My goal as an editor is to convey your message to the reader in the best possible way. A text must be developed editorially to satisfy both author and publisher, so I exercise editorial awareness, reasoning, and judgment when your documents are in my care.

Editing modifies material written by an author for publication; editing can reword to correct or to alter the emphasis of the original words. To achieve the editorial Cardinal C of Communication, my four chief concerns are the Four Cs— Clarity, Coherency, Consistency, and Correctness. 

As Joseph M. Williams wrote in Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, "What we write always seems clearer to us than it does to our readers, because we can read into it what we want them to get out of it." Professional editing can make the difference between a brilliant idea poorly communicated and thus not understood, and a brilliant idea clearly expressed that results in reader understanding and desired results.

Editorial Specializations

AUTHOR SERVICES

Book manuscripts
My first editing love is to help authors complete book manuscripts. My editorial services include light, medium, or heavy copyediting as well as content and developmental editing. I will work with you, the author, to determine the level of editing needed based on 1) your requirements, and 2) my assessment of the manuscript. Please review my editorial services and rates, and contact me. We can work out a plan that fits within your budget.

Book proposals
When editing a book proposal, you may need more than a copyeditor to catch errors. I can convert your draft into a strong proposal that lands you a literary agent, or that is good enough to pitch directly to publishers. This might require developmental editing or content editing (see below), or writing (see Writing Services page).

Essays and chapter submissions
I treat essays and chapters like a book manuscript, with meticulous care. I will work with you to determine the level of editing needed.

Dissertations and theses
Understandably, as a PhD or master's degree candidate, you agonize over reaching a high standard of perfection in your documents. Thus, please note that I do not accept rush editing projects for dissertations or theses. I need sufficient time to edit the work. I also require that in-text citations and bibliographical references are 100% complete before I will accept responsibility for cross-checking references.

TECHNICAL EDITING

I will work with your developmentalt staff, technical consultants, or subject matter experts to ensure your text is accurate, clear, concise, and cohesive. I work with various style guides including APA, MLA, Chicago, and MSTP to edit technical documents, including:

Manuals, instructions, descriptions, definitions

Web copy

White papers and other technical articles

Collaborative digital applications (blogs, wikis, multi-modal compositions)

BUSINESS & PUBLIC RELATIONS EDITING

Executive correspondence (persuasive directives, letters, memos, emails)

Executive summaries and recommendation reports

Newsletters, print or digital

Brochures and booklets

Profiles and biographies, individual or company

Feature stories

Press releases

 

Editorial Levels & Services

I work with you, the author, to determine the level of editing needed, determined by 1) your requirements, and 2) my assessment of your manuscript.  You can provide me with a hard copy or an electronic version of the text. I will return my edited version to you in that format.  If electronic, I will use a digital editing process compatible with your needs, such as Microsoft’s “tracking changes” in a Word doc (my preferred program).  I have both Mac and PC capabilities. I offer various levels of editing to meet your needs:

LIGHT COPYEDITING

Original text is clean, mostly correct, and serviceable (light corrections are required; your writing doesn't need to be changed overall). I will:

1. ensure the document conforms to your required style (specific house or manual of style) through mechanical editing (spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, punctuation, treatment of numbers, numerals, quotations, abbreviations, acronyms, italics and bold type);
2. attend to those errors that would be most confusing to your readers or embarrassing to the publisher or to you as the author, i.e. correct serious grammatical errors (i.e. subject-verb agreement, dangling modifiers);
3. query obvious factual inconsistencies;
4. cross-check the numbering of pages, contents, footnotes, tables, figures;
5. cross-check captions to illustrations and illustration/caption lists;
6. point out items that may cause difficulty in publication, i.e. width of a table.
   
   

MEDIUM COPYEDITING

Original text requires more than light copyediting due to quantity of errors in grammar and syntax. Text contains areas of wordiness, lack of clarity or cohesion, facts that seem incorrect, or gaps in logic. I will:

1. make simple revisions to smooth awkward passages;
2. revise extensive use of passive voice to active voice;
3. break up overly long sentences and paragraphs;
4. edit for redundancies and repetitions;
5. catch and query internal consistencies in facts (i.e. counts, populations, years), textual references to charts, tables, bibliographies, citations;
6. read the footnotes or endnotes against the bibliography;
7. request definitions of terms likely to be new to readers;
8. catch quotes or references to authors that require citations to prevent plagiarism (where citations are not supplied or supplied incorrectly);
9. call your attention to text or illustrations that might be construed by the reader as alleging libel, invasion of privacy, or unintended obscenity.
   
   

HEAVY COPYEDITING

I apply heavy copyediting to texts that require significant correction in grammar, wording, syntax, structure, logic, and/or organization. Heavy editing might be needed for non-native English texts that need revision for standard English. Heavy copyediting might be considered a rewrite.

