What are line editors?

Line editors are sometimes called stylistic editors.

Their duties will sometimes overlap with the work of a copy editor or a substantive editor.

Line editing follows substantive editing, once the structure is in place.

Line editors are in love with words, delight in the perfect phrase, and have large vocabularies. They have a good sense of rhythm so they can choose whether to make your words flow like a lazy river, or pound like a hammer, depending on your message. 

They read widely for the pure joy of it. They understand the creative use of punctuation. They love dictionaries and thesauri. (And they know that thesauri is the plural of thesaurus.)

Line editing is my favourite part of the writing process. 

Every word, every punctuation mark, gets close attention. I get to make sure the language is both beautiful and powerful, that it carries the message in the best possible way. This is the artistic part of editing.

If you use my line editing services, you can be sure your writing

• matches your intent,
• is at a reading level appropriate to your audience,
• is consistent in style and voice,
• uses literary devices to best advantage,
• uses transitions effectively,
• will read smoothly,
• and is elegant and powerful.

In addition I will alert you 

• to potential legal issues as I understand them. (I am not a lawyer and I cannot give legal advice.)
• and to a need for further fact checking. (I do fact checking for an additional fee. Most self-publishing authors would rather save the money and check the facts themselves.)

More questions? Back to the FAQs page.

Line editors make your work beautiful and powerful. Check the home page to see what other services this site offers you.