Editing Services for Authors

Structural Edit

You’ve had your amazing idea, written the words on the page, but aren’t sure about how it reads in terms of the big picture. A structural edit looks at your manuscript as a whole in terms of style, characterisation, setting, plot, pacing, consistency, themes, dialogue, POV, and narration.

This is the stage where material can be revised, reorganised, added, deleted, and refined to ensure the manuscript flows and reads like a book! I will look at the overall organisation of your content, identifying gaps, inconsistencies, and redundancy, ensuring themes, plot, and pacing all hit their mark for readers.

I will ask the deep questions, ensuring every aspect of your story is fleshed out and well-rounded, digging into the muscles and bones of what makes your story stand out. Does your story flow logically and seamlessly? Is the tension juicy in all the right places, and your characters well developed? Are the tone and language used appropriate for the genre? Is chapter length and order suitable? Does the pacing keep readers engaged?

By completion, I will ensure your book reads for your intended audience and provide a detailed analysis report, and markup of your manuscript with actionable advice and suggestions on how to improve the structure, giving specific examples from the manuscript.

Line Editing

So, your book has all the best things: the drama, the intrigue, and all the emotions, but you still fancy you need some tweaking and reorganisation of your sentences. This level of editing involves ensuring your tone and style of writing is clear, sharp, and consistent.

You should love your story and feel confident in your voice as an author. In this stage, you would think of me as your writing mentor, teaching you about the sentence-level of your craft, unique to your specific requirements. Are there words or phrases you’re inclined to rely on which become repetitive? Do you find yourself head-hopping between characters? Does getting lost in writing the scene cause the flow and pacing to stall. Is there dialogue that just isn’t scratching that itch?

With line editing, I will tighten up your prose, point out any confusing or awkward sentences and offer reworded suggestions, enhance emotion and tension in a scene if it feels lacking, and all-round make your reader feel what is being said.

Proofreading

Now you’ve gone through the deep edits, tightened up your story, you just need that final read from a fresh set of eyes to catch any trivial errors that found their way through the cracks. Proofreading is an important step to make sure your manuscript is the cleanest it can be. Consider it the top coat of editing, the last step that ensures all is neat and tidy and your book shines!

Once a manuscript has been formatted and ready for publishing, it is important to make sure no errors or inconsistencies have been missed in earlier edits. Proofreading offers a detailed look at your formatted manuscript focusing on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting. I will mark up any errors so that the author or typesetter can fix them.

This service can be combined with Line Editing at a reduced cost or as a stand-alone option.

Reviews

Paris works to engage with her author and create the best version of the manuscript possible, but while a lot of editors break out the red pen with a little too much enthusiam, Paris makes the experience as fun and joyful as possible - we're creating art, after all! - by responding not to just what is done wrong, but what is done right. She delights in a craft well applied - no project is ever "just a job" for her. Working with Paris is the next step your manuscript needs in its journey to become the book you envision.

Renee April

Director, SkyNation Publishing

Paris's structural and line edits are detailed, supportive, and highly professional. She has worked with Hawkeye for over two years and is a popular editor amongst our authors. Without a doubt, a structural or line edit with Paris will elevate your manuscript and deepen your characterisations. With her comprehensive experience working with a publishing house, Paris knows what's needed to have your manuscript considered for a trade contact.

Carolyn Martinez Director, Hawkeye Publishing

Paris has been a revelation. She was quick to respond and understood what was required to take my work to the next level. Her expertise from standard technical fixes to ways to improve the overall quality of my writing in key areas such as dialogue, structure, plot and characterisation was outstanding. Paris has an uncanny knack of "reading between the lines" and through her insightful suggestions focusing on flow, style and sentence structure, I was able to elevate my work to a publishable standard. Paris is an excellent practitioner of her profession and I have no hesitation in recommending her services to any writer wishing to become better at their craft.

Antonio De Ionno Author