Since your typescript may need only a
light polish or may require complete rewriting to achieve a satisfactory
standard, we need to assess it before we can give you a quote for Manuscript
Polishing.
It’s possible also that your work will need copy editing, or even copy
editing and polishing at the same time, which is obviously more time-consuming.
We will need to know in advance if any specialist knowledge – and therefore
vocabulary – is involved, so that we can make sure we have the appropriate
editor to work on the book.
Assessing your Manuscript
The assessment process will be similar to that involved in our Editing and
Rewriting services: the editor will need to have a quick read through your
typescript to gauge how many hours’ work will be required. This will relate
simply to the complexity of the job and the amount of work to be done. We will
then come back to you with a quote for the work. Please note that this is a
highly skilled task, so we have to employ our most experienced editors, but
we hope you’ll feel it’s worth it to get your work into really good shape
for publication.
Hard copy or on screen?
You will need to decide whether you want your work polished on screen
or on hard copy i.e. on paper, and give us clear instructions: Our
editors would normally work on screen and this is the approach we would
recommend, but there are three choices:
1. Hard copy - Since the decision about specific changes is yours,
as the author of the work, the typescript will come back to you as hard copy
through the post, with the editor’s changes marked up, and you can decide
whether or not to incorporate them. You will then have to input the changes,
which is quite a lot of extra work.
2. On Screen - Alternatively, we can arrange for your manuscript
to be edited on screen and send you the edited manuscript
with the suggested changes flagged. You can check through the changes
on screen, using the 'track changes' facility and decide which ones to implement. (see
Handling
Copy Editing Changes)
3. Changes made on screen - The third alternative is that the editor
can simply polish the typescript, making the changes, working on screen, and
you will get emailed back to you a manuscript which is clean and ready for
press. If you opt for this solution, we would advise you to read
through the manuscript when you get it back to make sure that you are happy
with all the changes.
4. On screen plus 'track changes' - We now offer as standard but at
no additional cost a unique
service which provides the writer with two versions of their manuscript, one
with the copy editing changes made using 'track changes' and one with all
the changes accepted. We strongly recommend that you use the second version,
but hope that it will prove helpful to be able to see the detailed changes
the editor has made.
What it costs
We charge a small non-returnable assessment fee, which we have kept as
low as possible, for the editor reading the work and coming up with a quote.
£50 for typescripts under 100,000 words
£60 for 100,000 to 150,000
words
£70 for 150,000 to 200,000 words.
We will quote a fee after this
assessment, but you are under no obligation to go ahead with commissioning the
service at this stage if you don't want to. The starting point for a
Manuscript Polishing job on a manuscript of up to 100,000 words is likely
to be in the region of £300, but it may well cost more if the work requires close attention.
The hours the work requires are reflected in the fee structure, which is
according to the length of the manuscript. Once the assessment is completed and
the fee quoted to you, it is payable 50% on placing the order and
50% when the work is complete and before it is returned to you. We will
email you to say that the second part of the payment is due. Please bear in mind
that working on screen is more time-consuming and that flagging up the changes
as described in 2 above takes even more time, so these may be slightly more
expensive
We would normally expect to get the polished manuscript back to you within
four weeks of receipt of your order and payment, but please remember that
many hours of detailed work are involved, especially if it is a long manuscript
or the English needs particularly close attention. When we send your quote we
will let you know if for any reason the work will take longer than four weeks.
We will give you a specific date once the editor has started work.
Please send your manuscript as one unzipped Word file, unless it is over
125,000 words, when we recommend splitting it into two files.
A fictionalised account
Check how to send documents
