Editing publications, proofread, manuscript assessments, coaching

Our team of professional editors offers:

structural or developmental editing – novels, memoirs and life stories, poetry books, and academic and corporate publications
copy editing – reports and manuscripts, to design or publication stage
proofreading – either in Word or PDF
manuscript assessments – novels, memoir and life stories
coaching in writing and self-editing.

Editing and proofreading

Our editors are Sally-Anne, Claire, Kyla-Jayne, Deb, Pete L and Pete S. To read about our experience and qualifications, go to: Our editors.

We edit and proofread

manuscripts of life stories, memoir, oral history, family histories, recipe books, and novels (genres including fantasy, youth fiction, Australian)
academic publications (education, health), reports, conference programs, policies, manuals, newsletters, website content, suites of articles
in Word, InDesign, PDF, and online (websites).

Different types of editing

Structural editing (also called developmental editing, or substantive editing)
Rough copy editing (also called “line editing” or simply “copy editing”)
The final copy edit. Note: some writers refer to this as a “proofread” but editors always call this final stage, prior to design, the “final copy edit”.

For more information go to:

For a free consultation to work out the type of editing you need, and the most cost-effective way we could assist you, contact us here.

Manuscript assessments

A manuscript assessment by a professional editor will help you self-edit your manuscript to a higher level, so it will be ready for copy editing. It is less detailed and therefore costs less than a structural or developmental edit.

We offer manuscript assessments of poetry (all genres), novels (many genres), and non-fiction (memoir, life stories, family history, local history).

Our role in conducting a manuscript assessment is to assess and provide you with feedback and advice in relation to the structure, style, voice, consistency etc. of your manuscript. We write a manuscript assessment report that includes suggestions for addressing structural or style issues, and we may also provide some Track Changes comments.

Note that we do not offer advice in relation to marketing, agents or publishers .

Our manuscript assessors are our editors Sally-Anne, Claire, Kyla-Jayne and Pete S, all of whom are members of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). For more information, go to: Contact us.

Note: beta reading costs less than a manuscript assessment because a beta read is normally done by someone who is not a qualified editor. Contact us for more information about beta reading or a referral to a beta reading service.

Coaching in writing and self-editing – in most genres

We coach writers from diverse backgrounds, and of all ages and abilities:

via Zoom, track changes in Word documents and/or other platforms or methods preferred by the client, to support them in their writing goals
in various genres including memoir, poetry, articles, essays, “how-to” non-fiction, and novels: fantasy, crime, literary fiction, graphic novels/comics
collaboratively. We assist them with feedback and guidance to edit and improve their manuscript while teaching them to self-edit by themselves.

We always put our clients’ needs first. Our coaches are nurturing and honest, sensitive to our clients’ issues and challenges, and committed to helping our clients grow and reach their goals. Sally-Anne initiates then supervises each coaching relationship and provides guidance or input as appropriate.

Many of our clients are neurodivergent or disabled writers who are NDIS participants. We understand, as well as we can, the challenges our clients face every day due to their disability or condition and this helps us to support these writers to stay focused on their writing when they are able, but understand when they are not well enough for the coaching session or haven’t done the homework they had committed to. We teach them how to self-edit and improve their writing, and motivate them to continue and complete their writing project, despite their challenges.

For more information, go to: Our approach to coaching in writing and self-editing.

Our editor coaches are Kyla-Jayne, Deb, Sally-Anne, Pete L and Pete S, who are all experienced in coaching and editing, and members of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). Our storytelling/scribing coaches are Kyle and Natalie. Find out more about our coaches and their experience here.

Coaching in writing and self-editing – poetry

We coach our clients in self-editing their poetry via Zoom and/or Track Changes tools in Word. We can coach poets in self-editing individual poems or a collection of poems for a self-published book.

We provide manuscript assessments, structural (or developmental) editing of whole books of poetry, and copy editing – and due to the nature of poetry, these forms of editing are very collaborative and closely linked to coaching.

If the poet has a tiny budget, instead of editing all their poems we can instead focus on coaching the poet in self-editing just one or two poems, so they can learn from that, then self-edit the rest of their poems themselves.

For more information about our approach to editing poetry or coaching in self-editing your poems, see: Editing and coaching – poetry: our experience, and Editing poetry collaboratively.

We have on our team two poetry coaches/editors. They are Sally-Anne Watson Kane and Deb Wain. Both are members of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd), and experienced in coaching poets and writers who are neurodiverse or who have disabilities.

Sally-Anne has been writing poetry all her life, and has been editing others’ poetry for over 20 years. She has co-authored and self-published a book of poetry, Among the Wildflowers. She presents her workshop How to edit your own poetry) every now and then, and is co-founder of Poetry Editing Group Gippsland (PEGG) which regularly workshops poetry online. Sally-Anne is also a registered Poet Mentor with Gippsland Writers Group’s mentoring program.

Our poetry writing and self-editing coaches are Kyla-Jayne, Deb and Sally-Anne. All are experienced in coaching, editing and writing poetry, and all are members of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). For details see: here.

Our rates

We offer a free consultation and quote (including discussion about your project or manuscript, to one hour).

Our rates for editing and proofreading are charged ‘per-word’ for copy editing and proofreading, and ‘per hour’ for structural or developmental editing. They are based on the pay rates recommended by Institute of Professional Editors.

Our rates for writing/editing coaching are charged per hour of hands-on editing (coaching via Word track changes) or face-to-face coaching.

We do not charge for general administration or communications.

Editing, proofreading, manuscript assessments, coaching