It all starts with you
You write and rewrite until you have the perfect manuscript and then you wait, sleep on it. A week is good, a month is better, and then you read it again, ideally out loud. Finally, when you are ready, get in touch with me at sharajjcooper.editorial @ gmail.com
We have a phone or Zoom call
Let’s talk in person. I want to hear about your project and your publishing goals. I’ll ask you about any aspects you are worried about or if you have anything specific you want me to look out for. I’ll want to determine the style guide and help figure out the desired audience.
Manuscript review
It’s important that I look at your manuscript before we decide on the next stages. Ideally I’ll look at your entire manuscript, but if you are only comfortable sharing a section from the middle, that works too. This gives me an idea of your writing style, the scope of the project, and how long it might take me.
Scheduling, pricing, and contract
We discuss the scope of the edit based on the information we discussed. From there we will narrow down a price point and scheduling. A full length manuscript can take over a month to edit, because no one edits eight hours a day successfully. Expect quality to take time! Once the logistics are determined I’ll write up a contract with those specifications to make sure we are on the same page. I ask for 50% of the project to be paid for upfront.
Let the editing begin
I’ll work on your manuscript and give you updates as I go. In most situations I use track changes and commenting in Word. Before I turn on track changes, I’ll do “housekeeping” which includes formatting and a checklist of items like double spaces and straight quotes to limit the amount of messy items tracked. I then get to work with a quick read through and then the more thorough edit. As I work I draft a document that includes what I have done. At the end the document will also include overall thoughts and possible next stages in addition to what was completed on the manuscript.
Final stages
Before I return the edited manuscript, I ask for the other 50% of the fee. I’ll return your edited manuscript with the document and usually a video commentary about what I did. You’ll have three months (with some wiggle room) to get back to me with questions about the edit. This helps make sure the edit is fresh in my mind when I answer your questions. I’ll let you know what I think your next steps are. While I love to work with repeat clients, I would be doing you a disservice to edit the same manuscript through all its phases. The more eyes on your manuscript the better. I wish you well and would be happy to work on any future projects!