You’ve planted the seeds for your incredible story, but now you need an experienced Story Gardener to come in and nourish your seedling into a fully developed, ready-to-publish manuscript. We’ll work closely together through this project as we assess not only where your book fits in today’s market but how your book can be the best version of itself through revision and pruning. From a professional assessment for any lingering structural issues to the final proofread after our line and copy edit, this premium package will provide everything you’ll need to self-publish (except for cover design).
What It Entails
The Greenhouse package consists of a manuscript assessment, line edit, copy edit, and proofread. We also provide the copywriting for your back cover and blurb, the book design layout for your print and digital editions, and book launch strategy consultations.
Amber will act as the project manager throughout our work together while also providing the manuscript assessment and publishing services. The editing services are performed by different editors on the Rooted in Writing team. Why different editors? Because we believe that the more eyes on a project, the better. Regardless of the current stage of the project, Amber will be your point of contact for the whole project.
As a package, the services are discounted by 10 percent from their a la carte counterparts. The total invoice for the editing package is broken up into five installments: a 25 percent deposit at the start of the project and a 18.75 percent payment of the project’s total at the start of each editing service.
Service Definitions & Deliverables
MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT
A manuscript assessment is the perfect tool for you to understand what issues need to be addressed in your manuscript before we can proceed to polishing it for publication.
Resources included:
- A report card that grades the different craft categories of your novel (plot, character, world-building, voice, mechanics) into a cumulative score that gives you a bird’s eye view of your novel’s health.
- A discussion of the novel’s greatest strengths, highlighting what is working well and is a good selling point for your novel.
- A deeper discussion of the novel’s global weaknesses, discussing how revising these key issues will have a cascading effect on the quality of your work.
- An analysis on how marketable the book is to its target audience and what you’ll need to do to increase its marketability.
- Five concrete revision steps you can take immediately to make your book stronger. This section will also let you know what types of editorial services your book would need if you chose to self-publish or what the next step would be in pursuing representation if you choose to traditionally publish.
- A list of master works in your genre to read for market research and craft education.
- A complementary consultation call after I’ve delivered the finished assessment to discuss and clarify the points made in the document.
General turnaround: one month.
LINE EDIT
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.
While this is not a copy edit and will not explicitly address spelling, grammar, or other mechanical problems, any handling we do with the novel’s syntax will be in accordance with Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.
Resources included: revision letter, edited manuscript.
General turnaround: three to four weeks.
✨ SCI-FI & FANTASY AUTHORS ✨
For speculative fiction novels, we also do a world-building continuity check during our editing passes to make sure your second-world physics and magic systems are logical within themselves and don’t contradict themselves in descriptive detail or execution. Our findings are recorded in the project's style sheet.
COPY EDIT
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 on our copy edits is to perfect the mechanics of your content without sacrificing your personal voice. If you need an editor to go through your manuscript and tweak the voices of the narrator and characters, ask us about a heavy copy edit.
We edit all novels in
Resources included: edited manuscript, style sheet.
General turnaround: two to four weeks.
PROOFREAD
A proofread is performed on manuscripts that have already been copyedited and laid out for publication. This is the final pass to look for any last-minute mechanical or visual mistakes. After your book has been copyedited and laid out for print (either on paper or digital), a proofreader will do a final pass to search 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.
Resources included: Editorial comments on a typeset PDF
General turnaround: two to four weeks
I know I never could have gotten this far without Amber. When I first came to Rooted in Writing, I had no idea how the process would go, only the knowledge that an editor was needed for a good book to be written.
Amber was very patient with me through the process, and I honestly don’t think I could have made it through my first book without her. She gave amazing insight and helped me trim the fat off my book. She taught me so much about writing that will help me in future books. Thank you, Amber, for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you for making my dream a reality!
Service Workflow
(1) GETTING STARTED: PROJECT CONTRACT AND INVOICE
We’ll send you a proposal with the exact details on the depth and scope of our project together. When you’re ready, you’ll sign the project contract, pay the invoice deposit, and send us your edit-ready manuscript as a Word document.
The total invoice for our project together is divided up into payments over the course of our project together. If you’re booking a project with us more than three months in advance, you’ll be asked to pay a nonrefundable 10 percent booking fee.
(2) MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT
In a manuscript assessment, I’ll read your novel carefully and write up a report (25-35 pages long) that details your book’s strengths, market placement, and critical problems that need to be addressed before we can move forward with publishing. I’ll also give you a composite score on your manuscript, grading your novel’s proficiency in plot, character, world-building, voice, and mechanics.
Once you receive these documents, we’ll hop on a call together to discuss the report and create a revision plan for you. At this point, you’ll have 60 days to complete these revisions before we move on to the line edit.
(3) LINE EDIT
Now we’ll start the line edit. This edit is a detailed look at how you craft sentences, showcase characters’ personalities, and accent your narrative’s mood and tone. We’ll also tighten the pacing on a scene level and suggest minor paragraph restructuring where appropriate to improve the clarity and flow of your scenes’ beats. You’ll receive the manuscript with Track Changes to review, along with a short editorial letter that explains the changes made.
The line edit typically takes 4-5 business weeks, depending on the length of your manuscript and the depth of the line edit. The project contract will include the dates for all deliverables based on your provided word count.
You’ll have 1 business week to review the manuscript and make sure you’re all good with the edits made. We’ll send more instructions on the purpose and process of this step at that time.
Based on your review’s feedback, I’ll incorporate your changes (including any additional edits you request for the second round) to the manuscript and send it off to the copy editor.
(4) COPY EDIT
Now, copy edit begins. This service typically takes 2–4 business weeks, depending on the length of your manuscript.
An editor on the Rooted in Writing team will go through the manuscript and leave in-text revisions using Track Changes in Word for you to review. You’ll also receive a style guide PDF, which outlines the grammar rules we used and the style choices we made while working on your document.
Once you receive the files, you’ll have 1 business week to review the manuscript and make sure you’re all good with the edits made. We’ll send more instructions on the purpose and process of this step at that time.
Send us back your reviewed copyedited manuscript and we’ll incorporate your changes before sending you a clean, final file back.
(5) BOOK LAYOUT
At this time, we’ll do the layout for your print and digital editions. Typically, we expect the book layout to be completed in 1 business week. You’ll receive a questionnaire to fill out to tell us your design preferences before seeing a mock-up file. When you’re satisfied with the design, we’ll start the proofread.
During the proofread, we recommend you get in touch with your cover artist to complete the paperback design files.
(6) PROOFREAD
When the book is all typeset for your print and digital editions, send us the print edition PDF and we’ll begin the proofread. This service typically takes 2–3 business weeks to complete. The turnaround speed for this service will be determined at the start of the copy edit service, so you’ll know weeks in advance how long it’ll take to complete this service. After you pay the final installment of your invoice, you’ll receive the PDF proofread document with comments that denote the changes needed before your final file export. If we’re your designer, take a look at the changes and let us know if you’re okay with all the suggested edits and then we’ll incorporate these changes into your final files. This process typically takes 1 business week to complete. If you are using a third-party designer, ask them for their process in incorporating the proofread changes. If they have any questions about our proofread suggestions, they are welcomed to email us.
Back Cover Blurb & Book Launch Consultations
During the line edit stage, we will provide you with a back cover copy and blurb copy of your book. We offer two complimentary rewrites of the descriptions.
Over the course of the copy edit and typesetting, we’ll have two book launch strategy consultations. These meetings will discuss ARC teams, setting up your Amazon account, and your launch day checklist.
Get Your Custom Quote
Fill out the inquiry form and I’ll be in touch to discuss your custom quote and project needs.