Editing for Indie Authors with Represnt Publishing

When I'm not editing and helping authors publish their novels, I'm an author myself. I write contemporary romance fiction. My novels dive into heavier plot lines with the addition of romantic fluff, instead of just happiness. The themes of my novels usually revolve around mental health and the characters are often part of the LGBTQ+ community. I tend to read within the genre I write, as it often differs greatly from the novels I edit, allowing me to relax at the end of the night! 

I believe the difference is that a professional editor has an educational background in either editing, English, and/or Creative Writing. They dedicate their career to ensuring that each client develops and publishes their best work forward.

Often, a beta-reader and a critique partner are individuals who read novels on their down time for fun, or as another writing peer. All services are incredibly important. You want the beta-reader to make sure your book is to market, you want a critique partner to help you through the drafts and motivate you to the finish line, and you want an editor to either help make sure the book is developed properly or to ensure you have a polished manuscript.

As an indie author, I prefer only working with indie authors. I'm passionate about helping them create opportunities for themselves and publish the books of their dreams. I try to keep my prices reasonable and offer payment plans, so every author feels like they have the opportunity to write a book and see it to the finish line.

I don't have a specific project that has been better than all the rest, but my favorite is developing series with return clients. I love establishing connections and watching their writing grow and their success, in turn, develop throughout our time together.

I offer a few different editing services and self-publishing packages. However, my most in-depth is developmental editing. I offer two rounds of edits for this service.

The first round, I read the manuscript like a finished novel, taking notes here and there, making comments in places I don't want to miss diving further, then I step away from the manuscript for a day or two, mulling around the strengths and weaknesses of the novel. When I go back into the final edit, this is when I have my developmental assessment guide open and go through each chapter in-depth.

I provide chapter-by-chapter feedback in the assessment and I make specific comments within the manuscript on how to further develop scenes, whether it be setting, dialogue, progressing the plot, etc. After I finish the final edit, I then go through the developmental assessment guide, writing out specific strengths and weaknesses for plot, pacing, dialogue, characters, setting, and point of view.

Then, I polish the feedback. Once everything is complete, I email the author back the manuscript and the developmental assessment and schedule a phone or video call with them to thoroughly discuss the suggested revisions and come up with a revised schedule. 

Outside of editing, I'm an author and I love reading. In my downtime, I'm often playing with my pups and soon-to-be baby. I go on hikes, have game nights with friends, and do my best to relax. 

A proofread is the final read-through of a novel right before it's published. This is where the proofreader goes through with a fine-tooth comb. This is meant to catch any grammar and spelling issues that might have been overlooked by other editors, beta-readers, critique partners, and/or self-edits. This is important because it keeps readers from stumbling over errors, which could pull them out of the story. 

My ideal client is someone who has had developmental edits, beta-readers or critique partners, or someone who has revised their own novel at least three different times. I'm looking for clients who know they are at the very last step before they can start the processing of publishing. They are really looking for just a polish versus sentence structure or story development. 

For a proofread, I only do one edit through; however, I keep notes of certain things, like how numbers are written, whether spelled out or numerical, and how that changes with numbers of measurement versus age, character names, town/world names, etc.

These notes and/or style guides help me ensure that there are no mistakes. I also read the novel out loud, seeing if I stumble across any wording. Once the one edit is complete, I'll then go through all my notes and double-check whether there were inconsistencies with spelling or grammar mentioned above. 

My goal with Represent Publishing has always been to make indie editing and publishing affordable and accessible to everyone who wants to publish their novels. My packages are customizable to exactly what the author wants and I offer payment plans to make sure the author can achieve their dreams without going broke. If you don't see what you're looking for, don't hesitate to reach out. I'm always looking to expand my services! 

I can be contacted at representpublishing@gmail.com, but if you'd like to check out the services I offer, visit www.representpublishing.com.