Someone finishes a draft, feels nervous about typos, and buys a proofread. The typos go. The reason readers stop at chapter three doesn't, because a proofreader was never looking for it. Paying for the right pass in the right order is the difference between a book that reads well and a book that's merely correct.
Most manuscripts don't need all four. Knowing which ones you need is the first useful thing an editor can tell you.
This one works on the whole book. Does the argument hold up. Does the ending get earned. Is your protagonist behaving like the same person in chapter twenty. Is chapter nine doing anything chapter four didn't already do. You get an editorial letter, not a marked up file. It's the only pass that can tell you a chapter shouldn't exist.
Paragraph by paragraph, on rhythm and clarity. It fixes sentences that are technically fine but land badly. Buried subjects, sagging pace, dialogue where everyone sounds the same. This is the pass that changes how a book feels to read. It's also the one people skip.
Grammar, punctuation, usage. Plus the internal stuff: eye colour, timeline, hyphenation, how you capitalise your invented terms. It runs off a style sheet that records every call, so page 12 and page 312 treat the same thing the same way. US convention is Chicago unless there's a reason not to be.
Done on the typeset pages, not the manuscript. That's deliberate, because it's also catching layout faults. Bad line breaks, widows, a running head still naming the last chapter, a page number that slipped. Proofread before layout and you miss all of it.
Editing only works if you can see exactly what changed and say no to any of it.
Every month it sits in the drawer is a month nobody reads it. Tell us where the book is at and we'll give you a straight answer on what it needs.
You shouldn't have to commit to a full edit to find out whether an editor understands your book. Send a chapter. We'll tell you which pass it actually needs, and if it doesn't need us yet we'll say that too.
You've probably heard that publishing services take your money, take your rights and go quiet. The industry earned that reputation. So here's how we work instead.
Your rights, your royalties, your files. Nothing we make gets licensed back to us.
Scope in writing first. No work starts on a handshake and a number that moves later.
Source files, print ready files, accounts and logins. All handed over, all in your name.
If your book doesn't need a service, we'll say so. That's cheaper for you and better for us.
Real books we've worked on. Covers, interiors and distribution, all of them out in the world.
Every month it sits in the drawer is a month nobody reads it. Tell us where the book is at and we'll give you a straight answer on what it needs.
Five stages, and you sign off at every one. Nothing moves to the next stage until you've said yes to the last.
Tell us where the book is and what you want it to do. We'll tell you what it actually needs.
Scope and price agreed in writing before anyone starts. You know the number up front.
Editing, layout, cover, whatever the scope says. You approve each stage as it lands.
Final proof on the typeset pages, plus a physical proof copy before anything gets printed at volume.
Retailer setup, metadata, categories and keywords. Then the files and logins come to you.
We don't publish testimonials on our own site anymore. Ours live on Trustpilot, where you can check them yourself.
Verified reviews
We publish our reviews on Trustpilot so you can verify them independently rather than take our word for it. Read what our authors have said at trustpilot.com/review/publisherinusa.com.
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