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Services We Offer

EDITORIAL LETTER
An editorial letter critiques the main points of the story, including character development, world-building, and plot. This is a broad look at your book, addressing overarching problems.

  • For manuscripts up to 30,000 words: $225
  • For manuscripts 30,000–55,000 words: $375
  • For manuscripts 55,000–80,000 words: $475
  • For manuscripts 80,000–100,000 words: $550
  • For manuscripts over 100,000 words: Please get in touch for a quote.

Keep in mind:
No in-line comments will be included with the editorial letter.
Upon booking, you will have the option of a per-word rate or an hourly rate for the editing services below.

We recommend the hourly rate, because we feel it's most fair to authors.
Here's why.


DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING: $65/hour or  $0.028/word
This is the most intense form of editing, which considers the story as a whole to ensure a seamless, engrossing plot told with realistic yet captivating characters. This stage will most drastically reshape your story, suggesting reorganization and the removal/addition of sections, or entire scenes, and offering specific recommendations to improve the overall depth and quality of your plot, world-building, and characters.


Keep in mind:
Developmental editing includes both concrete, in-line suggestions and a detailed editorial letter.
LINE EDITING: $65/hour or  $0.028/word
This round of editing meticulously goes through your text, developing voice; examining scene structure, tone, and pacing; polishing word choice and style; pointing out ambiguous, awkward, or repetitive phrasing; and catching any inconsistencies.


Keep in mind:
Line editing assumes that problems of plot, world-building, or characterization have been handled in previous rounds of editing.
COPY EDITING: $55/hour or  $0.018/word
This round of editing focuses on mechanics, correcting errors in grammar, punctuation, word choice, spelling, and more. It catches everything from overused words and modifier errors to inconsistencies remaining from previous rounds of revision.

Keep in mind:
Though copy editing may flag some stylistic elements, it is a lighter pass than line editing and focuses on the technical elements of writing.

PROOFREADING:  $0.008/word
This is the final polish done to catch typos, lingering grammatical mistakes, and basic formatting issues, performed once the content itself does not need any correction.

To ensure fresh eyes for your project, if one of our editors performed your developmental and/or line edit, the other would perform your copy edit or proofread.




Keep in mind:
If any of your content will change, hold off on having your text proofread, as it will need to be proofread again once those changes are incorporated.

What We Edit:


GENRES
  • Dystopian
  • Erotica
  • Fantasy
  • Historical
  • Literary fiction
  • Magical realism
  • Mainstream fiction
  • Mystery


  • Post-apocalyptic
  • Romance
  • Science fiction
  • Suspense
  • Urban fantasy
  • Women's fiction

CATEGORIES
  • Young Adult
  • New Adult
  • Adult

Touchstone Editing is committed to supporting marginalized voices and treating all authors and their stories with respect.

Works in most genres listed will be handled by the editor with the earliest availability. To ensure you receive the best editorial services possible, developmental and line editing for certain genres or categories will be handled by the editor most familiar with that genre or category.

Please note that we reserve the right to refuse any project. If you feel your book may have objectionable material or aren’t sure whether we’re the right fit for your story, please contact us to discuss details.