Pop quiz time.
I'm a Grammarwitch because:
A. I look great in a pointy hat.
B. The name flew into my head one day and stuck.
C. I can work magic with words.
D. All of the above.
Time's up! The correct answer is D, "All of the above."
And how, you ask, do I do such Grammarwitchery?
In my pointy hat, of course.
The magic tricks you can actually hire me to do are:
- Editing. I do very thorough, in-depth line editing. I will not only make your writing grammatically correct, I will make sure that it gets your message across and means what you thought you said, not what you actually said, should there be a disparity between the two. I will correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax, flow, consistency, and, if necessary, suggest alternate word choices and the occasional rearrangement of sentences. I can copyedit anything from letters to articles to web sites to full-length book manuscripts. Including tattoos and skywriting. Although by that time, frankly, it's probably too late. I will do all these things politely and respectfully, maintaining your authorial voice and intent.
- Indexing. If your book requires an index, I can make one for you. I do not use software to create indexes; computer software cannot adequately create an index. It can create a concordance—an alphabetized list of certain words and where they can be found in your book—but it cannot create an index, which involves concepts as well as words. You have to think like a reader to create a useful, thoughtful index, intuiting what a reader would want to look up and how they would phrase it. A computer can't do that. I can.
- Writing
- Fact-checking
I love projects with a good cause. Any book, article, or other project that brings more light, love, truth, joy, encouragement, or justice to the world makes me happy. I would love to put a little magic into yours.
Take a look at my "Cautions" page and consider it my resumé. These are people who have actually been willing to hire me more than once. Imagine that.
As for rates, I price each project individually, so I can't really tell you until I've seen yours. However, here is a link to the rates posted by the Editorial Freelancers Association as a guideline and a range. Mine usually fall right in the middle of theirs, but every project is unique, just like every author is unique--and your quote will be unique as well.
