- Knowledge of the Publisher’s House Style
- Editorial Discretion
- An Initial Systematic Cleanup
- Your editor should conduct at most three editorial passes through the manuscript:
- Detailed Editorial Style Sheet
- The Editor should be able to consult the author if any major substantive editing is needed.
Knowledge of the Publisher’s House Style
- Whether it’s AP, CMOS, or MLA, your editor should be conversant with the required Publishing Style.
- Books in a series should follow the same style.
- Publisher’s preferred markup style or editing software.
Editorial Discretion
Your editor should be experienced enough to know when to “suggest” an edit (in the case of figures of speech, idiomatic usage, or writer style). Or, when to make an edit (grammatical errors). They should also bring to your attention things that can impair your writing: repetition, unnecessary recapitulation, or inappropriate expression.
An Initial Systematic Cleanup
- Saving an original file, and having separate versions or directories for every significant editing stage.
- If the Author or Publisher has highlighted some expressions that should be removed, the Editor can use the “find and replace” function in some word processors.
- Change the language settings of the document as required.
- Fix Formatting Problems: adjust line spacing, font, and margins.
- Sort unnecessary underlining to italics (as is appropriate).
- Sort unnecessary usage of apostrophes in place of quotation marks (in dialogue).
Your editor should conduct at most three editorial passes through the manuscript:
- The initial stage, which is usually the longest stage might serve as the major part of the work or a diagnostic stage of the editing process.
- A second time to review, refine, and sometimes correct previous editing.
- And a third time after the author’s review.
Detailed Editorial Style Sheet
This is to ensure the consistency of words or terms to be capitalized, italicized, and hyphenated in a way unique to the manuscript. It could also contain a list of words or phrases to be removed.
The Editor should consult the author if any major substantive editing is needed
It is your book but your Editor is obligated to suggest Substantive editing. It can be conducted if there is a need to rewrite, improve style or to eliminate ambiguity, as well arranging disorganized or loosely written sections.
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My name is Racheal Asikpo. As a Memoir and Autobiography ghostwriter with a decade of experience, I am passionate about how stories impact lives and change futures. When I work with aspiring authors, I seek to immerse myself in the writing process to realize the best delivery of their voice in their story.
As a science fiction and fantasy ghostwriter, I enjoy plunging into challenges of unboxed imagination, creating thought-provoking journeys for readers.
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I look forward to hearing from you.