Essential Copyediting
$360
Prepare your manuscript for publication with a professional editorial review.
Essential Copyediting focuses on grammar, punctuation, spelling, contextual word usage, clarity, and consistency while respecting your individual writing style and voice.
Your initial payment covers the first 15,000 words. Manuscripts over 15,000 words are billed at 0.024 cents per word for each additional word.
The initial payment is a non-refundable down payment toward your complete Essential Copyediting service.
Professional Copyediting for Your Manuscript
Even a strong manuscript can lose credibility when grammar, punctuation, spelling, or consistency problems distract the reader. Essential Copyediting gives your completed manuscript a detailed professional review before publication.
What Essential Copyediting Reviews
Your editor reviews the details that affect the accuracy, clarity, consistency, and professionalism of your manuscript while respecting your individual writing style and voice.
Professional Recommendations Without Taking Away Your Control
Your editor does not simply rewrite your manuscript. Suggested corrections are provided using Track Changes in Microsoft Word, allowing you to review the recommendations and decide which changes to accept or reject.
This approach gives you the benefit of a professional editorial review while helping preserve your story, your ideas, and your individual author voice. We recommend that you conduct a final review after implementing the editor's suggestions.
Pricing Based on Your Manuscript Length
Your initial payment is a non-refundable down payment toward your Essential Copyediting service and covers the first 15,000 words.
The billable word count is determined using the Microsoft Word word-count function on the manuscript you submit. Manuscripts under 15,000 words are subject to the same minimum initial payment.
Preparing Your Manuscript for Editing
Essential Copyediting is performed on digital manuscript files. If your manuscript is currently available only as a printed book, typewritten pages, or handwritten pages, contact our Transcription Team to discuss the available options for converting your manuscript into an editable digital file.
Does Your Manuscript Need a Different Type of Editing?
Essential Copyediting is designed for completed manuscripts that need detailed corrections and refinement before publication. If your manuscript needs a different level of editorial support, Outskirts Press offers additional professional editing services.
Big-picture guidance for structure, organization, pacing, character development, argument, flow, gaps, and other manuscript-level concerns.
Sentence-level editing focused on prose, word choice, readability, point of view, tense, repetition, and awkward passages.
A final light editorial review for manuscripts that have already been thoroughly edited.
Specialized editorial attention to punctuation, grammar, consistency, rhythm, and presentation while respecting the poet's creative voice.
Specialized editing for language, pacing, readability, story development, and age appropriateness for young readers.
Essential Copyediting Details
- Your initial payment is a non-refundable down payment toward the complete editing service.
- Any remaining editing balance must be paid before editing begins.
- Editing fees become non-refundable once paid.
- Editors are human, and professional editing cannot guarantee a completely error-free manuscript.
- Some editorial decisions, including certain punctuation choices, can be subjective.
- Essential Copyediting is currently available for English-language content. Other-language content within the manuscript is not edited but is included in the manuscript word count.
- Editing timeframes depend on manuscript length and complexity. A typical manuscript may take up to four weeks, although many are completed sooner.
Editing a Work of Poetry?
Poetry is priced differently from standard Essential Copyediting. Poetry editing is billed at $80 per hour in 15-minute increments, with a minimum initial payment of $300 covering the first five required hours. Any remaining amount is determined after the work is reviewed and must be paid before the edited manuscript is delivered.
Give Your Manuscript a Professional Editorial Review
Click Add to Cart to begin your Essential Copyediting service and prepare your manuscript for publication with greater accuracy, clarity, and consistency.