Editing Services
At Declaration, we want to help make your writing the best it can be. Whether you are in need of someone to help you assess your manuscript’s plot, characters, or argument, or are in need of a second set of eyes to help clean up your grammar and spelling, we have a service that’s suited for you. For authors planning to self-publish their books, we offer disconnected bundle packages on comprehensive editing and design services. For information on our rates, please e-mail us at info@declarationediting.com.
Services for Writers
Editorial Response Letters: The Place to Begin
This is a basic service for authors interested in receiving honest feedback about their writing. An editor will read an author’s manuscript from beginning to end and write a brief response letter (4—6 pages) that discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript, offers broad advice for revision, and answers specific questions the author has about big-picture issues. This service is best suited for authors who are new to the world of publishing.
Developmental Editing: Seeing the Big Picture
Editing at this level focuses on large-scale issues of content and organization. It is here that an editor and author discuss such things as plot development, narrative style, clarity of thesis, and organization of chapters. The editor provides in-depth analysis of the writing to help the author revise and solidify a manuscript’s content.
Substantive Editing: Cleaning up the Clutter
Editing at this level is what most people think of when they think of editing. It covers everything from grammar and spelling to minor weaknesses in character and plot development. During a substantive edit, an editor works chapter by chapter through a manuscript to identify inconsistencies in argument or plot, to clarify confusing phrases, to level out the pacing of the manuscript, and to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word usage. Throughout the process, the editor stays in close contact with the author, taking care to keep the author’s intent and message intact.
Copyediting: Smoothing out the Rough Edges
Editing at this level focuses on language over content. During the copyediting process, an editor works word by word through a manuscript, correcting all errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word usage. An editor also works to conform the manuscript to the standards of style preferred by most publishers and agents. When the copyediting process is complete, the manuscript is at its most polished.
Submission Preparation: Getting a Foot in the Door
Equipped with our knowledge of what publishers and agents look for, we can help authors develop the perfect submission packages for their manuscripts. This service varies from author to author and manuscript to manuscript.
Services For Business
We do more than just books. For business owners, we offer our basic copyediting and proofreading services plus freelance writing and style guide development services. For information on how we can help your business improve its standard of communication, e-mail us at info@declarationediting.com or call us at 503.706.7800. And by the way, we offer discounted rates for nonprofit organizations.
Freelance Writing
If you are looking for someone to write a press release, employee handbook, company newsletter, or other important document that has been sitting on the back burner, look no further. All you have to do is tell us the crux of what you want to say. From there, we can handle the rest. And, if you want to keep the outsourcing of your written work a secret, we promise not to tell anyone.
Style Guide Development
An in-house style guide is an invaluable tool for bringing consistency to all your written materials. The guide serves as a record of the decisions you make regarding the treatment of problematic words or phrases. By making an in-house style guide available to all your employees, you are doing them a tremendous favor. Instead of guessing which words you want capitalized, which numbers you want spelled out, and which phrases you never want to see in a company document, your employees can simply refer to the style guide for the company’s preferred method of treatment. This results in a higher level of consistency from one document to the next, which of course makes the company look good.
To help you develop an in-house style guide, we will examine existing company writings to identify words and phrases that are inconsistently used from one writer to the next and from one document to the next. We will then help you make concrete decisions on how to treat these words and phrases, and also how to handle the most commonly frustrating gray areas of the English language. When we are done, you will be left with a document that will streamline the writing and editing process for you and your employees.
