Fiction Editing and Proofreading

WordsRU's professional editors understand how strongly you feel about the materials you create.

You want an editor who can improve the quality of your writing without losing your voice, who will help you make the most of your story without altering its integrity. Whether you are attempting your first novel or you make a living as a professional writer, WordsRU can match you with an expert editor who will address the troublesome problems that plague your manuscript.

552 259
Pages Edited

25 604
Happy Customers

Get Five-Star Reviews from Your Readers!

  • Mistakes cost you. Don’t publish your manuscript without a professional editing pass.
  • Preparation is key. Set yourself up for success with our expert feedback.
  • Sell more books. Turn your readers into loyal fans!

Learn More

We edit for results

Don't Take Our Word For It

Richard

Richard

March 09, 2024

(United States of America)

A repeat customer says it all.

Our writer areas of expertise

What WordsRU’s Fiction Editing
Service Can Do for You

WordsRU's professional editors can help make the most of your fiction writing. To that end, we will:

  • Edit your fiction for grammatical, spelling, punctuation, tense, and typographical errors
  • Review word choice and sentence structure to ensure that your language flows logically, using appropriate tone and style, to achieve a presentation that is clear, concise, and consistent
  • Take great care to preserve your voice and meaning
  • Provide comments to bring your attention to any issues with storyline, character, or theme
  • Address any particular areas of concern that you may have

Upon completion of the editing, your editor will return:

  • A marked copy, showing all corrections and comments*
  • A revised copy, with corrections accepted and comments removed*
  • A document with additional comments, recommendations, and suggestions that supplement the comments in the manuscript, if such exposition is necessary.

*Because PDFs are only a depiction of text that cannot be altered, the editor will return only one copy, with marks that show where and what changes are required. If you have us edit a PDF, you will have to go back to the original file and insert the changes yourself.

We are aware that you will likely require assistance after you have reviewed the edited work, and WordsRU will not close the door on your manuscript until you indicate that you are ready for us to do so. Once the edit is returned to you, your editor will:

  • Answer your questions
  • Explain any comments and recommendations provided in the edited document
  • Review specific, short passages of text that you have revised or rewritten per the comments.

Finally, every editing project is overseen from start to finish by the chief editor, who will monitor the progress of your project and provide assistance to you if necessary. While communication with your editor occurs through our secure messaging system, your chief editor is available to you if you need to speak to someone "live."

WordsRU literary fiction editors provide valuable advice on ways to improve the story line, character development, and description in your manuscript. They bring an entirely fresh vocabulary set and phrasing solutions to help liven up your writing and give it the biggest impact.

Developmental Letter

A first draft is never perfect the first time around. In many cases, the manuscript can be vastly improved by deleting entire scenes, combining characters, and changing the order of events, the point of view, the perspective, or some combination of these. There is no reason for you to invest in a line-by-line edit of text that you might end up changing entirely. Instead, let WordsRU's fiction book editors show you how and where to improve on all aspects of your writing.

In the developmental letter option, one of our book editors performs a close reading of your manuscript, making short comments on the document to mark examples of issues. After completing the reading, the editor will write a 5 to 10 page letter identifying issues, providing suggestions and guidance, and assessing the manuscript on a number of levels, including:

  • Perspective and point of view
  • Character development and consistency
  • Plot development and story arc
  • Scene formation/description
  • Formation of paragraphs and sentences
  • Grammatical, punctuation, and spelling patterns

WordsRU's developmental letter service provides you with the objective feedback and tools you need to hone your story and improve your story-telling ability. This is an excellent option for anyone who has just completed a first draft and wants advice on how to improve the work as a whole.

Final Proofread

Copyediting and formatting, while essential to the bookmaking process, do not guarantee a print-perfect product. In fact, the rearranging and transformations that are integral to these processes sometimes result in typos, odd sentences, and missing text.

Make sure that your book is truly ready for the public eye! WordsRU will assign an objective, fastidious editor to make a final pass over the text to make sure that there are no unresolved formatting, design, or textual issues. Let WordsRU bring your manuscript to its perfect shine.

Copyedit

Once you feel confident in the overall organization, pacing, content, and consistency of your manuscript as a whole, a proper copyedit can make the language of your book really shine. WordsRU's expert copyeditors stand ready to assess every line of your manuscript with an eye for improvement. Most books will go through several rounds of book editing before they are published, and these days, most publishers only want to invest in the final book proofread, which is the typos and errors part. Most hobby editors — your friends and family who look over the book and show you where you've confused "their" and "there" — aren't equipped to provide the finesse, feedback, and literary solutions that our professional book editors have at their disposal. That's why WordsRU offers a proper copyedit with our Plus Service.

A copyedit is so much more than the correction of basic grammar and spelling mistakes! Our book editors assimilate to your unique style and tone, and enhance your manuscript from the inside, altering sentences and paragraphs to improve:

  • Description
  • Dialog
  • Awkward phrasing
  • Word choice
  • Clarity
  • Flow
  • Any particular areas of concern that you may have

A ll while taking great care to preserve your voice and meaning. He or she will also provide comments to bring your attention to any issues with storyline, character, or theme.

Cover and Query Letters

Your cover or query letter is the face of your book, and publishing companies see thousands of submissions every year. A dynamite letter will inspire publishing companies and agents to read your first pages, while a so-so letter might mean that your manuscript goes in the recycle bin without having a sentence of it read.

WordsRU's knowledgeable literary fiction editors make sure that your manuscript stands out from the crowd! They will not only give your cover or query letter a thorough edit to correct basic language difficulties, but will also give your letter that necessary punch to be noticed above and beyond the competition, as well as provide you with invaluable feedback on how to improve the letter's impact.

Formatting

Publishing companies and agents have submission guidelines for a reason; there is nothing more odious than struggling with a manuscript that does not follow directions. If you are confident in your manuscript's organization, pacing, and language, and are ready to begin submitting the manuscript to agents and publishing companies, WordsRU's formatting service will give your book a professional polish that shows you mean business.

Rather than dealing with the tedious work of ensuring the appropriate spacing, headers and footers, pagination, indentation, and margining is followed on every single page, let WordsRU's detail-oriented formatters do the work for you. Our formatting service can include the preparation and packaging of tables, figures, and images, for an additional fee.

Given your manuscript, supplementary material, and the relevant submission guidelines, WordsRU will provide you with an impeccably formatted document, organized supplementary files and folders, and a personalized checklist of steps to take before mailing your manuscript. With WordsRU, the submissions process is as easy as 1, 2, 3!