Congratulations! You’ve written a book that you’d like to publish and share with the world. Now’s the time to have a professional editor clean up the text and correct any errors of punctuation, spelling, grammar and other mistakes.

There are two levels of editing. 

Line Editing looks at logic, meaning and stylistic expression at the level of the line and paragraph. Is your meaning clear throughout? Does your logic follow from one paragraph to the next? Is the tone appropriate? 

With a line edit review, you will receive subjective feedback on your text. I might suggest ways to rephrase an ambiguous sentence. Or I might suggest ways to rearrange pieces of text within a paragraph to tighten the logical flow of information. Ultimately, the decision will be yours.

Copy Editing is the second level of editing. It focuses on the mechanics of the writing (punctuation, grammar, spelling, internal consistency, and compliance with style guides) as opposed to the meaning of what is being communicated. This is objective feedback supported by your chosen style manual. 

Both levels of editing are important.

Line Editing is the first order of business.

After that comes the Copy Editing.

Ghostwriting? What’s that?

It’s when I spend time studying what you want to say and how you want to say it and then write the manuscript for you: whether it be a book, an article, a newsletter, a blogpost, web copy or even a letter to your mother. I write, but you take all the credit.

Once I’m done and you are satisfied with my work, the writing becomes yours to do with as you please. And I float away as all ghosts should.

Sitting down to write a book is like embarking on a journey. You wouldn’t set out on a drive from New York City to Los Angeles without a roadmap. By the same token, you shouldn’t set out on a writing journey without one either. 

The structural design of your book will serve as that roadmap. But note, it must be charted before you start your engine. This step requires you to tackle the big picture essentials: the overall narrative structure, your logical arguments along the way, content organization and flow of information–to name a few. 

With a well-developed structural design in place, you will be able to confidently navigate your way through the writing process—from your first sentence to the last word and all the stops in between.

Once you have a structural design for your book mapped out, it’s time to start putting words on paper. Some people start out writing their books with great enthusiasm only to become frustrated along the way. They lose sight of the narrative thread and don’t know how to get back on track. Or they worry they aren’t getting their point across.

Some simply lose steam and never finish. 

Having a professional writer go along with you for the ride–guiding you through the process–can make all the difference. Guided writing can help you stay on track and on message. And help you fight off the hobgoblins that like to attack writers and keep books from being written.