Editing and Proofreading

Professional editing for business and industry, and nonfiction authors

For more than 20 years, our editors have provided professional editing and proofreading services for business and industry, government, not-for-profit and other sectors.

We have helped many organisations publish their work to the highest possible standard, including:

• books like Caught Inside and Beyond the ADHD Label
• web content for companies like Vault Group
• research reports for institutions like the University of Melbourne
• corporate documents for not-for-profits like Glebe Youth Service and Australian Multicultural Community Services
• government reports like the draft Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan and Building Queensland’s original Infrastructure Pipeline
• grant submissions, press releases, articles, case studies, marketing material and many more.

Read more about our editing process and contact us to see how we can help you!

Stages of editing

These are the four main stages or levels of editing in the publishing process. Industry experts often disagree on the names of the levels, but the process is generally the same.

You may not need all of these. After we read your draft and have our first chat with you, we can advise on the level of editing your work may need.

Developmental editing

Also called a manuscript assessment, this stage is used mostly in book publishing. We review your draft – e.g. structure, voice, narrative flow, logic, suitability for target audience – and write a report of recommendations for changes. You probably don’t need this for smaller pieces, like blog posts.

Structural editing

This is an edit of your content’s structure and flow. Considering your goals and ideal reader, we look for repetitious or unnecessary content, gaps in the content, and illogical or confusing narrative. We don’t review language at this stage, but take a holistic view first to ensure all the content is there and the order makes sense.

Copyediting

This is the language level of editing. We review paragraph and sentence structure, tone, consistency, spelling and grammar, and other language issues. We improve clarity and readability for your reader. For digital content, we also improve SEO, usability and accessibility. Copyediting is not just about fixing mistakes.

Proofreading

The proofread is usually the last stage in the editing process, even after design. It’s a final check for errors before publishing or printing. It’s a meticulous process, as every word, number and punctuation mark must be checked. Many people think this is a quick process, but it actually demands focus and time.

Our editing process

Chat with you

We will have an online meeting or phone call to discuss your messages, ideal customer or reader, goals for the content, publishing timeframes and author voice. This information helps us make decisions about how to edit the work to get the results you need. You can then send us your draft to review.

Assess your draft and quote

We will read your draft content, and send you any questions and advise you on the amount of editing work needed. We will also send you a quote and a publishing agreement to approve if we haven’t already done so.

Edit the content

After you approve the quote and publishing agreement, we’ll edit your content. If this is a large piece (like a book), we may send you more questions and have more meetings throughout the process. We will then send you the edit of your draft.

Get your feedback

You can go through the edited draft to approve the changes, add or suggest other changes, and ask questions about our editing. Then you can send the draft back to us with your changes and feedback.

Finalise the draft

We will check that your changes match the rest of the content and incorporate any other suggested changes. We will then finalise the content and send you the version for publishing. For larger publications, like books, there may be several editing rounds.

What our clients say

Our brief was to edit content for our ‘Criminal Law Duty Lawyer Handbook’. We were on a tight schedule and Kylee played an integral role in making it happen. Kylee, thank you for your contribution – your attention to detail is second to none. ~ Legal Aid Queensland

Kylee’s great gift is taking the cacophony of ideas I have and organising them into coherent messages for our target audiences. She has helped us launch new products; produced blogs, websites and press releases; made successful grant applications; and delivered a clearer, more concise messages to our customers. ~ Mike French, Direct Marketing Software

Need a quote?

Every editing project is different in size and complexity, so we’re unable to provide a quote until we have more details.

Contact us for a discussion about what you need.

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