Services for Fiction Authors
Getting your novel from first draft to printed product involves a lot of steps, including editing and formatting. Without a professional behind you, you risk disappointing readers with mistakes or turning them away with difficult-to-read formatting.
While there are many editing services a manuscript can and should go through to reach publication, the services I provide to fiction authors include proofreading and book formatting for publication.
My Services for Fiction Writers
I work with indie and self-publishing authors as well as traditional publishers to provide editing services for fiction books. I can provide both book layout and proofreading for most genres of novels including Christian, contemporary, fantasy, historical, literary, mystery, romance, sci-fi, Western, and more. I do not work with explicit content. If your book would require content warnings, please disclose that when you inquire. Here is how my services work for fiction authors.
Book Layout
After your manuscript has been through the stages of editing (possibly including developmental editing, line editing, and copyediting), it’s ready to be formatted for publication. This process includes laying out the main text and other elements into pages for the interior of your print book and formatting them as a reflowable ebook. I use Vellum software to create template-based layouts that are appropriate for most fiction books.*
To get started, you’ll answer a few questions about your publication plans and formatting preferences. Then I’ll need the text of your book in a DOCX file, and image files containing any photos, illustrations, or customizations to be included (such as backgrounds for chapter-opening pages, a custom title page created by your cover designer, or a custom graphic for scene breaks or blank pages). If you want me to produce ebook files for you, you'll need to provide a cover image for that as well.
You’ll have the opportunity to choose among a few styling options for various elements. Then, when the layout for your fiction manuscript is complete, you’ll get a PDF of the preliminary print interior. The next step is either professional proofreading or doing your own careful check of the text and layout. I'll then incorporate any changes identified by the proofreader and produce your final files: a PDF of the print interior, EPUB reflowable ebook files optimized for Apple, Google, Kindle, Kobo, and Nook, and a generic EPUB file for other platforms.
For most books, layout is a straightforward process. The initial layout takes approximately two weeks. You will then have approximately one week to review, or we can work with your proofreader’s schedule. After any edits are requested, it will take up to one additional week to finalize the formatting and produce the ebook files.
Fiction book layout starts at $250, but it can go higher based on length and complexity. You’ll know the price for your project before scheduling.
*My book layout services do not include books with elements such as multiple columns of text on a page, images that appear next to text, rotated text, or colored text (color photos/drawings/graphics are okay).
Proofreading
Once your edited manuscript has been laid out for print and formatted as an ebook, it’s time for the final check for errors and inconsistencies before the book is published. This ensures readers aren’t pulled out of your story by a punctuation error, misspelling, typo, or layout issue.
Fiction proofreading includes a careful, thorough review of your print-ready PDF using Adobe Acrobat’s markup tool to indicate where changes need to be made. Your text should already be formatted for print or ebook publication. You can accomplish this by using a professional book designer or using a do-it-yourself formatting program, or we can discuss my novel formatting services. After the changes are made in the source file (by you, your book designer, or me if I did the layout for your novel), the PDF is generated again.
Reflowable ebooks don’t have all the same elements as print books, but proofreading is still the final review, even if you’re only publishing a digital version. Like for print books, any necessary changes are made to the source file, then a new EPUB file is generated.
While fiction proofreading addresses some of the same issues as copyediting, changes are minimized at this stage because adding or deleting a line of text (or even a few words) can affect the layout of not just that page but also several following pages. It also involves checking elements that are not present until after the manuscript is typeset, such as page numbers, headers and footers, widow and orphan lines, word stacks, and end-of-line hyphenation.
The timeline needed for proofreading a novel varies with the length and complexity of the manuscript. In general, fiction authors can expect two to four weeks for the proofreading to be completed. If I am also providing the layout, the full service will include an additional week to apply changes once they have been approved by you.
I will provide a custom proposal with a flat fee for your proofreading project. My pricing aligns closely with the median rates documented by the Editorial Freelancers Association.
My Clients Say
“At all times, I knew my book was in expert hands. . . . The final product exceeded my expectations in every measurable way—quality, speed, and price.”
Michael Cox, author of Montecito
“[Angie] gave me a number of elegant options to choose from and made a beautiful job of the formatting, greatly improving the appearance of the text. . . . She was communicative, sympathetic and patient to deal with at every stage.”
Louise Ramsay, author of Landed
Ready for Fiction Editing Services?
I would love to hear about your novel! When you inquire, I can help determine the right service to get you to publication. Use one of the buttons below to get started—or just to ask for more information. I can’t wait to read what you’ve written and help you get it ready for its final readers!
