Manuscripts

Choosing a proofreader, copy editor, or developmental editor is an important decision, and your manuscript deserves the best. Proof Positive’s editors don’t just give you general suggestions like “show don’t tell”. Instead, we give you examples of how to make our suggested changes, and we do it in your writing voice. We also create a style guide for you (for series or when suitable to the genre) and return your edited manuscript with our comments about what worked and what didn’t overall.

To prove we offer top-notch services, we’ll edit the first five pages of your double-spaced manuscript for free as a sample of our work.

What other discounts does Proof Positive offer?

  • We offer 10% off any service for the first full-length manuscript (50,000 words or more) you submit.
  • For each author you refer who submits their full-length manuscript (50,000 words or more), Proof Positive will give you 10% off the total cost of your next manuscript.
  • Hire us for a final proofread after we’ve already completed a service for your manuscript, and you’ll receive a 15% discount.

We remain under standard rates to ensure we are affordable.

Fiction

PROOFREADING: $0.01 per word

You’re comfortable with your manuscript and you feel you only need a polish. Proofreading is the final step before publication.

This service includes:

  • grammatical errors
  • spelling errors
  • word choice
  • punctuation errors
  • varied sentence structure and smooth flow
  • adherence to Chicago Manual of Style (American English) or New Hart’s Rules/Oxford Style Guide (UK English) or Australian Government Style Manual (Australian English)

COPYEDITING: $0.015 per word

Your plot, characters, pacing, and the consistency within your story are all set, so the next step is what some editors call line editing and others call copyediting. This is a sentence-by-sentence, line-by-line edit of your manuscript to dig into the style, sentence structure, word choice, tone, etc. of your story. Consistency in style, especially regarding dialogue, as well as point of view will be checked in great detail.

You’ll get:

  • everything included in our proofreading service
  • consistency of tone, characters, descriptions, and POV (point of view)

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING: $0.02 per word

You’re sure of your story, but now it’s time to have an editor advise you on how to make it the best it can be. With a developmental edit, we’ll help you sharpen your manuscript. This includes giving you examples of how to rewrite some scenes—we won’t leave you to figure it out on your own.

You’ll get:

  • everything included in our proofreading service
  • everything included in our copyediting service
  • consistency of plot, characters, dialogue, and style
  • pacing
  • plot holes and other issues
  • character consistency and depth
  • character and relationship development

CRITIQUE: $0.017 per word

If you’re unsure of whether your story, characters, pacing, and theme work together properly, or if you’re uncertain how to clean up your manuscript as a whole, a critique is the perfect service for you.

You will receive a full report that includes analyses of the following categories as applicable:

  • plot: plot holes, consistency, “convenience” writing, clarity, pacing, keeping interest (suspense, no matter the genre)
  • characters: consistency, dialogue style, whether more or fewer are needed, overall development, uniqueness (characters can’t be confused with each other)
  • clarity: scenes, plot, dialogue, characters’ goals, characters’ motivations
  • style: unique tone, wordiness, too much or lack of description, consistency

Reports range from three to ten+ pages depending on the length of the manuscript and how much needs to be discussed.

Track Changes/Comments may be included in the manuscript itself, but the report will include the bulk of the analysis.

*Critiques do not include proofreading.

Nonfiction

PROOFREADING: $0.015 per word (half a cent per word)

  • grammatical errors
  • spelling errors
  • word choice
  • punctuation errors
  • varied sentence structure and smooth flow
  • adherence to Chicago Manual of Style (American English) or New Hart’s Rules/Oxford Style Guide (UK English) or Australian Government Style Manual (Australian English)

COPYEDITING: $0.017 per word

  • everything included in our proofreading service
  • consistency of tone and descriptions
  • ensuring concepts and ideas are properly fleshed out

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING: $0.02 per word

  • everything included in our proofreading service
  • everything included in our copyediting service
  • structural rearrangements or suggestions if necessary

*We do not offer fact-checking or source formatting.

Manuscript Format

  • We accept both Word and Pages formats, which we will work on using Track Changes and Comments. If you’re not sure how to use Track Changes and Comments in Word, click here.
  • We work with Google Docs using Suggest Edits mode, as long as the author agrees not to make changes to the manuscript until we complete our edit.
  • We can work directly in Vellum files. Please note that there is no Track Changes option, so you will not be able to easily see our edits unless you manually compare our version of the file with your own original version.
  • For the visually impaired, we are happy to work with Scrivener for Mac.
  • We can also mark up short PDF documents (no more than ten pages) using highlighting and comments.

Have a different format? Contact us—we are flexible!

Payment
Proof Positive accepts PayPal payments only. There are two ways to submit payment for your manuscript service:

  1. You can pay us in full before we begin work.
  2. You can send half of your payment before we begin work and half the day before we return your manuscript.

*Total cost must be paid via PayPal before your manuscript is returned.

Post-release publicity
At our discretion, your manuscript may receive the following methods of publicity:

  • a book launch blog post on Proof Positive’s website and social media
  • your cover art permanently posted on Proof Positive’s website with a buy link

Regardless of which service you choose, we work in American English, British English, Australian English, and Canadian English, using the appropriate style guides.