Substantive Edit
Review, revise and repeat!
Fee: £800 / $1070
Duration: 10 days (approx)
A substantive edit is an in-depth assessment of your current draft and can also be known as a developmental or structural edit. Essentially, the purpose is to get your manuscript ready for publication by assessing the individual elements of your novel, from pace to plot and everything in between.
You may have a general notion of where your writing needs work (or even a very detailed notion if you've already gone through a manuscript appraisal), but where do you begin, and what do you change? A substantive edit will address your manuscript line by line and give you specific suggestions for improvement. You may know where your strengths and weaknesses lie, but you're probably unaware of where this is evidenced in your manuscript. You might also be surprised at how little it takes to dramatically improve your novel and where effective changes can be made. A substantive edit will provide these answers and will ensure that you redraft efficiently.
Includes:
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Assessment of your characterisation, structure, pace, plot, narrative point of view and language.
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Advising restructuring or rewriting where appropriate.
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Checking for inconsistencies in your manuscript and offering possible solutions.
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Ensuring sense, content flow, consistency and accuracy.
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Providing you with general editorial feedback and advice.
How it works:
Head to BOOK EDITORIAL SERVICES to request a time-slot. Once confirmed by deposit I will ask you to submit your manuscript electronically by email to olivia.maclean@calloftheword.com. Please submitted all manuscripts in a word doc format to allow for electronic editing. After the agreed time (based on word count and availability) you will receive an edited copy of your manuscript by email. I will also send you a progress report halfway through the service, and you are very welcome to get in touch with questions, or schedule a consultancy call while the edit is taking place.
Fee:
A 20% deposit is due to confirm all editorial services. Once your time-slot has been agreed I will send you an invoice for 20% of the service fee which must be paid before the agreed start date. Payment is accepted in GBP and USD and can be made by bank transfer or PayPal. All necessary details for payment will be included with your invoice. The remainder of the fee is due upon completion of the service and a final invoice for the remaining fee will be emailed to you followed by your edited manuscript.
What Next?
Once the substantive edit is complete you'll receive a thoroughly assessed manuscript including notes, comments, highlights and structural cues --- everything you need to move on to your final draft before taking the next steps to publication.