Reduce your editing cost

If you want to keep the cost of professional editing down, there are some steps you can take yourself.

Review your work yourself

It has been said that reviewing your own work is like cutting your own hair. You usually miss a bit.

The more you can revise and improve your work yourself, the less time it will take for a professional editor to finish the process.

• The Proof Angel Guide to reviewing your writing gives some guidance on the process.
• Here is a one page summary.
• My Useful Books for Authors page has details of a couple of books to help you edit yourself.
• The Proof Angel Guide page also has information about plain English.

Sorting out your own formatting

If you are producing an eBook, formatting is very important. This can be a bit daunting, but the concepts are straight forward once you have got the hang of it.

If you are doing anything complicated, the Smashwords Style Guide is a free and simple guide to the processes involved.

For those who only have text, I have written a "Proof Angel Guide" to the process in Microsoft Word:

• This is a one page summary.
• This is the detailed version.

Let me know where you want me to focus

Traditional copy editing and proofreading processes cover a range of issues relevant to the production of books. This might not suit you because:

• The details may not be relevant for your market place, or
• You may wish to carry out some of the tasks, for example caption checking, yourself.

"I worked with Sarah for a number of years. She was always able to edit and improve documents, making them clearer, more precise and easier to read. She met deadlines and was always good to work with."
Dr John Gallacher, Deputy Principal, Royal Northern College of Music.