We follow the Chicago Manual of Style for all of our publishing services. Although we don't want to seem picky, there are some items that we are not working with at this time. We do not accept dissertations, research papers, or poetry at this time. We do accept fiction, all aspects of nonfiction (except for above), children's books, Web pages, newsletters, magazine articles, memoirs, quarterlies, etc.
HOW IT WORKS
Because every manuscript is different, we do not have a one-size-fits-all pricing structure. If you would like us to take a look at your work, we would be happy to offer a review and a quote based on what we find. We offer a large variety of services that you can use and we are willing to work with you to tailor an approach perfect for your situation. Below are the services we provide. What you choose (or need) really depends on where you are in the process of writing, where you want to go next, and, most of all, what shape your manuscript is in. Some manuscripts may require a combination of some of these services. Email us at: cindi@coastalediting.com or darya@coastalediting.com
Ghostwriting Services This is a service for the person who has an idea for a manuscript, has the basic research done (or the expertise), maybe has a life experience to relate, or a family history to good to be forgotten, but just doesn’t know how to get it down on paper (or into a computer!). Let us do this for you. If you can provide us the materials, we can write the book for you, and you can put your name on it! Lots of people do this; in fact, we’d wager that a lot of those celebrity tell-all books were not written by the celebrity themselves. We’d love to discuss this further with you.
EDITING SERVICES
There are many names for editing. There’s copyediting, heavy editing, substantive editing, mechanical editing, developmental editing, light editing, etc. We’ve defined here the terms that we will use. If you have a question about a term we, or someone else, uses, please just ask, and we’ll puzzle it out together.
Developmental Editing This would be needed for someone who has his material together, mostly written, but doesn’t really know what to do with it. He needs help knowing what material to include, how to present that material, what documentation to provide for any factual material not his own, and maybe how to best present that documentation. If we were to undertake this type of editing for you, we wouldn’t really look at your text word for word, but we would do a review of what you have, where you want to take it, and what you hope to end up with. We would make suggestions on all of the above. Your work would most likely, once written, move on to a substantive editing, which would get more into the nitty gritty. You never want to have your manuscript copy edited before having it developed; that would waste your money.
Heavy Editing When a manuscript is submitted that needs a substantial amount of work from formatting to content, we suggest this service. A manuscript may need a heavy edit just based on the sheer volume of errors. With this level, you will most likely have several comments throughout the text pertaining to the clarity of the story. When we perform a heavy edit, we will correct misspellings and make terms consistent, correct inconsistencies with concept or plot, we may rewrite sentences for clarity and flow, we may comment on organization and flow of content, and we will also include all the aspects of a medium and light edit.
Medium or “Substantive” Editing This mid-level editing involves a closer look at the content of the book. CMS refers to it as “substantive” editing. If we were to do this type of editing on your book, we would check verb tense consistency, reorganize sentences, or make suggestions for clarity, check for continuity of flow and thoughts, edit footnotes and reference lists, check transitional phrasing, do simple fact-checking on material presented, we might rewrite sentences to improve the flow of the text, we might tighten up your text if it is excessively wordy (words cost money, why not use less of them?), we will comment on anything that is ambiguous to us and may need further clarification, we will make suggestions on organization if needed, and we will include all the aspects of a basic copyedit. If your writing needs help beyond the occasional comma, then this is the edit you want. If you feel that your writing is basically well written, you just don’t know when to use a semi colon and when to choose a comma, then you don’t need this editing, you should opt for the next choice.
Basic Copyedit If you request a basic copyedit, we will assume that your manuscript is already very well written, is well organized, clear in thought, needs very little, if any, formatting, and that you really just can’t decide between that or which, or you have no idea when to use a three-dot or four-dot ellipses, and what is with that serial comma anyway?, but I digress. With a light edit, there will not be a thorough alteration of sentence structure or changes in the content. We will read your manuscript word for word, line by line and focus on spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, format, and consistency. We won’t concentrate so much on how the text is written, just that it is grammatically correct.
Review Services This service goes hand in hand with any of the above services, except for the ghostwriting and developmental editing, for which it is already included. Some authors just want their manuscript edited and returned with not a lot of chit chat in the middle. Some authors want more of a hand in the process and want to have more of an exchange with the editor; we refer to this as a “review.” If you want to be more of an active participant in the edit, what we will do is edit the manuscript and once complete, send it to you for review. You can then make your changes and send it back to us to review your changes. As long as things make sense and they are grammatically correct, we will accept the changes. If we have further questions or comments, we’ll send it back to you. We will work with you until you are happy with the results.
Proofreading This is the stage you reach after your manuscript has been written, organized, reviewed, and copy edited. The only things we are looking for here are egregious errors. There is no content editing done here, just a review of basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This means that we do not correct for inconsistencies with content or character discrepancies. We will point them out to you, but it is left up to you to correct them. Remember, this is for the already-polished manuscript that only needs a final look through.
Another reason you might opt for a proofread is if your manuscript has already been designed and you need an index set or checked, or you need page references set or checked. We can also review designed material for things like widows and orphans, loose lines, bad breaks at the end of a turned line, dropped text, poorly placed graphics, and other design mishaps that occur frequently.
Formatting Many publishers expect to receive a manuscript formatted to Chicago Manual of Style specification, or according to their submission guidelines. We are happy to do this for you for free as part of our services if your manuscript does not need a large amount of formatting. If the manuscript you submit is in disarray and requires lots of corrections in order to get it within submission specifications, we will charge you. This is especially true if your manuscript contains a hard return after each line. This will all be discussed before any work begins and will be part of the quote we offer.
Data Entry If you have a hard copy that you need transferred to a disk, we can certainly do this for you. This can be part of a larger job, meaning we would then do the editing or proofreading for you, but we will also do this as a stand-alone service. If you just need it input because it’s already been edited or doesn’t need to be edited, we can do that, too. We just ask that any un-typed material be mostly legible!
OTHER SERVICES
Project Management Do you have a load of projects that need editing and management? We have extensive experience in project managing. We can step into your company, and organize and operate your editorial department. We can take on a load of projects and subcontract them out to our very capable group of freelance proofreaders and editors (we would be responsible for any final product provided to you). We can manage your daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly publications and make sure all content is well written, organized, and presented. We also know some pretty talented designers and would be happy to handle that aspect as well. Talk to us and let us know your needs!
Okay, all this sounds great, but how does the whole shebang work? Where do I start? First, you will need to tell us what service you are interested in and then submit your manuscript for review. We will take a look at it and determine what shape it is in and if we agree with you, we will drop you an email and let you know our thoughts. If you’re still interested, we can then prepare a quote for you. We promise to outline everything up front. If we don’t list it on your quote, we won't charge you for it. There are no hidden fees and we will not keep telling you that you need additional services once one service is completed. You’ll know what you’re getting and it will be agreed upon in writing before any work begins.
Please know that if you choose a lower level of service than we think your manuscript needs, we will comply with your wishes, always. We will not pressure you to purchase a higher level. However, if you do choose a lower service than we recommend, our work does come with a disclaimer: There may be aspects of your work that will be left as is if they do not fall within the parameters of the level of editing that you choose. A list of what we think needs improving will be provided to you. You are free to ignore it!
We look forward to hearing from you. All our quotes are no-obligation quotes, so it doesn’t cost anything to email us and ask a question! Operators are standing by. . . . (okay, it’s just us staring blankly at our computers, but we’re here!) Email us at cindi@coastalediting.com or darya@coastalediting.com
