Editing can elevate your writing to new heights, ensuring that your writing is clear, poignant, and effective.
You’ve worked hard on your manuscript. Whether your goal is to submit your work for publication or for peer review, you owe it to yourself to have your manuscript reviewed by an experienced professional editor. It is simply a must if you want to be taken seriously as an author.
An editor will ensure that readers remember your central thesis or story—and not grammatical errors. They’ll also provide honest feedback and suggestions on technical issues like style, pacing, and organization. They are your trusted partner and sounding board.
Blue Hyphen Creative offers professional, quality editing that is affordable—and fast—to help you tell your story effectively and prepare it for publishing. Let us work with you to turn your book into a great book that catches the eyes of readers and publishers alike.
We offer several different levels of editing service to suit your individual needs:
Proofreading
Need one last set of eyes on your proposal, thesis, or résumé before it gets submitted? When your manuscript is nearly ready for readers, we will meticulously review and correct any glaring errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax. With proofreading services, alterations to the text are minimal.
Copyediting
In this next level of edit, we’ll go one step further to help you polish your manuscript. We’ll review grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax in the main body of text to ensure correctness and clarity. If any words or phrases are unclear, they may be flagged for your reconsideration.
We’ll also review other elements of the manuscript—such as front and back matter—for completeness, consistency, and style. In academic works, in-text citations will be checked against the bibliography. Citations will be checked for completeness and style. And if any inconsistencies are found, we’ll flag them and check with you.
With copyediting services, you’ll receive a version of your manuscript with comments and suggested edits for your consideration. We’ll also prepare a style sheet to help guide consistency throughout your manuscript.
Substantive editing
In this even deeper dive, we’ll go line-by-line, working together to look at any major technical issues—structure, voice, pace, styling—to strengthen writing precision, flow, and overall impact. In this intensive level of edit, sentences, paragraphs, or sections may be flagged to call the author’s attention to text that may need reordering or rewriting. The editor will make suggested changes for your consideration that you can choose to accept, reject, ignore, or rework; comments in the margin will explain the reasoning behind a potential change.
Like our copyediting services, you’ll receive a style sheet and a version of your manuscript with suggested edits and comments.
Developmental editing
We can help you develop a book or project from the concept onward. We’ll work with you on the big picture to shape your book’s central thesis, content, narrative structure, flow, timeline, and transitions. Because significant restructuring and rewriting may occur at this stage, this edit is best done early in the writing process.
Manuscript critique
Looking for someone to read your manuscript and provide knowledgeable, helpful feedback? Send us your manuscript and we’ll do a deep read to analyze strengths and potential stumbling blocks for readers. We’ll provide a friendly and detailed, written critique that reviews areas such as overall impressions, plot, dialogue, readability, pacing, and voice. Please note that you will not receive an edited copy of your manuscript with this service; rather, comments and suggestions will be provided to you in essay form.