I’m in the market for editing, but you have several options, how do I choose? / I’m not sure what kind of editing I might need?
No problem! Email us with a description of your writing project, or the text you have, and we will consult via email or over videochat to discuss how we can help you specifically.
Initial consultations are always free.
What sorts of editing can you do?
Among our services offered are:
- Proofreading (final check before text goes live)
- Copy editing (applying a style such as MLA to a text, small corrections)
- Natural English smoothing for ESL writers/collaborators
- Line editing (deeper work with voice, style, content order, etc.)
- Content editing (detailed comments, low-level fixes, cutting and moving, addressing high-level issues, sometimes drafting rewrites, and a report returned)
- Developmental editing (varies, but more-or-less providing higher-level feedback and/or collaboration that gets you to a draft that meets your goals, such as going from sketchy idea to a full manuscript, or from a draft that your press’ reviewers hate to one they pass)
Manuscript assessment is another one we like, which is providing a detailed report (an editorial letter) on high-level issues along with marginal comments, usually for a book draft. This can be very useful with novels and memoirs when one is feeling stuck in the editing process.
What sorts of consulting and coaching do you do?
We are pretty adaptable to your circumstances and needs. Different writers will be looking for different things, and we have range in our abilities.
We can support through motivational and structured get-writing programs or boot-camps. We can help with narrowly focused sessions (for example, three hour-long sessions, concentrated on developing authorial voice for a manuscript that has already been accepted at a press). We do dissertation coaching, and can create accountability/incentive structures and prompts to develop your artistic practice.
We also provide maieutic poetry consultation—this is using a curious, question-based approach to make your poems more fully-realized versions of themselves.
How much will it cost?
We routinely provide estimates. Our current price list is available via email, if you tell us a little about your text and what you think you might need. We strongly prefer a consultation—email or videochat—to define exactly what services we can support you with before writing our estimate.
Writing consultation via videochat is billed hourly from $50 to $100, depending on the project. In some cases, we may also charge for preparation; for example, a 70,000-word draft requires a significant investment of reading time.
Coaching and accountability structures vary, starting from $25 per week.
Our editing runs between $0.02 and $0.07 per word ($5–$17.50 per page), depending on the service. For some short projects and children’s books, we charge a flat fee from $250.
From time to time, we offer discounts to new clients.
What is your economic justice policy?
We have a sliding scale for writers from marginalized communities or are without economic or institutional support. If you want to work with us under this policy, please bring it up during our initial contacts.
How do you set your rates?
Our rates are based on the results of the Editorial Freelancers Association’s member surveys, or comparables where we find them.
We target a competitive rate that values your time and ours. Because every project is different, individual consultants/editors are free to adjust rates in their estimate based on the specifics and potential complications of a project, or when combining services.
Do you provide free samples?
For an adult/YA book under contract or ready-to-self-publish, we may perform a 1000-word sample proofread or copy edit. For MG and younger books, 3 pages. (Many examples of proofreading and copyediting by Ben are available in the archive of the literary magazine Storm Cellar.)
More complex editing cannot be accurately represented by a short sample, we believe. A face-to-face consultation is a much better way to determine whether we will be “a good fit” to work on a book-length project or for coaching purposes.
Can you do a rush job?
Yes, we can. We do not always have time, however.
For an estimate: in your initial email include hard and soft deadlines, and a description of your text: length, genre, subject matter, and audience. Either attach the text in DOCX file format and attach any necessary supplementary materials (custom style guide, technical glossary, list of non-English terms, cast of characters, etc.), or have them ready to send.
We will apply rush pricing to our estimate. We may require a percentage of the cost up front, and full payment before we deliver our finished product.
Are there any genres you avoid? What do you specialize in?
Our genres of preference are dissertations and monographs in the humanities, writing in and through the humanities and related subjects for popular audiences, articles for educational websites, and writing on social justice topics (Natalia), literary and—broadly—SFF fiction, academic articles in the social sciences and humanities, policy white papers, and poetry (Ben). Ben’s literary interests, editing-wise, are reflected in the archive of the magazine Storm Cellar [link].
We are also happy to work on projects farther afield, such as memoir. Many services, like copy editing, are genre-agnostic.
We do not prefer to do content editing/development on commercial or historical romance, nor commercial detective fiction that lionizes law enforcement, nor advertorial-style essays, articles, and letters.
We do not work on projects that promote a particular religion, ethnic group, gender, nationality, or other commonly-understood category of people over others. We will fire any client that we come to believe is a white supremacist or supports settler colonialism, for example.
What information will help you give me an estimate?
For any long (book-length) project there is a lot to discuss, which is why we like to meet via Zoom or similar service for a free consultation, as it’s much faster, and more informative, than email back-and-forth.
For a short project, it will depend on what support you need, and whether or not you know precisely what you want.
For example, proofreading usually requires: length, target audience, style guide, deadline, and the project file. Something like, “My org needs someone to proofread this PDF of a Middle grade resource book, 2,500 words, and should be AP style, I think? I need it in four weeks.”
Whereas, for example, content edits on an 9,000-word short story will require more info to determine what support you need. Something like, “I have this story that never seems to work no matter what I do. [Diagnosis of what you think is wrong.] I can’t seem to cut or add anything, but I’ve gotten a lot of rejections from magazines. [Description of difficulties in drafting.] I really want to [dramatic, thematic, rhetorical, meta-textual, and/or metaphorical concerns], and I’m worried about [prior feedback, if any]. Plus is this too long? I am open to [specified depth, tone, aggressiveness, high- or low-level, etc.] feedback. But I really need to talk to you about it face-to-face.” We would start with a video chat.
Do I really have to show you my manuscript up front?
Yes, be prepared to do so for projects over 50 pages. In some cases, a batch of example pages is sufficient.
You might have proprietary or lab-sensitive info in there, or maybe you’re intensely private about your memoir or poetry. We hear that! But look: in order for us to understand better what we are agreeing to, for a book-length project, we almost always need some sort of access to the text prior to starting work. It’s a downside of not billing hourly.
Kind of like psychiatrists, we won’t share your files with anyone outside our workshop unless required by law or if we think someone is in imminent danger. Frankly, we prefer to delete whatever files you send if we don’t end up working together.
Do you ask for a printed credit?
We appreciate, in the acknowledgements section, the name of your editor or of our service being mentioned explicitly. But we do provide white-label services. We do not contractually require credit.
Do you have a secure, encryption-friendly upload portal?
We do not have a secure dropbox. If necessary, for a large job, we can send a public key and specify a cloud-based method for upload.
What is your privacy policy?
We won’t give your identifying information to anyone outside our workshop, and we won’t sell your data, contact info, etc. We won’t share your files with anyone outside our workshop. UNLESS we are required by law, or we believe someone is in serious danger, or to substantiate a legal claim involving you/your institutional backer.
We can arrange to delete our copies of your files if you so request, after payment. We prefer to delete files we receive regarding projects that we do not take on.
The Ingenious Editing Workshop 