davidoff
editing
Give your writing the care and attention it deserves.
About Me
My name’s Ben and I’m an editor who believes the most memorable writing is built on a tender balance of technique and heart.Equipped with a Literary Studies degree from the University of Texas at Dallas, my background includes nearly a decade freelance editing for a well-known science fiction and fantasy publisher, as well as two years as a managing editor for a reputable hybrid publishing house.I'm passionate about helping authors refine their manuscripts across a wide range of genres and subject areas. To date I’ve contributed my editorial expertise to nearly 90 books spanning adult, middle grade, and YA fiction, as well as adult nonfiction ranging anywhere from memoir, self-help, health, and metaphysics to history and personal finance.I've worked with both independent and contracted authors and have an insider knowledge of the intricate manuscript-to-book journey, with all its challenges and rewards.As a professional I’m motivated by deadlines and driven by a commitment to excellence, and I find establishing meaningful relationships the greatest reward of all.At the end of the day, I’m here to protect and enhance your voice as an author—that is, to listen to your needs, understand your vision, celebrate where our perspectives align, and honor where they take different directions. As veteran copyeditor and author Carol Fisher Saller reminds us, our everlasting goal is to help you produce writing that forges trust and connection between you and your readers—trust in your authority as author, and a connection built on the authenticity of your writing.I’m comfortable working with independent authors, publishers, and any other organization who needs help producing public-facing literature that is polished and successfully carries forth its vision.If you spy on me in my free time, you might find me sponging up another movie from my hopelessly long watchlist, buried in my headphones catching up on my hopelessly long music backlog, playing on my drums or guitar, bicycling and rollerblading, desperately seeking approval from my cats, or dangerously reading while walking.
What I Offer
I provide conscientious line editing, copyediting, proofreading, and final-page proofing—that is, early, mid-stage, and late-stage editing.My process is collaborative and my goal is to always honor your voice as author. I work in Microsoft Word and visibly track all of my revisions on the page via the Track Changes feature. This means that you as author will always have the final say in terms of accepting, adapting, or rejecting my suggestions. You will also find commentary and author queries in the margins where I’ll be providing my editorial reasoning or drawing your attention to issues that need resolving.
Meanwhile, if I'm line editing or copyediting your manuscript, I'll create a style sheet, which is a record of items pertaining to your writing style, key manuscript details (such as names, proper nouns, and places), and various editorial decisions whose reasoning I want to clarify. If a style sheet has already been created for your manuscript, I’ll continue to add my own observations to it. Overall, style sheets ensure stylistic consistency across a manuscript and also provide a space for the editor to draw the author’s attention to crucial items that need resolving or further consideration.
An example of just one of several possible segments to be found on a style sheet. (Excerpt from the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition.)
My main editorial resources include the current Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collegiate, both of which have been standardized as editorial benchmarks in the publishing industry. I also keep on hand various other helpful guides, such as The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction and The Copyeditor’s Handbook. Meanwhile, I find that the online Urban Dictionary can also come in handy at just the right moment, while Bryan A. Garner's Modern English Usage is an indispensible guide when I'm hand-wringing over any given matter of diction and idiom.
Services Breakdown
Line Editing
Congratulations! If your manuscript is ready for a line edit, that means it’s not only been fully drafted but that you or a developmental editor have spent time enhancing it to ensure that your goals have been met in the big picture. It’s now time to do some deep sentence work in terms of word choice, phrasing, paragraph organization, and various other matters of style.The goal of a line edit is to ensure that your writing successfully communicates your ideas or your story without sacrificing your unique voice or style as an author. At the line edit stage, your manuscript is like a sculpture whose overall form has taken shape but whose contours still need a lot of additional refinement to bring it fully to life on both a visual and conceptual level. On its surface, your sculpture is still quite damp and malleable.Line editing involves two stages: (1) my first pass of your manuscript wherein I make revisions, leave comments, and create a style sheet, and (2) my review of your changes to your manuscript and responses to my comments and queries.During each stage, I'm open to sharing a 1-hour phone call or videoconference with you to answer questions or discuss various items.My line editing fees begin at 2.7¢ per word.
Copyediting
If your manuscript is ready for a copyedit, then phew! It’s already been passionately pored over at the sentence and paragraph level and is one giant step forward to being publish-ready.The goal of a copyedit is to ensure, sentence by sentence and word by word, technical precision across your manuscript pertaining to grammar, punctuation, formatting, fact-checking, and other items around consistency. At this stage your sculpture appears to be relatively finished, but there remain a good handful of minor, however critical, imperfections that need a good buffing out or some additional etching. Your sculpture has fairly hardened but will still permit additional impressions across its surface.Even while copyediting is widely considered a “polishing” phase in the editorial journey, it is common for editors to discover upwards of hundreds of errors that have carried over from early editing stages.Copyediting involves the same stages as with line editing: (1) my first pass of your manuscript whereby I make revisions, leave comments, and, if necessary, create a style sheet, and (2) my review of your changes to your manuscript and responses to my comments and queries.During each stage, I'm open to sharing a 1-hour phone call or videoconference with you to answer questions or discuss various items.My copyediting rates begin at 2¢ per word.
(If, upon review or at the start of copyediting, I determine that your manuscript instead requires line-level editing, I will pause and contact you to discuss next steps.)
Proofreading
If your manuscript is ready for proofreading, that means it's already gone through the rigorous stages of development and in-the-weeds editing. Amazing! You just have one more tiny door to step through before your work is ready to be enjoyed by your audience.I provide two levels of proofreading.
Level 1 Proofreading
Your manuscript has been through developmental, line, and copyediting and is ready for a final read-through before it is typeset for publication. In Level 1 Proofreading, I will be performing a close read of your manuscript to search for any remaining errors that might have crept through earlier stages of editing as regards grammar, punctuation, fact-checking, and formatting.Proofreading involves two stages: (1) my pass of your manuscript whereby I discover and revise any lingering errors, and (2) a phone or videoconference with you to discuss items, answer questions, and officially wrap up the proofreading process.My Level 1 Proofreading rates begin at 1.5¢ per word.
Level 2 Proofreading
Your manuscript has been through developmental, line, and copyediting and has already been professionally typeset (“laid out”) as a book interior in the form of a PDF. In Level 2 Proofreading, my goals are to discover any remaining errors whatsoever across your book interior. I’ll be closely scouring not only the main content itself for lingering errors in the prose but also ensuring there are no errors across any of the mechanical elements of the interior, such as the running heads, pagination, the table of contents, images and graphics, appendices, notes and bibliographies, indices, and so on.My Level 2 Proofreading rates begin at 2¢ per word.
(If, upon review or at the start of proofreading, I determine that your manuscript still requires copy- or line-level editing, I will pause and contact you to discuss next steps.)
Testimonials
“Ben’s a solid editor. He elevated the material, making it more readable, without killing the voice. Would work with him again.”
—Robert La Force, author of the upcoming supernatural thriller novel Friday Night Fright Lights
“Ben is a brilliant copy editor. His work with me resulted in my first published book. Working with him was a wonderful experience.”
—Leonard Curry, author of the autobiographical novel The Irresistibles
“Ben has a fantastic attention to detail, and he sticks to timelines very well!”
—David King, Book Designer, Kingsize Creations LLC
Contact Me
Let's talk about your manuscript!In the Subject line below, enter “[Manuscript Title] - Seeking [Editing Service].”In the Message field, tell me a little bit about yourself and describe what you’ve written, including how long the manuscript currently is (word count preferable).