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A BETTER EDITOR SM

Graduate Students! Fit your budget! Meet your deadline! APA style: dissertation, thesis, reference list American English as Second Language (ESL) Anne V. Sutherland, M.Div., Ph.D. Professional Editing and Proofreading Since 1995

What Can A Copy Editor Do for YOU? Free Your Time Copy Editing Steps What Does it Cost? Reduce Your Costs What Clients Say Policies-Privacy

A Better Editor for YOU! Your words and ideas deserve the best! Why not dress them for success? What Does Copy Editing Cost? In thinking about costs, do consider that completing your degree is a milestone, not the end of the road. After graduation, a dissertation is often revised for a book or journal article. Many academics must publish to move ahead in their careers and your dissertation is a good place to start. It may be referenced in other places as well. So think of this as an investment in your career, in your future; not just part of the cost of graduating. Tell me about your budget concerns. I will work with you to suggest a level of editing within your budget.

Rates: In these difficult times, I have reduced my rates back to about what they were when I first started. For business and commercial writing, I charge $35 an hour. For grad students I charge $20.00 an hour. A deposit is required in advance, usually $200 for a 100 page dissertation. Then I let you know when it is time to replenish it. All work must be paid in full before sending you each draft and then the final draft. I have to do this because long ago when I first started someone promised to pay and took the document and I never heard from that person again. I know that you have worked hard on your manuscript and I treat it with respect. I expect the same from you! At the start I offer a free 15 minute consultation for questions, a free half hour (up to 10 pages) of sample copyediting, followed by a 15 minute discussion for a total of one free hour of my time. Since you have seen my work, I do not refund for any future work. However, you can stop at anytime if you are not satisfied with my work. If we cannot work it out, I will refund whatever is left in your deposit. All financial payments and refunds are handled through PayPal. If you do not have an account, you can set up one for free (www.paypal.com). I do not want to take credit card numbers. You must help me understand what you need. When a university says they want APA style, they usually have their own required guidelines or modifications to the APA manual. Whatever directives your university has given you about how they want the APA style applied, I need a copy. Not just you telling me what you think they want! I will not start work on a project without a copy of the university original. If you tell me there is nothing like that, and later changes are required because the document does not meet their requirements, I will charge the regular rate to make the changes and will not make a refund. Estimates I cannot give an estimate without seeing your full document. If you are in a hurry, you can send me the deposit, and I will e-mail an estimate, and then not start work until you let me know to go ahead. I cannot guarantee a firm price; too many variables are involved and, too often, changes take more time. If you have a budget limit, let's discuss it at the start, and I will tell you approximately what can be included for your amount. Components of Cost The cost depends on several things. Clients pay for expenses such as postage, long distance calls, word processing, disks, printouts, or other special requests. I do it this way because everyone has unique needs, and should not have to pay for something that is not needed. My actual time depends on many things. Please see the list below that discusses factors involved in the time-cost. Manuscript Form When you send your manuscript to me, you can save on costs by saving my time if your last name and page number are at the top right of each page, including front matter and end matter, all numbered consecutively beginning with the title page. Place the reference list starting on a separate page after the text, as close as possible to the author-date APA style. Extra time = extra costs Reference lists take a lot of time. You can save on costs by saving my time if you can make your references as close as possible to the author-date APA style. However, there is still a lot of work to do checking the sequence of each part, and every single punctuation mark. If you have a lot of references this part can run up the cost. It is also one of the parts most closely examined by the Chair or committee, too. If you have charts, tables, or graphs you need to find someone who specializes in setting them up APA style. Then in your document leave spaces and label them so you will know at the end where each one should be inserted. DO NOT insert them in the document you send me just a location reminder, because the pages and spacing can move around from other editing changes. Just leave a plain blank space with the name of the item to be inserted. There is a separate format charge, in addition to my time, if you want an index, or specially set up title pages and front matter. All this should be discussed in advance so you have no surprises on the invoice, and I have no surprises giving me a time crunch!

FACTORS IN THE TIME-COST OF PROFESSIONAL COPY EDITING My fee is by the hour so you can choose what you want. How soon do you need it returned? A rush job always costs more. What style manual do you want me to use? APA, Chicago, MLA, Gregg, AP, or something else, or do you want my suggestions? Some are much more complicated than others. My rates above are based on APA style, my specialty. Anything else will cost more. Do you want a style sheet? It is often used for long articles or books, not always for shorter documents. What form will it be in when you send it to me? Handwriting costs more to type. On disk or online (in a format I can use) is least expensive because it eliminates the typing. Where are you in the writing process, and how much editing do you want at this stage? Do you want the edited document all at once, or returned in stages so you can go over it while I work on the next section or chapter? Or shall I wait until you return each section? How do you want the copy editing done? Changes made directly to the manuscript in the computer take less time and therefore cost less than hand coding on a paper manuscript. Computer text-markup editing where all the changes, deletions, corrections and so forth are marked on the manuscript nearly doubles the time it takes and so costs a lot more. What page formatting do you want: margins, fonts, one or two spaces between sentences, and such? Special effects cost more than standard! Usually, the university will tell you what they want. At the end, do you want a final edited copy printed out, a computer-edited printed copy showing changes, or a disk with either or both types of files, or both a disk and printed copy? Do you want it copy edited both on a computer and by hand, or something special? How do you want the material returned to you: FedEx, postal service, e-mail, FTP, pickup, or other? Online or on disk costs less than mailing a large paper manuscript. For an overview of copy editing steps click here For things you can do to reduce your costs click here

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It is important that you look carefully at the pages on this site. There is information about costs and how you can reduce your costs. Notice your responsibilities along the way so that the result will be a document you can be proud of and will accomplish your goal. Like many people, after looking at all this you may have . Do not hesitate to contact me for questions about your particular manuscript. There is no charge for this first (up to 15 minutes) informational call. Then, if you are interested, you can send me 10 pages of your document (usually first 10 pages of the literature review) for a free half hour sample of copy editing, and a free 15 minute phone discussion after you review it. Then we can both decide whether we can work together. DO NOT send a sample until we talk. I will tell you how to send your sample document. Telephone voice mail: 800-608-1311 (near Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA) This site is designed to help you find answers to your questions and give you an idea of what is available for you. To tour this site, click on the "Go to next page" choice at the bottom of each page; for specific information, choose from the menu box on the left. You can use your back button to return here only while you are online. Make a bookmark or add to favorites to save this site and return again!

                      

A Better Editor SM Voice mail: 800-608-1311 © 1998-2010 Anne V. Sutherland, Ph.D.,     A Better Editor SM This page last updated 7-3-10. Go to next page    Return to the top of this page    Editor Home Page