Editing Your Self-Publishing Book is Vitally Important

If you want to publish a high-quality book, you simply MUST have your manuscript edited. No one will take your book seriously if it is riddled with errors.

Outskirts Press offers high-quality copyediting services for manuscripts of all lengths and types, regardless of where you plan to publish your book.

Editing timeframes depend upon the length and complexity of the manuscript. Basic editing of a typical manuscript can take up to 4 weeks, although many are completed faster.

Basic copyediting service is billed per word at 2.4 cents per word. The initial $300 is a down payment and the billable word count is determined by utilizing the "Word Count" function in MS Word for Windows on the manuscript you submit.  We edit only digital manuscript files.  If your manuscript is in the form of an actual printed book or typewritten/handwritten pages, it will need to be transcribed into digital format first.  We offer transcription services to help you with that here.

There is a 15,000 word minimum.  If your manuscript contains fewer than 15,000 words, your total cost will be no more than the $300 that you pay initially.

If your manuscript is longer than 15,000 words, we will add the additional total to your shopping cart once we complete the word count. The total editing fee is due prior to editing work begining. 

Works of Poetry

Works of poetry are calculated differently.

If you have a work of poetry, editing services are charged at $60/hour, billed in 15-minute increments. There is a minimum initial payment of $300, which covers the first 5 hours (required). The work of poetry is then edited to determine the time frame and any remaining amount due is billed to you. Upon receipt of your total payment, the edited manuscript is transferred to you.

Ordering Details

By adding this option to your cart and paying the non-refundable deposit, you are ordering our editing service and are required to pay the full editing amount when billed. You can estimate the total cost yourself in advance by running "word count" on your document in MS Word and multiplying that number by .024. All editing fees become non-refundable once paid.

By ordering this option, you acknowledge that editors are human beings and, as such, you realize that this option is not a way to guarantee a 100% error-free manuscript. Editors are allowed a small margin of error (typically less than 5%).  The editor will conduct a thorough basic edit over the manuscript's punctuation, spelling and grammar, although given the variables in accepted styles, the author realizes that some modifications, such as comma usage, can be subjective.

Due to the subjectivity of editing, the editor will not change your manuscript, but rather, they will make recommendations for suggested corrections. The author receives these suggested edits in their manuscript file via the "Track Changes" functionality in MS Word. It is your responsibility to accept or reject the editor's recommendations to your manuscript. This preserves the purity of your story and "voice" and allows you to maintain control of your content.  The corrections made to your manuscript will be extensive and important. We suggest a final review by you after you implement the editor's suggested changes to ensure as pristine a document as humanly possible. 

Currently we edit only the English language. If any other language is within the body of your document, it will be ignored, but will still play a role in the word count calculation to determine editing cost.