The route to publication might seem treacherous, but Empathic Editing can fast-track your journey—a guide service for your writing adventure.

Step one: Development

All the help you need to finish your first draft and begin the second. Empathic Editing means general, substantive advice on your book as a whole. You’ll receive margin notes on character development, organization, story pacing, world-building, formatting, and other global concerns, as well as a long personal letter to emphasize your manuscript’s strengths, highlight its weaknesses, and offer a plan for moving forward. These developmental notes help you dive back into your book as the sole expert of the story you want to tell, giving it an exquisite shape and preparing it for line editing. You know where you want to go, and Empathic Editing will give you the tools and knowledge to get there.

If your first draft is incomplete, or you have only an outline or even an idea, I can work with you to get those words down. Remember, the first step is always the hardest.

Step two: copyediting

Deep, detailed, and thoughtful edits of paragraphs and sentences to polish your voice and improve the clarity and precision of your prose. Once your second (or third or fourth…) draft is complete and in good shape overall, copyediting will help transform your manuscript into a masterfully written document, combining industry-standard Chicago style with your storytelling voice. This is where Empathic Editing works its magic—understanding your goals, your mind, and your heart so well, these adjustments seem to come from inside your own head, teasing out the most effective, concise, and beautiful way to represent your ideas in prose while retaining what makes your writing unique.

Through this service, you’ll receive an MS Word document with all changes tracked. Accept the changes you like, and reject the ones you don’t. While every change will be mindful, empathetic, and necessary, your manuscript is first and foremost yours, and Empathic Editing means offering only suggestions.

step three: proofreading

For combing out the nits in your prose. After copyediting, Empathic Editing means a thorough read-through of your manuscript at least twice to correct all errors in punctuation, syntax, style, and language. You’ll receive a publication-quality product in MS Word with all final changes tracked. Accept the changes you agree with, and you’re ready for self-publication or for submission to a literary agent.

• Publishers: Any of these steps can be broken out into individual services for a negotiable fee.

submissions & jacket copy

Help sending your work into the world. Empathic Editing will get you started submitting your book to literary agents and independent publishers for traditional publication. This includes advice on and drafting of non-fiction book proposals, novel synopses, author biographies, query letters, and guidance on where and how to submit your book. While no service can guarantee publication, this knowledge comes from years of education and personal experience working within the book industry.

Self-publishing authors and publishers can also rely on Empathic Editing for snappy marketing language for book jackets as part of this process or as a break-out service.

authenticity reads

For authors writing about edgy subjects and/or people unlike themselves. In this new age of identity politics, it’s tough to navigate sensitive issues and deliver an authentic experience. Part of the promise of Empathic Editing is that general readers will not be turned off by your book, but will see themselves in it. Through personal experience and a network of diverse contacts, this service offers a critical look at your prose ahead of publication to ensure you’re speaking from the heart, to the heart.

• Note: I believe profoundly in the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, but I also believe there is a best way to say anything and that every writer should understand the power and consequences of publishing their words.