Once an author has drafted a book, he or she may need help ordering chapters, brainstorming stories, and troubleshooting along the way. Keeping target audience, tone, author voice, and word count in mind, we offer guidance for the evolving manuscript through a detailed editorial memo and queries within the manuscript. Depending on the particular situation, we may also implement the changes we are suggesting for the author to review. Different versions of this service may go by names like “developmental editing,” “substantive editing,” “content editing,” “book doctoring,” and “macro editing.”

Our team of expert proofreaders handle pre-production proofs, typeset proofs, and format checks to make sure all spelling, grammar, punctuation, quotations, formatting, headings, bibliographies, and notes are accurate and ready for press.

Sometimes an author benefits from having a sounding board during the vulnerable writing process. We have years of experience providing professional advice and direction throughout those writing weeks and months.

This is a one-time service in which we read a manuscript and provide a report on its marketability and content. The critique can range from “just the high points” to a detailed analysis, depending on the client’s need.

If an author doesn’t have the time or skill to write alone, Edit Resource can pair up with him or her to get the job done. This can involve interviewing the author, working with his or her talks, developing blog posts and other raw material, or all of the above. Our aim is to present the author’s ideas with authenticity and impact.

We provide back cover copy, flap copy, keyword search-engine optimized Amazon copy, catalog copy, sales tip sheets, headlines, consumer summaries, interview questions, content packets for in-house use, blog posts, press releases, and reading plans for fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, gift, and curriculum products. Having written marketing copy for hundreds of books over the years, we are experienced at writing to the publisher’s or author’s specifications regarding word count, tone, and audience.

At the copy-editing stage, we carefully edit a manuscript for grammar, spelling, consistency, word choice, concision, accuracy, and clarity.

Our highly experienced indexers create topical or other indexes based on a manuscript’s unique needs, always keeping audience and page space in mind. We offer indexing for everything from cookbooks to quote books to historical nonfiction.

Presenting a strong book proposal is the first step in getting a literary agent or an in-house editor to take note of a book. The process of writing a proposal also helps the author crystallize the book’s content, message, audience, and tone. We’ve worked with many authors and agents to revise proposal drafts or write new proposals that have gone on to get publishing contracts.

This is a specialized type of manuscript evaluation (sometimes called “sensitivity reading”) for all genres in which a beta reader pays attention to unconscious bias or inaccuracies related to issues outside of the author’s experience. Our authenticity readers specifically focus on race, ethnicity, disability, adoption, and the immigration experience.

Great texts can often find a wider audience in the market if reimagined or repurposed. We can take a book and use it to create a related work book, study guide, or other derivative or ancillary product.