amyedits is here to provide authors with a gloriously stress-free and professional editing service. Email me at contact@amyedits.co.uk or fill in a form to get a free quote.
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My promise
One requirement of my editing services (most notably my copy-editing services) that emerges time and time again is that the submitted manuscript needs to be perfect for publication. Of course, all copyeditors strive for perfection; a large part of our job is to make your writing grammatically correct, and perfection is expected and something we truly want to achieve. It is important, though, to understand the things that may get in the way of perfection and how they should be accepted as a possibility when working with me or any other editor.
+ Subjectivity
If I had a penny for every heated discussion I ever got into about punctuation and grammar I’d be a tremendously wealthy woman. There are certainly rules within the English language that are non-disputable, but, to the annoyance of writers and copyeditors alike, there are many that are very much up for debate. Every editor is as different as every writer and will have different opinions on what the “correct” usage of certain elements of the English language are and are not. Sometimes, half the battle is finding an editor that is right for you. Check what style guide your editor refers to or, if you have your own preferences, request they use them; a good editor should be able to work against any style guide, but even good editors disagree on some things.
+ Previous work on the manuscript
Perfection, if possible, is more or less likely depending on the history of your manuscript: how many eyes have laid eyes on it before me and how many edits it has seen. As you can probably guess the more people that check your text for errors, the more likely all errors will have been spotted by the end of the project. Going through multiple editors isn’t always possible for a Client; time and financial constraints make this especially difficult to do, but there is a reason why this is common practice in the industry. If your text has been through a structural editor and a line editor, who may have revisited the text several times, by the time I receive the text for a copy-edit I am likely to spot most-to-all errors because there are fewer of them. With a 100,000-word manuscript that has never seen an editor before, there is a much higher chance that the text has more errors. This makes the chance for missing an error more likely.
+ Human error
It is possible, to my absolute horror, that at some point I may miss something: the thought is enough to keep me up at night. Not only do I want your work to be as close to perfect as possible, but the love I have for my job means that I love the English language and seek to do well by it – always.
It’s not all doom and gloom
Don’t let all that put you off, though. Although these pesky variables may get in the way of my goal of perfection that any edit strives for, it is important to note that, as an editor, I am aware of these possibilities and will aim to avoid them to the best of my ability. I will never use any of these points to justify lax work. I will always work hard on your project and aim to never let you down. I aim to achieve this by being honest with you about what is and isn’t achievable and, whilst doing so, will live up to the expectation I lay out for you.
One thing I can guarantee is that your work will be markedly better after I’ve worked on it: that’s a promise.
My promise to you
That I will try my best for you. I will be vigilant and will always take the most care into striving for perfection;
That I will treat you and your manuscript with respect and will ensure all communications and work with and for the client is kept confidential;
That I will remain as unbiased as possible when it comes to my personal preferences regarding punctuation and grammar usage and endeavour to ensure only that your text is correct and the best version of itself;
That after looking at your manuscript initially, I will be upfront, honest, and realistic about what is possible and that I will live up to this assessment of what is possible.