Our proofreading and copy-editing services
Get professional help for your manuscript from experienced copy-editors
Our expert copyeditors will review your entire text, addressing details such as grammar, while making sure their suggestions maintain the style and voice of your manuscript. Our text correction services include proofreading, copy-editing, and line-editing. Each service will provide an edited copy of your manuscript complete with tracked changes. Download a sample copy-editing report and see what you’ll receive from your editor.
Which service is right for you?
Whether you’re looking for a final polish before you self-publish, for support writing in your non-native language, or have specific concerns about your written accuracy, we have you covered.
What’s included in each service?
What’s included: copy-editing vs proofreading?
A copy-edit provides substantive edits directly to your manuscript and is our most popular text correction service. Proofreading is the lightest form of text correction and will focus on typos, spelling mistakes, and punctuation.
Proofreading
Copy-Editing
What’s included: copy-editing vs line-editing?
A copy-edit provides substantive edits directly to your manuscript and is our most popular text correction service. A line-edit is our most detailed service, in which your book editor will review your manuscript line by line and make edits directly to your work.
Copy-Editing
Line-Editing
Our professional copy-editors
Request your dream editor or let our team match you with the editor best suited to your work. We’ve hand-selected our team of expert book editors over the last 20 years, including specialists across trade fiction and non-fiction. Here you’ll find traditionally published authors as well as publishing professionals such as literary agents and editors with Big 5 publisher experience.
Dexter Petley
Acclaimed novelist
- Bio
- Books
- Genres
Proofreading | Copyediting | Line editing
Dexter Petley is an experienced editor, acclaimed literary novelist, memoirist and translator. As a long serving editor with Jericho Writers, (since 2005) many of Dexter’s clients have achieved considerable success in finding agents and publishers.
Dexter does not shy away from complex themes or influences. His expertise spans entire genres, from commercial book club to war fiction. He takes everything in his stride, turning his fastidious, but fair, eye to anything at hand – making you a better writer for it.
- Contemporary
- Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
- Crime/Thriller/Action
- Historical fiction
- Women’s fiction
- Comic/satire
- Young Adult
- Short Stories & novellas
- Memoir/autobiography
- Other Narrative Non-fiction
- Subject-led Non-fiction
Cecile Shanahan
Professional copy-editor
- Bio
- Genres
Proofreading | Copyediting | Line editing
Cecile Shanahan is an experienced editor and proofreader who adores helping writers to make their words shine. She has a special interest in children’s and young adult literature and educational publishing, but often works on general fiction and non-fiction titles too.
Since joining Jericho Writers she has assisted more than 20 authors to progress their writing projects through agent submission pack assessments, manuscript assessments, developmental edits, copy edits, line edits, proofreading and post-editorial support.
- Contemporary
- Literary (Including ‘bookclub’)
- Crime / Thriller / Action
- Women’s
- Picture books
- Children’s
- Young Adult
- Subject-led Non-fiction
Deirdre Power
Literary agent & children’s book editor
- Bio
- Genres
Proofreading | Copyediting | Line editing
Deirdre began her publishing career in a literary agency, working with children’s authors ranging from Tom Fletcher and David Farr to debut novelists and upcoming new authors. Since then, she has gone on to work in children’s editorial at major publishing houses, working across everything from picture books to YA.
Deirdre brings a keen editorial eye and in-depth knowledge of the market, and spends more time reading children’s fiction than anything else.
- Picture books
- Children’s
- Young Adult
- Other Narrative Non-fiction
Pippa Goodhart
Children’s author & professional editor
- Bio
- Books
- Genres
Line editing
Pippa began her children’s book career as a bookseller and advisor to publishers before beginning to write books herself. She’s had over a hundred titles published, some of them award-winning.
For the last quarter century, Pippa has combined writing her own books with teaching and critiquing to develop writing for children skills in others.
To date, Pippa has had over 140 picture books, early readers, and MG novels published.
