WILCOX WRITING

If you’re reading this, then most likely you’re interested in hiring an editing service. What does the editing process look like? We’ll break down what this looks like at Wilcox Writing.

The process in summary:

1. Send us your request
2. Initial meeting: Meet with us to get to know each other and your project and aims/vision
3. Draft and sign a contract
4. Send us your document or manuscript
5. We edit the document using our editing magic
6. Return the document with edits, along with some general notes
7. Repeat steps 3-6 (optional)
8. Invoice

Send us your request

The first thing is to get in contact with us. You can do that through our website or by sending us an email. Send us your contact information, such as name and email, along with some details on what you’d like done, and we’ll get back to you. You can let us know if you’d like writing or editing done and for what kind of project. At this point it’s fine to be brief. For example, “Hi my name is name and I’d like to someone to proofread my science fiction book, which is about 50,000 words” or “My name is name, and I’m looking for an editor to copyedit my new website.” We can also meet briefly to discuss if Wilcox Writing is right for you.

Initial Meeting

We then meet, either in person or virtually. We’ll meet together and discuss exactly what you want and how we can help you. We also like to get to know more about your work. We will ask you questions to get to know you and your project and what you ideally want from this project. We might ask questions like:

• Purpose – What do you hope your message will do / Why do you need this text?
• Audience – Who is your target demographic? Who usually interacts with your content?
• Topic – What is your message about? What is your brand / image / service / book about?
• What tone/feel does the work want to have?
• What genre is your book? (if fiction)
• Do you have a budget limit?
• What’s the expected deadline for completion?

At this stage, if there is a mismatch, we’ll let you know. This is also your chance to ask us questions.

Draft and sign a contract

If we both think we’d like to go ahead with the work, we’ll draft up a contract we both sign, so we can both be on the same page and cover legal issues with contracted work. This is just so we can both be safe and secure in our professional relationship.

Send us your work

Then, you send us your manuscript or document to be edited. We treat unpublished work with the highest confidentiality.

We edit the document

This is the point we work our editing magic. We edit in accordance with what you requested, along with sticking to your vision, voice, and style. We may follow up with you to clarify things or get more specifics, if needed.

We return the document

Once we finish our editing, and depending on the project, we will send back the edited document along with a transmittal letter. This extra document gives feedback regarding general issues and changes, our editorial direction, and outlines whatever work remains to be done. The edited document itself will have markups and comments. To keep the author’s voice, I personally tend to rely more on comments and only make in-line edits for things like basic grammar and punctuation issues. Mainly I’ll ask somethign like “Is this what you meant here?” and give examples. See below for a sample of my editing as a Word document with comments.

Once you receive the document back, any changes are up to you. You can incorporate our suggestions and edits or not.

Repeat?

If you wish for us to do a second pass once revised, we can do that as well. We might have also added that into the contract at the beginning. We’re always happy to proofread after a first round of editing and changes.

Invoice

Finally, once we’re both happy with the work, or have fulfilled the contract details, we’ll send you an invoice for the work, to be paid as per our agreement. Whether this is per word, hour, or project, we will bill you in accordance with the contract.

We hope this clears up with the editing process looks like. We strongly focus on what you want, while remaining faithful to conventions. We are highly flexible with our approach, knowing that conventions can always be pushed. Our approach is to highlight inconsistencies or areas of awareness, noting both sides of the coin (e.g., “you can consider doing x or y, here”), and let the author choose. For instance, if you decide to use a specific word or spelling, which is outside convention, we will flag it and let you know what the convention is. Then, it’s up to you whether you meant give the word a unique spelling or want to adhere to convention.

Note that the contract can be changed at any stage of the editing process, if both parties agree and update the contract.

We hope you choose WILCOX WRITING as your next editor and look forward to working with you!