Epiclesis Consulting is happy to provide copyediting services, either alone or bundled with other editorial services. Copyediting, or manuscript editing, is also called “line editing” because it involves going through the manuscript line by line, marking any changes and corrections. It can involve both “mechanical editing” and “substantive editing.”

Mechanical editing means correcting errors of grammar, spelling or punctuation and making any stylistic changes necessary for the manuscript to conform to the style manual used by the publisher. (For example, many publishers use the most recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.) “Substantive editing,” on the other hand, involves the way the book’s content is presented. It may involve some rewriting of specific passages to make them clear to the reader, or improving the organization of information.

A skilled copyeditor is able to make these changes without altering the “voice” of the author. The purpose is not to rework the manuscript into the book the editor would have written, but to make it the book the author would have written if (s)he had the best possible writing skills.

In some cases, the copyeditor may point out a “global” correction, that is, one that occurs repeatedly throughout the manuscript, and instruct the author to go through and correct each occurrence. Many of the clients of Epiclesis Consulting prefer to have the editor make these changes for them, but the author may request that global corrections be made just once in order to hold down costs.

A project’s progress toward publication may include more than one round of copyediting, for example, if the author hires a freelance copyeditor before seeking a publisher, and the publisher then employs either a freelance or an in-house copyeditor to bring the manuscript in line with the particular style of the publishing house. Each time major revisions are made to the manuscript, another round of copyediting should be performed.

Contact us to request an estimate for copyediting your project.

A copyeditor may also do “formatting” for a manuscript, such as marking the different levels of subheads. (This should not be confused with “typesetting,” the process of preparing pages of camera-ready copy. Epiclesis Consulting does not offer typesetting services at this time.)

If you would like to get a critique on just a couple of short samples of your text before you take the plunge with your entire manuscript, just click here to learn how to order a critique of the strongest and weakest parts of your book.

Copyediting