What I Can Do For You

• Copy edit any manuscript using The Chicago Manual of Style. Copy editors correct typographical, grammatical, spelling, and style errors and conduct basic continuity and fact checking.
• Content edit manuscripts. Content editors work interactively with authors on facets such as structure, flow, plot, character development, and dialogue. I generally work with nonfiction (self-help, how-to, memoir and so on) authors, but occasionally work with novelists whose books are complete and who have a strong sense of their goals. I rarely work with poets.
• Evaluate manuscripts or book proposals. For manuscripts, I provide a three- to five-page, double-spaced, evaluation of what I see as your work's strengths and how you might improve it. Whether you make changes is your call. For book proposals, I make suggestions for improvement. I'm available to evaluate fiction, nonfiction and screenplays. With a screenplay, I evaluate only the structure and flow of the actual story, not its marketability in Hollywood.
• Work with hard copy or a Microsoft Word version of your manuscript. If I edit electronically, you'll receive versions with all changes marked (Word's Track Changes option) and with all changes incorporated into the text.
• Prepare a binding written estimate (typically via e-mail) based on your answers to the questions on the Contact page.
• Create a two-page marketing plan crafted specifically for your book.
• Treat you with the respect and professionalism you deserve. I will prepare an agreement we both will sign so that we both understand the work to be done, the fees, and the timeline. If I am not able to take you on as a client, I will refer you to other excellent editors (at no charge and without any referral fee coming to me from the other editors). I am always happy to provide references beyond the comments on the Clients page.

What I Can't Do For You

• Act as your literary agent. To find an agent who represents your type of writing, I suggest you visit the Association of Authors' Representatives site or consult Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents or Writer's Market. I recommend writers work with agents who belong to AAR or adhere to its canon of ethics. Those agents do not charge reading fees and make money only when you make money--that is, when they've sold your book.
• Guarantee that after I've proofread or copy edited or provided an evaluation of your manuscript that an agent will agree to represent it or that a publisher will agree to buy it or that it will sell a specific number of copies.
• Recommend a specific subsidy press, printer or print-on-demand services company. From my involvement with the Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards, I know many, many reputable companies are available.
• Edit your work for free.
• Edit or evaluate poetry (except in rare cases)