Services

A Word Affair LLC offers editorial services to publishers, literary agents, published and unpublished writers. The services include manuscript critique, conceptual editing, line editing, proofreading, and analysis of the submission package. Broad descriptions of these services follow. I tailor my services to your project and your request. For information on fees, visit the FAQs page.

Critique of a fiction project includes analysis of plot lines, character motivation and development, structure, point of view, dialogue, and pacing. A nonfiction critique analyzes organization and presentation of content, including tone and clarity. Whether your project is fiction or nonfiction, my goal is to identify what works and what doesn't work.

This service takes the manuscript critique several steps further. It involves detailed editing and will help not only to identify weaknesses but also propose solutions. My specific aim is to ensure the most effective execution of your project.

Word-by-word and line-by-line, I examine closely and correct (or query, when appropriate) various elements of your manuscript. These elements include style issues, such as spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, capitalization, numerals, abbreviations, and italics; inconsistencies (for example, the time line in the plot, character descriptions, etc.); word usage; grammar; apparent errors regarding facts, and any other faulty element. My objective is to help you present flawless work.

For publishers, typeset material will be checked against the copyedited manuscript, noting and correcting typographical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, inconsistencies, errors of fact, errors in format, etc., following the guidelines of the publishing house. For writers with completed manuscripts, errors in the manuscript itself will be corrected—the goal, again, to present flawless work.

You've written your novel or your nonfiction book, your query letter is ready, and you have sample material ready to send in according to the publisher's/editor's/agent's preference. I will review your entire package with a professional editorial eye and will make suggestions and edits, as needed, to strengthen your package. The objective of the polished submission package is to entice the agent or publisher to embrace your work—the agent to represent you and your project and/or the publisher to buy and publish what all interested parties desire: a best-seller.