Editorial Services |
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Ben W. Gardner | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Neonatal Critical Care So your manuscript is finished...or is it? Well, you've gone over it a dozen times, rewritten it twice, and agonized over your opening paragraph for four months. You've carried your baby for nine months (or longer) and finally delivered it. You've even had your wife or girlfriend (or both) read it over and they tell you love it. Will an agent or publisher? If you've already signed with Penguin Putnam, Daw, or Random House, they have a full editorial staff that will be more than happy to rip your manuscript apart for free, so you won't need me. If not, you're faced with several choices. You can start sending out query letters to agents and publishers along with samples chapters and wait for the inevitable rejections; join a writing or critique group and hope someone will read your manuscript and give good feedback and advice; bite the bullet and start checking up on subsidy publishers who could care less as long as your check doesn't bounce; or hire me. There are several reasons for you to consider for bringing me on to work on your manuscript; I've been editing and critiquing manuscripts for others for over three years now; I'm good at it; I don't have a life, so the turnaround is quick; I've been editing between eight and ten short-stories a day and averaging a novel every other month for several years; I enjoy it; and I'm cheaper than most services that have a humongous overhead to cover. There are three ways we can do this: I can perform line editing, full editing or major rewrites at a competitive rate so that your book will be all that it can be (without having to join the army). LINE (Standard) EDITINGThis covers basic grammar, punctuation and spelling (U.S. English - we'll negotiate for the Queen's English). Minor suggestions for lay-out changes. When I'm done you'll get an an email backup of your original as well as a copy with my suggestions embedded (along with at least one page of analysis). $0.50 US per page based on standard 8.5 x 11, double-spaced MS-Word doc, 12pt Courier font, with 1" margins all around (standard publisher's requirements). This works out to an average 250 words per page. It should only take 1-2 weeks to finish. FULL EDITINGBasic & advanced grammar changes (using either the Chicago Manual of Style or Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style), punctuation and spelling corrections, and some paragraph rewrites if required, but not more than 30% of the entire manuscript. Includes disk sent by regular mail, plus E-mail backup file. 3 consultations by E-mail after completion, if needed. $1.25 US per page based on standard 8.5 x 11, double-spaced Word document as above We're probably talking 3-4 weeks for completion. MAJOR REWRITESEvery so often, a book may come along that has a great premise, but there's just something not quite right with it. If your book falls in this category, you may be in need of a major rewrite. This service includes email and telephone consultations (if needed/or requested), a CD-ROM or Floppy Disk, hard copy printed out, shipped USPS Priority 2nd-day mail, and E-mail backup files. You're going to have to sign a separate editing contract, no exceptions. $5.00 per page based on standard 8.5 x 11, double-spaced document. You and I will probably take 6 months to do this right. For major rewrites, I'm going to ask for 15% of the total up-front. What? You only asked for an up-front payment for rewrites -- what gives? No strings. You trust me with your baby, I'll trust you with my money. If you don't like what I do, we're even (not really, I got to read some really neat stuff). Stupid business model? No, confidence. I know I can help like I've helped others and I'm confident that you'll find the service of value. In the end, I'll accept PayPal, personal checks or money orders. To make arrangements (or just send the manuscript) click here to get my attention SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTSI prefer Microsoft Word, but will accept
Word Perfect or Rich Text Format. These may be sent as E-mail attachments
(doggone right I'm going to scan them first!).
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