You’ve planted the seeds of your novel, and now you’re ready for our Story Gardeners to trim and nourish its prose so it can flourish in the market. This editing package is perfect for authors who love their story’s structure and are now ready for a topiary editor to come in and shape their prose. We’ll highlight your unique authorial voice while trimming away filler words and grammar weeds, then package it up for you to present to readers with pride.

If you would like to combine the line and copy edit for this package, we can offer a combined service. Let us know if you’re interested in this, and we’ll assess if your manuscript is in good shape for a combo service.

In our editing packages, each service comes with an in-service author support module that provides you, the author, with additional support or education on an aspect of publishing or marketing. While your editor is working within the manuscript, you’ll meet with your project manager Amber to develop your launch materials for publishing. These modules are linked to specific editing services to provide you with the relevant support you need during that stage of the manuscript’s development. These modules will flow organically to help you build a successful launch for your novel. For each editing service, you can select one module type:

“Sapling” support modules for debut authors or authors still learning the ropes of publishing.

“Established” support modules for experienced authors looking to expand their platforms.

Line Edit

Service Overview:

A line edit addresses issues found in a novel’s pacing, voice and tone consistency, character voice in dialogue, word choice, presentation of tension, and other corrections dealing with the general narrative flow. As we go through the line edit, we leave comments in the novel to explain the changes we’ve made, the writing technique behind the changes, and occasionally additional resources for you, the author, to check out. Our goal is for you to strengthen your already-developed authorial voice and to bring your character’s personalities to the forefront of your novel’s POV.

Author Support Modules

Sapling & Established: Blurb Copywriting

We’ll write your blurb (also called the back cover copy) for your novel and provide two rounds of revisions. This back cover copy includes a tagline and a 150-200 word blurb meant to go on the back cover of your novel and entice readers to find out what happens next.

Copy Edit

Service Overview:

A copy edit looks at the grammar, style, word choice, and other “gritty details” of the prose. This edit should be done only after you are happy with the structure and development of the book’s content. The focus of our copy edits is to perfect the mechanics of your content without sacrificing your unique authorial voice.

Author Support Modules

Sapling: Build Your ARC Team

An ARC team is a group of readers who receive an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of your novel prior to release in exchange for honest reviews. We’ll teach you how to build one of these teams and give you the tools you need to successfully utilize them.

Established: Manage Your ARC Team

If you already have an ARC team from prior releases, then you can have Rooted in Writing take over the admin work of distributing your ARC copies and creating the email sequence leading up to your launch day. We’ll make sure your readers feel supported and part of your official team for your novel’s big day.

Typesetting

Service Overview:

We’ll create your typeset and formatted print edition PDFs (paperback and hardcover) and your ebook’s reflowable EPUB file. Rooted in Writing performs their book layout projects within one business week of receiving all submitted materials. We use Vellum to create the print and digital files, and we use Adobe Acrobat to tweak the paperback PDF for any additional design needs, such as custom fonts. This service does not include cover design.

Author Support Modules

Sapling & Established: KDP Category & Keyword Research

How you list your novel on Amazon or Ingram Spark will have a direct, critical impact on how your book finds its target audience and ranks amongst its competitors. Let’s remove the guesswork on what will be best for your novel. We’ll research wide and niche categories for your novel that will increase its discoverability and likelihood to rank, as well as create your seven keyword strings to help introduce your novel to its dream reader. We’ll give you data on sales trends for the categories’ bestsellers, including what months tend to sell best for new releases and how your competitors are pricing their editions.

Proofread

NOT AVAILABLE AS AN À LA CARTE SERVICE

Service Overview:

Our proofreads are performed after a manuscript has been copyedited and typeset for print and ebook. Proofreads are the final pass to look for any lingering spelling or grammar errors while ensuring that nothing was missed or corrupted in the design process. We care about the aesthetics of each page we proof in addition to the mechanics of your words. Once the corrections have been noted in the PDF, we will update all the design files for your print and digital editions with the suggestions.

Author Support Modules

Sapling: Launch Day Checklist

There’s a lot that goes into launching your novel. Have no fear—we have a map! We’ll send you our very own Launch Day Checklist that walks you through everything you need to have done before the big day. Then, we’ll sit down with you over Zoom to go over the checklist and answer any questions you have about publishing and brainstorm your launch strategy.

Established: Marketing Support (2 hours)

You’ve got a lot on your plate between now and launching. Let us take some load off for you! We’ll provide two hours of marketing support for your latest novel. From graphic creation to post calendars and virtual book tour scheduling, we’ll help you strategize and prepare to get the word out about your latest book.