Services For Individuals

Whether you’re a researcher wanting a paper or book chapter checked before submission, a self-publishing author, or just writing something (like a family history) that you want to distribute privately, Luke Finley Editorial can help.

Even if you are working with a traditional publisher, not all of them provide a full copy-edit and proofread as part of their service to writers. But these things are essential if you want your finished work to be polished, professional and appealing to your readers.

I can provide any combination of the services described here. To talk about what you need and get a quote, get in touch via the contact page.

Proofreading

This is a final, careful check to make sure that everything is 100% accurate and consistent before your document goes live.

It’s easy to miss the odd mistake in your own work – you know what should be there, and that’s what you tend to see, instead of what’s actually there.

But your readers don’t know what should be there. They will notice any gaps or errors.

Computer spell-checks help, but they’re not completely reliable because they can’t truly understand what you’ve written and they can’t take account of the context. The perfect word choice is rarely as simple as ‘right or wrong’.

Hire me to proofread for you and you will buy yourself peace of mind about your text – and you can get back to the day job, or get on with your next writing project.

Copy-editing

This is for when your text needs a bit more work to get it into shape. I will check your text thoroughly for grammar, spelling and punctuation. I’ll make sure the style and content are clear and consistent, highlight any concerns, and suggest ways to address them. Copy-editing can also include:

• making sure references, tables, pictures and other elements are accurate and in the right place
• checking that hyperlinks work
• highlighting possible copyright or libel concerns
• formatting your document consistently for typesetting
• ensuring natural-sounding usage if English isn’t your first language.

Substantive editing and plain language support

I have extensive, varied writing experience of my own, and I can provide the independent eye you need in order to judge how well you’ve communicated your message. My in-depth editing, restructuring or rewriting will help to make your text clearer, more readable and more appropriate for your target audience. This might include:

• editing into plain English, using the well-established principles of this technique to make your writing as accessible as possible
• thinking about things like layout, length and structure of sentences and paragraphs, and use of jargon or technical language
• rewriting a text for a different audience
• reducing word count or summarising a longer text.