Manuscript evaluation
Having trouble getting published?
So you’re trying to find an agent or publisher for a book manuscript, but they keep turning it down? Want to find out why? Have a professional editor evaluate your manuscript.
Is our manuscript evaluation service for you?
This service is useful for authors who have written a book-length manuscript and have sent it to agents and publishers, only to receive generic rejections with no explanations. Manuscript evaluations are also useful for writers who want to self-publish and are trying to make the book as professional as possible without racking up huge costs.
How does an evaluation work?
The evaluation identifies problems in the manuscript and suggests ways to address them. We don’t change them for you — but we can, if you hire us to rewrite or edit your manuscript. We look closely at the structure and the execution of ideas in your work, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, and prepare a frank outline of what is working and what isn’t. We point out changes that will make the manuscript more publishable. Many of us are writers ourselves, so we have a “no harshness” policy.
As needed, the evaluation can assess the content and organization of the manuscript, commenting on characterization, dialogue, setting, plot, structure, subject relevance, and believability; evaluate the writing, including technique and style, clarity, voice, tone, reading level, and audience appropriateness; and provide detailed comments on the marketability of the manuscript and suggest ways to make it more marketable.
Structural (substantive) editing
Does your work need to be structurally edited?
Structural editing is an intense process in which the editor examines the “big picture”— writing style, development of ideas (and/or characters), general flow — and collaborates with the author to ensure they have the best possible base from which to tell their story or communicate their information.
What should you expect from a structural edit?
Whether it’s a fiction manuscript or a complex business report, the editor will work with you to ensure your message caters to your particular audience and medium. They’ll check your text’s logic, organization, relevance, and accuracy, and they’ll clearly communicate how to improve your writing (using editorial memos, comments in the document, and/or direct work in your manuscript). During this process, the editor will often rearrange paragraphs or chapters and may delete material and/or suggest rewriting or the addition of new material. We use MS Word Track Changes during all edits, so you’ll always be able to see and comment on the editor’s suggestions. A structural edit does not focus on correcting grammar or spelling, so a copy edit is an important next step once the structure of your work is the best it can be.
Stylistic editing
Do YOU need a stylistic edit with YOUR structural edit?
While a structural edit ensures logic and correct organization, sometimes a manuscript requires a little more finessing. A stylistic edit focuses on refining language and tone and ensures your message is presented (or your story is told) with a clear and consistent voice. This process dives deeper into the manuscript and can be included in a structural edit.
Copy editing
Does your work need to be copy edited?
A professional copy editor ensures your message is clear and your book is a pleasure to read. When readers stumble over errors in grammar or punctuation, they can lose the flow of your writing. They might even put the book down. Polished writing clearly conveys your message and style and puts you a step above the competition so that you can really connect to your audience.
What should you expect from a copy edit?
Our copy editors clean up technical errors, but they also pick out and help you fix a wide variety of other issues, including problems with logic, style, consistency, wording, and tone. The intensity of the process depends on the level of edit required (light, medium, or heavy). We’ll have a look at your manuscript and recommend the best level for your work.
Here’s what copy editing may entail:
Correcting grammar, punctuation, spelling (Canadian, American, or British), and capitalization
Ensuring proper word usage, consistent number forms, and text treatment
Creating and/or maintaining a consistent style guide
Checking the internal consistency of facts and data*
Fixing inconsistencies in style, awkward phrasing, and unclear writing
Ensuring continuity
Eliminating jargon
Eliminating bias
“Canadianizing” materials (checking spelling and usage, cultural references, and measurements)
Tagging files for layout
Preparing prelims (including copyright page info)
*additional costs may apply if extensive fact-checking is required
Design & layout
Do you need Design and layout services?
We think of design as more than just a pretty wallflower. Line length, typeface, and layout each help — or hinder — the work of the eye. Good design makes reading a pleasurable experience. Colborne provides design and layout services for both the printed and virtual page. Our in-house staff is complemented by long-standing partnerships with designers and layout artists whose work we admire.
