Turn Your Story into a Book Readers Can’t Put Down.
A compelling story draws readers into the world you’ve created. Inconsistencies, repetitive wording, awkward sentences, and errors can pull readers out of your story and lessen its impact. You are even more likely to lose the attention of your reader if there are major issues with your plot or characters.
At Book Magic, we provide three levels of editing, starting with proofreading and moving on to copy editing and structural editing. We will polish your manuscript while preserving the individual voice that makes your story stand out. Our editors have decades of experience making structural edits, copy edits, and proofreading fiction, and we know exactly what to look for to strengthen your manuscript while maintaining its unique tone.
What We Look For
Proofreading addresses the basics, such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typos. We also ensure consistency in style throughout your manuscript. Whether you prefer Canadian, U.S., or UK spelling, lots of commas or very few, we create a style sheet and standardize spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and formatting from beginning to end.
Copy editing includes proofreading, but we also examine the manuscript as a whole for inconsistencies and redundancies that can detract from your story. This is particularly important in novels. Perhaps a character is introduced as a 14-year-old nephew in Chapter 2, but suddenly, he’s 11 in Chapter 17, and no time travel was involved! Or the name of a character’s spouse changes halfway through the story. We flag these issues and bring them to your attention. When appropriate, we identify repetitive words, phrases, or ideas. A good editor notices these patterns and suggests synonyms or alternate depictions, which leads to a more varied style of writing.
Structural editing is an entirely different ballgame. It involves a comprehensive review of your story, where we examine your characters, plot, dialogue, and narration in great detail. We go paragraph by paragraph and make changes directly in your document to strengthen the character arc and tighten the story. Characterization is a common concern. An author may describe a character as devious or underhanded several times throughout a novel, reducing the impact of those descriptions. We might show this duplicity through action rather than describing it in narrative. For example, instead of saying outright that Mark is a shady guy, we could have him stay late at the office and submit fraudulent invoices. Structural editing involves looking at the big picture of structure and organization, pacing and narrative flow, clarity and coherence, and character and theme development. We might make notes in the margin asking for clarification or elaboration in certain parts of the story. Or we might reduce, remove, or condense material to tighten your story and cut parts that drag or repeat themselves.
Proofreading
Our proofreading service includes:
- Correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typos
- Flagging confusing or unclear sentences
- Requesting clarification
- Checking consistency in capitalization and punctuation
- Ensuring that chapter titles in the Table of Contents match titles in the text
- Delivering a polished final manuscript
Rate: 1 cent per word
Copy Editing
Our copy-editing service includes everything in the proofreading package, plus:
- Creating and applying a style sheet
- Standardizing spelling and usage according to Canadian, U.S., or UK English conventions
- Identifying repetitive words, phrases, and ideas
- Suggesting improvements for clarity and readability
- Flagging continuity issues and inconsistencies
- Removing redundancies
- Ensuring consistency in chapter titles, headings, and formatting
The result is a clean, polished manuscript that is ready for agents, publishers, or self-publication.
Rate: 1.5 cents per word
Structural Editing
- Evaluating overall manuscript structure and organization
- Improving pacing, narrative flow, and transitions
- Identifying gaps in content and areas requiring expansion or development
- Strengthening characterization, plot development, and central themes
- Recommending revisions to openings, conclusions, and chapter sequencing
Rate: 3 cents per word.
Please inquire about our free sample edits of 800–1,000 words and our flexible payment plans.
