You've spent what seems like an eternity writing your first draft, and you've gone back and fixed the obvious flaws. Now, after being immersed in the project for so long, you find that you're losing perspective. Maybe something is off, but you're not sure what. Or you want the book to be shorter, but you have no idea which passages to cut. Or you've been looking at the same text for so long, you've lost the ability to tell if it's any good.
Before you submit your manuscript for publication, or even for copyediting, consider developmental editing or a manuscript critique.
Developmental editing: Despite the name, developmental editing isn't what most people think of as "editing." Rather than make direct revisions to the text, I read your entire manuscript and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, giving you a sense of what you'll need to address when you begin your next draft. The focus is on big-picture issues like suitability for the intended audience, structure, concept, plotting, characterization, believability, and clarity. In addition to summarizing the biggest issues in an editorial letter, I'll flag instances throughout the manuscript using Microsoft Word's commenting feature.
Price: Please submit your manuscript for a quote
Manuscript critique: Like developmental editing, a manuscript critique provides a summary of your book's strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn't include comments in the margins, and the recommendations are less exhaustive, focusing on the most important issues to tackle in your next revision.
Price: Starts at $1,200 for novel-length works