Is my book good enough?
Every author needs an editor; every book needs an edit. A good edit can transform a manuscript, turning ordinary into extraordinary — and editing yourself is almost impossible. Your competitors are other well-known authors: get the editing support they get.
“I have been correcting the proofs of my poems. In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence… In the afternoon I put it back again.”
The right edit for the shape your manuscript is in
At Authoright we pride ourselves on producing the best possible books. Unlike some other self-publishing houses, just putting what you have written between two covers and abandoning it is not what we do.
Structural edit & report
An intense, almost forensic assessment of every aspect of the manuscript — narrative, vocabulary, structure, characterisation, style and development. Our editors look for errors and inconsistencies, plot holes, irritating writing quirks and underdeveloped characters. This is the sort of edit you won’t get at other self-publishers, but which is standard in traditional publishing. Every final choice about your novel is yours to make — the genius of a great editor is to make suggestions that bring out the book’s ideas with more clarity, while retaining the voice of the writer.
Copy edit
Absolutely vital to any good book. A good copy editor has an eagle eye for detail — identifying errors in grammar and spelling, inconsistencies of terminology, and story logic that doesn’t hold up. We don’t want a character wandering onto page 73 who died on page 46! There has never been a manuscript submitted to any publisher, ever, that didn’t need a copy edit — yours included.
Proofread
The last link in the editing chain — the final comprehensive inspection of the manuscript, checking for any persisting errors missed in the previous in-depth edits. The proofread polishes the manuscript to perfection, so that what appears in the bookshops is exactly what you wanted. Ideally the proofreading editor is different from the editor who worked on the structural and copy edits — fresh eyes catch what familiar ones miss.
You want good Amazon reviews
Readers — AKA members of the public — can be brutal. People love to spot a typo. If your book has numerous errors, it will most likely land you with lots of one-star reviews. You don’t want that. A proofread will fix this.
Get Your Manuscript Assessed
Editors who work for major publishing houses
Our editorial team is led by Peter Salmon, a writer and editor with over 15 years of experience. Peter is also an author — his first novel, The Coffee Story (Sceptre, 2011), was a New Statesman Book of the Year. He has written frequently for TV and radio, and for broadsheets including the Guardian and the Sydney Review of Books.
We are putting our names to your work, so we demand the best — as you do too. If you’ve not had your work edited before it can be an exhilarating experience: after all that time and effort, your work is ready to be polished and sent out into the world.
The Concierge includes an edit as part of the package
Our full-service publishing solution takes your manuscript from first edit to international marketing campaign.
Learn About The Concierge