Let me help you with your passion project.
I’m a copyeditor with 20+ years of professional writing and editing experience. I’ve worked as a newspaper reporter, a newspaper editor, and a copyeditor/proofreader for a marketing company, as well as a manager of a proofreader team. I also write and publish my own fiction.
I understand the rules and when to bend them. Context matters, and no machine can replace experienced human judgment.
After spending the past decade in a high-volume, fast-paced corporate environment, I want to devote my skills to polishing the passion projects of talented writers. Fiction and nonfiction projects are both welcome. (But no erotica, please.)
My specialties are line editing, copyediting, and proofreading. If you’re publishing independently, I recommend working with a developmental editor first. Once you’ve got the big-picture matters settled, I hope you’ll consider hiring me to clean up the details.
Not sure if I’m what you need? I’m happy to discuss. Contact me by email or by using my contact form and we’ll figure it out.
Services
(Rates are subject to change. Quotes are valid for 30 days. For any service over $100, payment is in two installments: The first half is due when you send me the manuscript, and the second half is due upon completion of the work.)
Copyediting/Proofreading:
Fiction: $0.016 per word (short stories: minimum $40)
Nonfiction: $0.018 per word (minimum $45)
I’ll review for spelling, grammar, clarity, and consistency. I’ll also create a style guide to keep track of book-specific consistency matters, which you’ll have for reference as you complete any final edits (or if this is part of a series, as you write the next story).
Line editing:
Fiction: $0.02 per word (short stories: minimum $50)
Nonfiction: $0.022 per word (minimum $55)
All of the above, plus I’ll offer writing suggestions at the sentence level—tightening up sentences, watching out for a consistent voice, and checking for smooth transitions from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph.
Proofreading of print-ready PDF:
Fiction: $0.02 per word ($0.01 per word if I’ve already reviewed the manuscript in Word)
Nonfiction: $0.022 per word ($0.011 per word if I’ve already reviewed the manuscript in Word)
Let’s say you’ve completed the interior design of the paperback or hardcover book and have laid out all the text. Now you want to check for any last-minute errors or oddities. I’ll review the PDF and make comments in Adobe Acrobat Reader. In addition to basic typos, I’ll also check for formatting issues in areas such as headers, footers, page numbers, chapter titles, scene breaks, word spacing, and paragraph indents.
Budget Proofreading
One-pass copyediting/proofreading:
Fiction: $0.008 per word (short stories: minimum $20)
Nonfiction: $0.009 per word (minimum $25)
This will not catch everything, but it will give you a good start so you can take it the rest of the way. It will also reveal where you’re more likely to commit errors. If you decide you’d like to upgrade to full copyediting/proofreading, we’ll subtract what you’ve already paid from the full fee so you’re not paying anything extra.
One-hour inspection/diagnosis of print-ready PDF: $45 flat fee
This won’t catch everything either, and it is not a full read of the manuscript. I’ll spend an hour reviewing key parts of the PDF to flag consistency issues and estimate how much more proofreading is needed. If you decide to upgrade to a full PDF review, we’ll subtract the $45 you’ve already paid from the full fee.
Working With Me
New clients:
Try me out with a complimentary five-page sample. Send me the sample as a Word document (double-spaced), and I’ll return it with comments. No obligation.
Contact:
Send inquiries to danielsherrier@gmail.com, or fill out this contact form. (Please do not send me unsolicited marketing pitches.)
I hope we can work together!
No AI Use:
I review all materials manually within Word and/or Adobe. I will not run your manuscript through any AI program (e.g., Grammarly, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.). I do not use Copilot in Microsoft Word; I have disabled that feature.