So, I Read This Book Today . . .
Editing Fees and Guidelines
As my editing jobs have become more numerous, I have updated my Editing Fees and Guidelines. My editing and proofreading includes checking for grammar, sentence structure, misspellings, and pointing out plot inconsistencies, etc. At this time, my base charge is $0.008/word, with a minimum of $50, payable via PayPal. Editing jobs I am currently working on, received before May 1, 2014, will continue to be edited at the old rate.
If your manuscript is less than 5,000 words please let me know and we can work out pricing. I prefer to set up appointments for your manuscript, but please, send your manuscripts to me as early as possible. I can often work them in sooner than they are scheduled, but advance notice is much easier.
I use Microsoft Word 2013. I use the Track Changes application while I edit and leave the decision as to whether or not to accept those changes to you. I also tend to leave extensive notes outlining the reason for specific changes, noting uneven or awkward sentence or paragraph flow, or even if I noticed something that just doesn’t feel right.
Full editing is completed in one of two ways. The first choice is that I completely edit the book and provide you with a corrected copy, highlighting changes and corrections and making when appropriate extensive notes. Your second choice is full editing. I take the book in hand, do all corrections and changes and provide you with print ready copy. The charge for print ready copy is $0.010/word.
Please note: Books from authors who speak English as a second language, hence requiring a great deal more correction for grammar, or books with extensive re-write may be significantly more. You may send me your book for pricing if you feel there may be extensive work needed on the book. Pricing available upon request.
After I have edited a manuscript, I will send it back to you. Once you have made changes, you can always send it back to me for a second pass at no charge. Please note: If second-pass changes are truly extensive, I will reserve the right to bill a second payment for the second pass. I want to be fair to you, but I also want to be fair to myself. Just as writing is difficult, though rewarding, editing a book in a manner that will make you proud of your final product is a lot of work.
For available books on which I have worked, please see my “i-edited” shelf on Goodreads. You may contact any of the authors with whom I’ve worked for a reference. I am also very willing to provide you a sample of my work to see if we are a comfortable fit. I can be easily contacted through Goodreads or by e-mail at soireadthisbooktoday@centurylink.net
I look forward to working with you!
Ugh. Must we push ALL my hot buttons?
I received this book from the publisher in return for a realistic review, and as I promised the review I am going to write it. Though I have to admit, had I not promised, I wouldn’t write one at all. This book brought out a very visceral, very pissed-off vibe in me that really made me want to scream and throw the book across the room. The thing is, that is a personal reaction to the situation in the book, not really a comment on the author or the story, so it isn’t really fair to dump that out there. Maybe she was trying to point out the unfairness of the justice system? Nah, I really think she thought that the male should have the rights the courts gave him – and that is just wrong on so many levels. No matter, really. Although I found the situation Carolyn finds herself in absolutely deplorable, at least one reviewer shares my views, so be that as it may, let’s get on with it.
First, Dr. Caroline Stern. This poor woman has gone through hell, literally. Her husband murdered and her child stolen in the same attack, she suffers for eighteen-months having no idea where her baby is or if he is alive or dead. Devastated at all the loss, she loses herself in her work until, one day, she receives the call – the call that she had hoped, and dreaded, to receive. Yes, they have found her son – and yes, he is alive! Dropping everything, she and her attorney drive off into the night to bring her son home.
Ah, but there is the rub. For the person who has her son is actually the sperm donor she and her husband never meant to use to produce baby Isaac. Jack had thought he had donated his sperm to a surrogate to produce a child of his own for him and his wife to raise. Going to pick up the baby, they had no idea that the child he obtained was indeed made with his sperm, but wasn’t his to have. He was a stolen child. The sperm sample was switched, the donor Carolyn thought she used wasn’t the one she was infused with – it didn’t belong to the donor she and her husband chose. It was Jack’s.
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OK, here is where my review gets rough. Jack is an unmitigated shit. He has no redeeming qualities other than the fact that he apparently loves the boy who carries half his DNA. Finding out that this Isaac is actually the child of Caroline and NOT the child carried by the surrogate he had chosen (who had chosen to keep the child she bore herself and not turn him over to Jack, smart woman) he is nasty, vindictive, and vicious to Carolyn. Even when she tries to work with him to arrange visitation, allowing him time with a child he has no right to, simply because he is the sperm donor, he STILL fights her for full custody!!! Uh, not really a loveable guy. In fact, I wanted to cut his throat more than I wanted him to have ANY access to a child. Anyone as nasty and self-centered as him really didn’t deserve to have access to any child, much less a stolen one.
Then there is the whole Amber Alert – you can’t tell me that, with all the pleas for help, the pictures on television of Isaac, a very distinctive child, the heart wrenching story of a man shot to death trying to keep kidnappers from stealing his child, that nobody recognized the child in the photos as the boy now called Ryan? Really?? People, he was only TWO hours away!
Overall, the book hit all my hot buttons about the unfairness of the situation. She carried Isaac through nine months of discomfort, went through hours of agony to have him, gave him the best possibly life with loving parents – then her husband is shot to death in front of her and her baby stolen – and she could have him ripped from her by the courts simply because Jack wanked off in a cup then wiled away his time until the baby ‘cooked’ in the womb of a woman he neither knew, or cared about – and yet he wanted to cut her off from all contact with him, because he was his?? Yep. Hot buttons. Big, huge, bright red hot buttons.
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