Editing Services
"Making a Better Writer, Not Just Better Writing"
Out Of Office
Nichole is not currently accepting new clients.
Edits for Anything Under 10,000 Words
essays, résumés, Book Reports, Research Papers, articles, College applications, short stories, theses, website content, speeches, blogs, query letters, and more
Contact me, and we'll discuss which types of editing would most benefit you and your writing. Check out the categories below for descriptions of each type of editing service I offer.
My Editing Credentials
I've had six years of freelance editing experience.
I graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in English and Linguistics and a minor in Editing. My senior year, I acted as President of BYU's editing club, Stet: The Editor's Network.
As a Writing/Grammar Tutor at BYU's Writing Center, I gave editorial feedback to over 450 students on various projects.
I was an editorial intern at the New Era and Liahona magazines, working with articles at all stages of the editing process.
Check out a complete list of my writing awards and publications here.
Developmental Editing ($.01 per word)
Developmental editing hones the big-picture components of your writing like theme, organization, point of view, characterization, and plot. Developmental edits are best for early drafts, as implementing them requires extensive revisions and deletions. They skip over grammatical and punctuation issues since many of the sentences around them will likely change anyway.
Developmental editing helps you narrow your focus and avoid tangents. It addresses organization, flow, and transitions and ensures that your writing is heading in the right general direction to achieve your goals. Developmental editing ensures that your plot, point of view, and characterization all serve your writing's greater purpose.
A completed developmental edit will include in-line comments and a detailed editorial letter describing the biggest areas of concern and suggesting larger-scale revisions and deletions. I will point out both things that are working well in your writing and things that aren't.
Line Editing ($.015 per word) (prose execution)
Rather than focus on larger-scale components like plot, organization, character arc, and theme, line editing studies how each sentence is constructed. It's one of the final polishes that a piece of writing goes through, usually after several rounds of developmental edits.
Line editing trims down unnecessary words and fixes issues like repetitive sentence structures, weak verbs, and ambiguity. It addresses voice and style and considers word choice, emphasis, rhythm, and general execution of the prose.
When you purchase a line edit, you can expect to have your writing returned to you with edits inserted through the body, using the Comments and Track Changes features in Word. These notes will point out and explain specific issues and usually provide a rewritten example that solves or mitigates the problem. At the end of the piece, an editorial letter will summarize the main issues and tendencies to watch out for in your writing.
Copy Editing ($.03 per word)
This is the final round of edits a piece of writing should go through. It focuses exclusively on punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Copy edits makes your writing technically correct while changing the words as little as possible. I do not recommend purchasing a copy edit unless you have had at least one other round of serious edits and revisions, either with me or with another editor.
All changes made during a copy edit will be noted using the Track Changes feature in Word. Some of the more frequent errors may be pointed out in comments or in an editorial letter, but if the problems are fairly straight-forward, you may not receive any additional commentary.
Other Editing Policies
Any editing package comes with an open invitation to email me with questions about my edits for two weeks, starting the day I return your edits.
Deadlines will be agreed upon on an individual basis. However, with shorter pieces of writing, I can usually guarantee a five business day turnaround. There is an extra fee of 30% for rush editing jobs.
There is a minimum payment of $20 for any editing package and $10 for any pieces within the package. Payment is required before any editing is done and will be completely or partially refunded should I fail to keep to agreed upon deadlines. Fees are subject to change based on the state of the writing offered, but will always be made clear to the client and agreed upon before any work is started.
I reserve the right to refuse services based on content, preferences, or scheduling.