Terms of Use

The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 allows certain uses of my content from the internet without my permission. Use of my site’s content for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research by individuals or organizations might also be permissible under law if proper attribution is given. This includes non-commercial uses by educational institutions and by national and local governments. For more information, see http://www.copyright.gov/.

Except as permitted by the copyright law applicable to you, you may not reproduce or communicate any of the content on this website, including files downloadable from this website, without my permission.

I may change these terms of use from time to time. Please contact me to request written permission before reusing or sharing any content from this website for any reason.

Terms of Service

If requested, I can provide free edits on up to 1,000 words of your fiction manuscript as a sample of my work. For nonfiction, I can provide sample edits from my portfolio.

I will not edit a complete manuscript without having a legally binding work agreement signed by all involved parties beforehand.

Please note that my native language is American English. I can edit manuscripts written in British English and other English-language variants, but I do best with non-American English at the developmental and line editing levels.

No editor can promise perfection. Although I am thorough in my edits, and I do double-check my work, I cannot guarantee that the finished or published manuscript will completely error-free. The best-possible error-detection rate for professional editors is approximately 95 percent (source: Copyediting.com). I recommend you hire a proofreader to do a final pass or two over your manuscript after all other edits are complete. I can refer you to some excellent professional proofreaders, if you’d like.

Additional Information

You can find out more about what the going rates are for freelance editorial services through professional editors’ associations like the Editorial Freelancers Association, Editors Canada, Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, and Society of Editors (Western Australia). Please keep in mind that generalized rate charts like those linked to above fail to differentiate between one editing industry and another. For example, a developmental edit for a nonfiction book about the evolution of Japanese funerary rites requires a different skill set and methodology than a developmental edit for an Afrofuturistic space opera novel.

You can reduce the costs of hiring a professional editor by being proactive: Get feedback from beta readers, critique partners, or writing groups. Self-edit as thoroughly as you can before asking for a quote. If you would like some recommendations on books or articles about how to write or edit, please ask. I have lots of resources for creative writers already posted here on my site.

Discounts might be available upon request for nonprofit organizations; veterans and active military personnel; currently enrolled full-time students; and retirees. I do discount my services for repeat clients. Some limits do apply. Any discounts are at my sole discretion.

Be sure to check out crowdfunding options through sites like Patreon, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, GoFundMe, or Crowdfunder to help pay for professional editing, cover design, formatting, website design, etc. for your project. Crowdfunding can teach you how to market your work and help you gauge your audience’s interest in your project before you spend any money.