CONTENT EDITING, SUBSTANTIVE EDITING

Content editing is making wholesale revisions or additions to a well-developed manuscript, such as writing new text line by line in areas of the manuscript. If you bring me a 10-page treatment and ask me to develop it into a 250-page manuscript, I'd say that's new writing, not editing. Content editing is typically done by agents as part of author development of book proposals, or by in-house editors within publishing houses during the editorial production of a book. So, depending on the text you provide and amount of work you request, this might be classified as new writing or rewriting rather than editing. I have to see the manuscript.

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING

By reorganizing or restructuring a manuscript, I develop your manuscript into a cohesive text with a comprehensible story line that clearly communicates your message to the reader. This might include rearranging the order of the chapters and doing substantive editing needed to transition between chapters. Authors who can't seem to make their story work in its present sequence usually benefit from developmental editing.

PUBLICATION DESIGN

Editing does not include document design or making decisions about the physical appearance of the publication, such as typefaces, page layouts, formatting of tables, typographical treatment of titles and headings, layout of illustrations, and layout of front and back matter. This is publication design. At your request, I can price this service into your project.

PROOFREADING

Proofreading is not editing. Proofreading corrects errors introduced during the typing/typesetting, formatting, or file conversion of a final document. This requires close reading, patience, and precision versus writing ability. I require the proof and a pre-proof copy to read against. Table 1 shows factors that affect proofreading rates.

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Editorial Rates

I base editing rates on the number of pages I edit per hour with two passes per page. Table 1 shows the factors used to estimate editing time and rates. Once I read your manuscript in the version you want me to edit, I will quote you my rates. I can give you a “ballpark estimate” before I see the manuscript, but that estimate is subject to change once I determine the condition of the text.

I understand many of your needs as an author because I am an author, too.  So I anticipate that you might tell me, “I think this is poorly written, but I only have a budget for light editing.” Or, “This text probably needs heavy editing, but I need a faster turnaround so I only have time for medium editing.” I match my services with your requirements.
                                                   
 
Table 1. Editorial Time: Pages per hour (pph), two passes per page

Editing Level/Service	Standard Text	Difficult Text
	Text is clean, double-spaced, 250 - 300 words per page, non-technical language, 1” margins. Pages have few small or no tables, figures, footnotes, endnotes, reference citations. Manuscript may have a short, well-prepared bibliography.	Text contains many typographical errors or non-standard English. Word count exceeds 300 words per page. Font is difficult to read (very small or decorative). Text is technical, contains many specialized terms, tables, figures, footnotes, or endnotes. Reference citations are inconsistent, incomplete, or poorly prepared. Difficult onscreen texts include idiosyncratic spacing, extraneous formatting codes, and improperly formatted layouts.
Light copyediting	6 - 9 pph	4 - 6 pph
Medium copyediting	4 - 7 pph	2 - 4 pph
Heavy copyediting	2 - 3 pph	1 - 2 pph
Content editing	quoted per project	quoted per project
Developmental editing	quoted per project	quoted per project
Publication design	quoted per project	quoted per project
Proofreading	use light copyediting for an estimate	use light copyediting for an estimate

       
Additional factors that determine the level of editing also include: 

1. The schedule (normal or rush) and budget for editing;
2. The importance of the publication to the author;
3. Comprehensibility by the intended audience. 
   
   
   

Requesting Rates & Quotes

Please contact me for current editing rates of pages per hour or per project rates.
Rates average $20 - $30 per hour, depending on the editorial level needed.
Proofreading rates average $15 to $20 per hour.
Prices for specialized materials with complex nomenclature or exceptionally difficult texts can be higher.

Call me in Atlanta at 678-640-0535. When you use my website quote form to email me a request for a quote,
I will respond within 24 hours of receiving your request, and then again within 48 hours after reading your materials.
If you need a faster response, please call me and let me know that.

QUOTE FORM

 

Please note author responsibilities that do not fall under editorial responsibilities:

1. Provision of text in a hard copy version or digital file format transferrable
   electronically between author and editor;
2. Factual correctness of content; however, I assist your work by querying
   facts and figures that appear questionable;
3. Permissions for quotations under copyright, reprints of tables, charts,
   graphs, photos, and illustrations that have appeared in print; permissions
   for reproduction of unpublished materials such as letters and diary excerpts.

         
Thank You!

I look forward to reviewing your project, and I appreciate the opportunity
to provide editorial services to help you achieve your objectives.

                                                                    - Karen Pressley
                                                         

 

Frequently asked terms

grammar	The elements and rules of the English language that determine the relations between words.
style guides	Refers to writing, editing, and publication guidelines designated by the house (company) or specific organizations, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association (APA) style, Associated Press (AP) style, Modern Language Association (MLA), Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (MSTP), or Turabian style.
syntax	The dynamic relations between words shaped by codes of language that result in connections, relations, and contextual meanings of text.
voice, active and passive	Active voice typically puts the source of an action in the subject, and puts the receiver of an action in a direct object (i.e. I lost the book). In passive voice, the sentence typically sounds flat, wordy, or vague, because the subject names the goal of the action (i.e. The book was lost by me).