I’ve worked with writers of novels, historical anthologies, short stories, zine articles, dissertations, and instructional materials, helping them to hone their words. Under my mighty pen, your final work will be clear, articulate, appropriate in tone, and well organized.
My specialty is my favorite hobby—tabletop gaming. It’s a thrill to work with game designers to improve their board games, card games, and roleplaying games. Editing games ranges from technical (Are your rules clear and succinct? Is the terminology correct?) to developmental (Is your setting captivating? Are the mechanics correct? Is the tone engaging and on-brand?).
Karen does not simply do text review for the quality of the prose in the rules and other game materials. Karen engages with the project immersively, so that she has a clear understanding of what the game materials need to convey, and is able to refine the clarity and accuracy of the information presented. —Eric Vogel, Evil Hat Productions
Range of Services
It’s important that we discuss your project before getting started. The term “editing” covers many kinds of work, so we’ll be sure to determine the level of edit that your work needs.
Developmental Editing
This heavy edit assesses the content and structure of your work. I’ll keep on the lookout for inconsistent tone, ambiguous audience, and disorganized subject matter. I can also develop a style guide to make sure your language and formatting stay consistent. Depending on your needs, I might do multiple rounds of revisions, perhaps with a few calls or online chats to hash out any finer details.
I can check in on your project after layout, proofreading, and indexing, to ensure that no new errors snuck in along the way.
Your work will be in good hands!
Copyediting
Editing at the sentence and paragraph levels guarantees that your tone, vocabulary, and style are appropriate, and that all your grammar is in order. You may also receive suggested rewrites for particular sections of text. If needed, I will also do some fact-checking. And if you simply need to cut down the word count and bring up the clarity, I will trim out all the excess!
We’ll normally have a round or two of revisions, addressing any issues in wording, organization, and consistency.
Proofreading
Spellcheck can take your work only so far, and it won’t always catch those misplaced commas and formatting mistakes. I will review your manuscript after layout for typographical, grammar, and spelling errors.
Are your page references correct? Should that heading be in bold or italic? Are all your hyphens in order? I’ll tackle the nitty-gritty and present you with a polished manuscript. Often, I can quickly turn around proofreading jobs.
Rates
My rates vary depending on your needs. Often a per-word rate is appropriate, but sometimes a flat or hourly rate is better suited for the project. My per-word rate is $0.01–0.08/word, and my hourly rate is $20–50/hour.
We’ll work together to determine a reasonable rate based on the size and complexity of the project, your deadline, and your budget.
We’ve worked with Karen on multiple publishing projects, and every time she has been thorough, clear, and responsive. Our timelines are often rushed and she has always been flexible and helped us to meet our deadlines and made sure hasty mistakes were caught in time. In addition, her ability to edit in a variety of interfaces, including our final InDesign layout, has been invaluable to us. —Steve Segedy, Bully Pulpit Games
Karen Twelves 