Line Editing
Reading back your novel, do you worry that those sentences which sounded so good in your head don’t read quite so crisply or distinctively on the page? Is there a flatness or a fuzziness to the prose? Is your authorial voice not shining through as much as it could?
If any of those questions resonate with you, then you probably need a line edit. This is an important step in the process of refining your writing, and it’s the best way to make your prose powerful and your voice distinct.
Line edits are for works whose big questions are settled but which could do with some polish at the sentence level. It’s about making your words flow from one to the next, nailing the rhythm of the prose, and drawing out your voice and your style. In the process, a good line editor will ruthlessly purge clichés and tighten the writing so that every word is put to work – and every one sounds like you.
A line edit is not the same as a developmental edit, which is concerned with the guts of a novel: things like plot and character. If your structure isn’t right, or your novel still needs a major revision before a line edit would be worth it, I’ll tell you (and perhaps point you in the direction of a manuscript assessment while I’m at it).
If developmental edits are for the big picture, and proofreading and copy editing are carried out on a more granular level, then line editing sits somewhere in-between. It’s not about dotting and crossing – it’s about making sure those i’s and t’s belong on the page in the first place. If you trust me to edit your book, I’ll clean up any errors and typos as I go, but line editing isn’t a substitute for proper proofing and forensic spell checking in advance of publication.
What Is Line Editing?
Why Me?
Choose me as your editor, and you’ll be enlisting a specialist stylist whose fiction has been shortlisted for major awards including the Nero Book Award and the Betty Trask Prize.
I’ve also edited an array of traditionally published novels and non-fiction books, working on behalf of both authors and publishers in the process.
Pricing
Prices for a line edit start at £65 per 1,000 words. The length and condition of a manuscript will determine the final price. Once I’ve edited the opening few pages of your manuscript, I’ll be able to give you an exact quote.
Send me an email with your manuscript attached. Let me know your word count, genre, and how many revisions or edits the book has already been through.
I’ll start by conducting a sample edit on the first 1,000 words or so. This gives me a chance to familiarise myself with your work and check that it’s ready for a line edit (as opposed to, say, a full rewrite). This will also give you a chance to check that you like my work before I quote for the full project.
I’ll return your sample with changes tracked so you can see how I work, and if there are any recurring problems, I’ll be sure to let you know. Proper edits take time, so think in terms of a month or two for the full thing – although I’ll be able to give a more precise indication when I quote.
By default, the entire process is confidential (but if you’d like to name me in your acknowledgements when you do get published, I won’t stop you).
If you’d like me to work on your book, send your pages to georgeharrisonwriter@gmail.com and I’ll get started on a no-obligation sample edit. I look forward to working with you.