Proofreading
Are you looking for a professional editor to review your work for small errors and/or typos?
Proofreaders are the last editors to check a book, report, poster, or web article before it goes to the printer, is bound and sent to upper management, is plastered on the wall of a subway station, or goes live on the internet.
Proofreaders get their job title from the “proofs” they work with, which look much like the pages that will eventually be printed or posted. They are there to assist designers and to look for problems that may have slipped past everyone else in the publishing process.
Colborne’s proofreaders are trained in the following:
Comparing page proofs to a manuscript
Scrutinizing design and layout, including image quality and placement, running headers and footers, head levels, word breaks, widows and orphans, tracking, borders, bleed, and so on...
Incorporating authors’ changes
Checking for typographic errors
Writing (rewriting or ghostwriting)
Do you have a great idea but aren’t sure how to get it on paper?
Our writers specialize in turning your great ideas into great writing. We’ll immerse ourselves in the subject matter and then string a few hundred or thousand words together to meet your project’s goals and your readers’ needs. We may not know anything about what you do — yet — but we can research and write on just about any topic. We’ve learned how to buy and sell homes, discovered the best way to trace one’s genealogy, compiled hilarious jokes, penned bios, created board game content, interviewed Olympians and rock ’n’ rollers, and planned weddings. From serious annual reports to zany marketing copy, we enjoy a challenge. Just drop us a line, describe your project, and let us know what your vision is.
Do you need rewriting or ghostwriting?
If you’re having trouble communicating your ideas smoothly, our professional writers can rewrite parts of or all of your work, keeping your voice intact, so that you can tell your story the way you want. If you have only the basics down on paper or perhaps only the bones of a story in your mind, our ghostwriters will work with you to create content or complete your story in a timely manner.
Our writing services are available for a wide range of media and products:
Books, including textbooks and how-to manuals
Magazines and newsletters
Business or government reports and proposals
Marketing copy, press releases, and brochures
Speeches
Interviews
Web content
Plain language
Clear up your language.
We can help you make your writing concise, correct, and clear enough to be understood by anyone. It’s that simple. Some call it plain language while others call it clear English, but no matter what you call it, it’s writing that is simple, well organized, and easily read by your target audience. It’s free of jargon, passivity, unnecessarily technical terms, vagueness, and long-windedness. Businesses, organizations, and governments are making the move to using clear language in their communications — especially in public documents — because it saves them time and money and ensures that important information is understood by all.
Our clear English services have won the Forum Gold Award for Special Achievements in Plain Language twice, and we’ve been nominated for numerous other awards.
We offer the following services to de-clutter your language:
Consulting
Rewriting and editing, including checking reading levels
Creating document templates and model documents
Corporate workshops
Indexing
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An index is a systematic arrangement of entries designed to help readers quickly and easily locate information in a document. Adding a well-crafted index can sometimes mean the difference between creating a book and creating a useful, usable book.
A good indexer is hard to find!
Our formally trained indexers will catalogue your ideas using Cindex or Macrex software:
Creating an alphabetical listing of names, places, subjects, and concepts with locators and cross-references
Editing for structure, clarity, consistency, and length
Formatting the index to your specifications
Project management
Think of us as a communications department for hire.
Whether the scope of your project is a few lines of pithy advertising copy or a series of books, Colborne can take your project from inception to completion. Let us help you in the following ways:
Defining the scope of the project and the services needed
Hand-picking and managing a project team
Writing and editing proposals
Budgeting and estimating your project’s costs
Planning and implementing strategic communications
Coordinating and then performing all necessary publication tasks, including writing, editing, production, and design
*Please note that Colborne does not provide sales, marketing, or distribution support.
How much do these services cost?
Our prices are based on word count and the level of work required.
Please send your project to info@colcomm.ca. We’ll have a look and get back to you with an estimate.