***Bank Holiday Sale – 20% Off*** #editing #selfpublishing

To celebrate a rather windy and rainy August Bank Holiday (at least here in the UK) I am offering clients a special 20% discount for any services booked from an enquiry made before Friday 31^st August for September and October.

Just a typical ‘summer’ bank holiday in the south east of England!

If you’re reading this, the chances are you’re thinking of self-publishing or you might be thinking of sending out your work to agents and publishers. You’ve spent hours writing. You’re proud of your work, but nervous about how it will be received. You’ve spent time revising and polishing when you could have been doing other things. If you’re self-publishing, you may have already paid out for a professionally designed book cover. You really need to start making some money on this project. So you don’t need the extra expense of an editor do you? Well, yes, you probably do.

You’ve written your masterpiece. You’ve had family and friends read it; they’ve pointed out a few typos but have told you it’s wonderful and that you should publish or send it out to agents. So that’s what you do next, right? Well, possibly – if your friends and family are completely impartial and will tell you the honest truth. And if you are completely sure that you’ve managed to catch every typo and grammatical error in your copy. And if you’re one hundred per cent sure that there’s nothing that can be improved, corrected and enhanced by a completely impartial, professional eye – by someone who edits as their job and whose reputation depends on how well they do that job.

You need an editor because not only will you not see all the typos and grammatical errors (and there will be lots of those), but you will be too invested in your work to see it impartially. You know your characters and your plot inside out. You know the sequence of events and why and how things happen. And this is where the problem lies. You can’t ‘un-know’ all of that, so you can’t see the flaws in plot, in structure, in characterisation. You can’t read your book from beginning to end the way a reader will. And if there are flaws and inconsistencies, if there is more than the odd typo, then your readers, if you publish without having had a thorough edit, will be happy to point them out in reviews.

I’ve self-published. I understand how attached you are to your work. I know how horrible it is to send that work to someone else and have them criticise it, however constructively. However, I also know that this process is far less painful than sending your precious work out there, warts and all, to have those warts picked over by readers and reviewers.

So the question is not ‘Can I afford to hire an editor?’ but ‘Can I afford not to?’

And if you’re considering making that step, then do get in touch. My offer means that if you request a quote and a sample edit before this Friday, 31^st August, and you go on to make a booking, then the cost of your edit will be discounted by 20%. So a combined edit/proofread will be £3.60/$4.80 per thousand words. This comprises of an edit for spelling, grammar, sentence structure, flow, characterisation, continuity, plot consistency and style. I will also correct any typos, grammar errors and spellings. I use the track changes facility in Word and will provide you with two copies of the edit: Edit 1 shows all changes made so you can trace what I have done, Edit 2 is a clean copy with all changes accepted – this will show you how the manuscript will read if you accepted all the changes that I’ve made. Having both copies means that you can easily see the difference the changes will make, while still having the option to choose whether or not you want to make those changes. You can go through Edit 1 accepting or rejecting each change as you see fit. As well as the edits, I will write a detailed report focusing on plot, structure, characterisation, pace, setting and style, making suggestions for any changes. An 80,000 word manuscript will now cost £288/$384, a saving of £72.00/$96.00.

If you would like to book an edit followed by a separate proofread, the discounted cost is £4.40/$5.80 per thousand words.

Two edits of your manuscript followed by a separate proofread costs £6.00/$8.00 per thousand words.

Still unsure? Have a look at my testimonials. And you’ll get a free sample edit of your first 1500 words before you commit to anything, so you can be completely sure that my editing services are right for you.

Do get in touch via the contact page, send an email to alisonewilliams@sky.com, or give me a call on 07891 065 012.

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

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