STONE
EDITING AND PROOFREADING
How I Work with Authors
Here’s a loose description of how I usually work with authors.
I get an email or contact through my booking form from an author who’s just finished her debut, genre subverting sci-fi manuscript and is looking for an editor to work with.
I request a 2,000 word sample of her novel. From that I can suggest what services will be required and provide a quote for the entire manuscript. As this is her debut novel, she’s a little hazy on which type of editing she’s in need of. Referring to the My Services and Road to Publication pages, we conclude she’s in need of a line edit and copyedit, usually offered together as a single service.
After reading the Terms and Conditions, she fills in a booking form agreeing to work together. To help me get a better idea of her stylistic preferences, she also fills out the author preference form, as well as highlighting any other stylistic preferences via her preferred method of contact.
Once we’ve agreed a timeframe I send an invoice for the booking fee. The author pays the booking fee to confirm work to begin and I put the kettle on and don my editing hat. I usually work with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature unless otherwise specified. It’s the standard choice for most writers and editors these days.
During the editing process, I will continue to check stylistic preferences from the author as necessary if they weren’t covered in the author preference form or in previous exchanges.
Once editing is finished I’ll provide the author with the following three documents:
- A manuscript with adjustments made but unsubmitted.
- A manuscript with all adjustments submitted.
- A style sheet.
Along with these I’ll also send an invoice for the final payment.
And that’s it!
This is, of course, a general description and there’s plenty of room for personalisation and adjustment.
