structure, accurate word choices, verb tense, capitalization, hyphenation, proper names, italics or boldings, punctuation, missed and repeated words, paragraphs and sentence length.
- Proofreading: to “polish the diamond.” Focuses on finally confirming there are no spelling mistakes, typographical errors, spacing and formatting problems, widows and orphans, labels, captions, figures and tables accurately numbered etc. in the final manuscript, prior to proceeding to publication.
On signing an Author Editing Agreement, manuscripts need to be received – In Confidence – as one Word document in 12 point font, double-spaced, with a total word count included.
All projects are estimated and quoted on an individual basis, depending on the amount of words presented and the depth of editing required.
Wendy also provides writers with a set of practical Self-Editing Tips and explains the importance of the Close Critical Review process for writers to conduct before they submit their written work for professional editing and publisher consideration.
Your written works will also require a final edit at the print and production stage, to drill down to the finer presentation details. To ensure that the typeset copy has no missed errors, nor pages, with consistent layout and formatting.