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Aster House Books

Editorial

Good books begin with good editing.

Four levels of editorial work, done in a fixed order. Most manuscripts need two of them. Buying the wrong one at the wrong stage is the most common way authors waste money.
Request a manuscript assessment

Editing is not proofreading with a bigger budget. Each stage assumes the one before it is finished: there is no sense polishing sentences in a chapter that is about to be cut, and no sense proofreading a file that has not been typeset yet.

01

Manuscript Assessment

What it is
A senior editor reads the complete manuscript and writes a detailed report on what is working, what is not, and what to do about it.
Who needs it
Authors who have finished a draft and want an honest professional read before deciding what happens next.
What you receive
A written report of 8–15 pages covering structure, pacing, voice, character or argument, market position, and a prioritised list of revisions. Followed by a call.

02

Developmental Editing

What it is
Structural work on the book itself: what to cut, what to move, what to expand, where the argument or the story loses the reader.
Who needs it
Authors whose draft is complete but not yet shaped, and nonfiction authors whose material is strong but unordered.
What you receive
An annotated manuscript, a revision plan, chapter-level notes, and two rounds of discussion as you rewrite.

03

Copyediting

What it is
Line-by-line work on grammar, syntax, consistency, register and factual coherence, against a style sheet built for your book.
Who needs it
Authors whose structure is settled and who want the prose to read cleanly and consistently.
What you receive
A tracked-changes manuscript, a style sheet, a queries list, and a clean copy once you have accepted the changes.

04

Proofreading

What it is
The final read, done on typeset pages rather than the manuscript: typographic errors, bad breaks, widows, running heads, page numbers, contents accuracy.
Who needs it
Every book, before it goes to print. No exceptions.
What you receive
A marked proof and a corrections list applied to the print files.

A note on order

Start with an assessment if you are not sure.

A full read and a written report costs a fraction of a full edit and frequently changes what the author decides to buy next. It is the only editorial service we recommend to everyone.
Request a manuscript assessment

Editorial

Not sure what your manuscript needs?

Send us the draft and tell us where you think it stands. We will tell you which stage it is actually at — including when the answer is that it needs nothing.

Start your book