Queries – press@jpdaltonbooks.com
“You’re making my eye twitch with your misuse of your and you’re.”
Writing is difficult. Whether the words are flowing directly from brain to fingers in a constant stream or struggling to escape to the page one letter at a time, the need to get words on virtual paper often overrides the desire to make sure all are spelled correctly and supported with proper grammar.
Enter the copyeditor, the person who will gently fix the spelling and the grammar and perhaps suggest a sentence is running a little bit long and might have been better as two separate sentences rather than one, rather lengthy, paragraph-length sentence.
Am I the right copyeditor for you? Consider …
- I went to school for this, graduating from Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite School for Journalism.
- I’ve written professionally for four decades, with two published books and byline articles in more than two dozen newspapers and magazines across the country.
- I believe, quite passionately, in the Oxford comma in moderation; I also am fond of the occasional semi-colon when used correctly.
- I don’t like excessive exclamation points! Your writing should reflect the emphasis, not the punctuation!
- When reading a book, I’ll return to the same typo three or four times and wonder how none of the levels of editors at the big publishing houses caught the error. Factual errors are worse.
I find this hilariously funny …
“A question mark walks into a bar?”
Getting Started
Not all editors and writers are destined to be great matches, which is why everything starts with a literary first date.
- Send me a roughly 5-page sample of your work for review in Microsoft Word .docx format. Include the total word count and any other pertinent details for pricing purposes (I’m usually around a couple cents a word).
- I’ll send you back an edited version of your sample and a quote should you wish to continue with my services.
- Payment via Paypal, etc
I also can assist with formatting for Kindle and/or Amazon self-publishing platforms.
Questions? Ready to start? Contact me at press@jpdaltonbooks.com.