Zaragoza Editing Services

*For all submissions, a query letter is required before receiving a final quote for services. Query letter must include:

• Manuscript/Book Title 
• A synopsis of the story you’re writing
• A summary of where you want the book to go
• A short author bio
• An excerpt from the manuscript (at least five pages)

Editorial Assessment

You have finally finished writing your manuscript and want to proceed to the next step in publishing it. Or maybe you’re stuck in the writing process and can’t figure out what’s missing or stumping you. Perhaps you just want some fresh eyes on a work-in-progress. Then you need an editorial assessment.

This service will critique your manuscript (whether it’s finished or not) broadly on the following:

• Plot
• Theme
• Characterization
• Structure of storyline
• Big grammar issues
• Writing style 

Think of an editorial assessment like a book review, only much more in-depth and without a star rating. It should precede a developmental edit (which is an even more in-depth, more time-consuming, and more costly) service, especially if your manuscript is unfinished. This assessment will be in the form of an editorial letter.

In addition to a critique, this service includes a revision plan; a roadmap to either help you write the next draft of your manuscript or help you navigate through the rest of your current one.

 Developmental Edit

If an editorial assessment is the book review, the developmental edit (also known as substantive or structural edit) is the grading of your manuscript—without the actual grade and paranoia of a dropping GPA.

This service is a thorough edit of your manuscript because it looks for:

• Line by-line inconsistencies
• Chunky words or phrases
• Characterization and character development
• Structural problems— chapter, section, or heading inconsistencies
• Plot— holes, inconsistencies, fact-checking
• Clarity of theme

 This service will also include a revision plan as well as suggested readings, websites, and workshops to help you rewrite your draft. Manuscripts should be completed and formatted properly before being submitted for a developmental edit.

Copy Edit

Think of this service as a human (and better) spell check button. While there are many programs that check for misspellings, grammatical issues, and punctuation mistakes, this service also edits for the following:

• Word choices
• Writer’s intentions are supported through the language of the manuscript
• Style consistency—typography, punctuation, numbers, spellings, characters, real people and places
• Consistency and clarity of timeline of events

·       Reedsy.com succinctly defines a copy editor as “a language technician.” This service edits your manuscript solely through a linguistic lens, so it does not focus on plot, theme, character development, etc.

Proofread

Your manuscript is developmentally edited and copy edited and has been formatted into a real book. Before you send it to the printers or upload it as an e-book, you need to make sure there are no last punctuational stragglers. You need a proofread.

A proofread is the final step in the editing process. It’s the last line of defense against spelling and punctuation mistakes, but also checks for accuracy in the following:

·        Aesthetics for print books

·        Page design and numbering

·        Chapter names

·        Style

·        Placement and captioning for photos

This service gets confused a lot with copy editing. The simplest difference is this: copy editing happens before the manuscript has been formatted into a book, and proofreading happens after that.