- Picture books
- Children’s
Victoria Lee
Professional copy-editor
- Bio
- Genres
Victoria’s wide experience of writing and editing includes children’s picture books through to teen fiction, education and teachers’ books, academic writing, and general fiction and non-fiction. She has worked for publishing houses, universities and individuals. She advises and mentors authors, sometimes over many years. Children’s books, especially picture books, remain her passion.
Even though her editing background is in traditional publishing, Victoria is very interested in the self-publishing route as it provides opportunities to ‘do things differently’. She is also keen on writing for the pure joy of it.
- Picture books
- Children’s
- Young Adult
Teresa Heapy
Children’s author & former commissioning editor
- Bio
- Books
- Genres
Line editing
Teresa has worked in children’s publishing for 27 years. She’s an editor and an award-winning author, with 11 picture books and 80 educational books published.
Teresa worked in-house as a Commissioning Editor for Heinemann and Oxford University Press before going freelance, and now combines editorial work with writing picture books and books for young readers.
- Picture books
- Children’s
- Children’s Non-Fiction
Could you be our next success story?
Over the last 20 years, many of our clients have gone on to win prizes, become bestsellers, get film and TV deals, achieve huge global sales, and more. To name a few, John David Mann went onto become a New York Times Bestselling author; Paul Braddon’s The Actuality has been optioned for a TV series; Eleanor Anstruther won the Desmond Elliott prize; and Nussaibah Younis has been shortlisted for The Women’s Prize awards. Now it’s your turn.
Why choose us?
There are lots of companies promising you the dream of getting your book published. We value ourselves on only ever selling you a service that we think will benefit you. Not sure if this one is right for you? Give us a call, we’d love to hear from you. If we don’t think this service is right for you, we’ll tell you – honestly. This is one of the many values we hold that have helped us run Jericho Writers successfully for over 20 years.
Need more info before you decide?
Choosing the right service for your work is hard. But we’re on hand to help! Book a call with our Writer Support team at a time to suit you to talk through the options.
Frequently asked
questions
How long will it take to match my manuscript with an editor?
We aim to match you with the right editor within 2-4 days. We’ll get back to you as soon as the choice has been confirmed.
Can I choose my editor?
If you have a particular editor in mind, we will of course do our best to match you with them. We cannot guarantee this, however, as all of our editors are freelance and there are times when they are unavailable due to demand and/or other commitments.
Once you have placed your order, you’re welcome to send a shortlist of 4-5 editors from our website (and we’ll do our best to place you with your preferred editors).
Will my manuscript be flawless?
Probably not. Whilst our text-correction editors always aim for a total elimination of errors, a realistic outcome is that your text will be very clean, but not perfect. In our experience, this standard will be easily sufficient for self-publishing or submission to traditional outlets. Traditionally published books will often go through several rounds of text correction and therefore we recommend that authors planning to self-publish consider doing the same. Our line-editing, copy-editing, and proofreading services are conducted at a high level, but perfection in this area is not realistically attainable. Many published books feature minor typos.
What if my work needs more attention than the service-level I’ve paid?
In that situation, we’ll tell you. We’re here to make your work better, and we’ll be candid and truthful about what we think you need.
Will my copy-editor respect my own personal style and voice?
Yes. That’s very important to us. As writers ourselves, we know that we can’t just impose a house style on your prose and expect that to be okay.
Which editorial service is right for me?
We offer quite a few editorial services, so you’re right to take the time to consider all of your options. The writing process is a long one, so whether it’s line editing or copy-editing, or something on a larger scale, like a manuscript assessment or developmental edit, we have the service for you. You can take a look at all of our editorial services here. You might also like to read our article explaining all the different types of editorial services. If you’re still not sure, feel free to get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to offer more advice.
Not the right service for you?
Whether you’re looking for detailed structural edits, line-editing, or you’re just getting started and need some feedback on your opening chapters, we have you covered.
