Four things I proudly provide my clients:
Three passes. The best editors are humans, and humans can miss things. Nobody is perfect, but to minimize those misses, each manuscript that comes my way gets three passes.
A detailed style sheet. From narrative details and character descriptions to grammar and punctuation preferences, I create a detailed style sheet to keep everything straight so I can deliver manuscripts that are as consistent as possible.
Industry standards. I’m well-versed in the Chicago Manual of Style guidelines, which is a publishing industry standard in the US. Additionally, I always have Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, another industry standard, at the ready so I can manually check words I’m not 100% sure about. All this is to say that the manuscripts I return to clients are edited to industry standards.
Transparency. This is twofold. First, the edits I make in a manuscript are done with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature turned on, meaning my clients see everything I do and have complete control over what they accept and reject. If something’s not obvious, I leave a comment explaining the edit. Secondly, pricing is always discussed and agreed upon beforehand, so there are never any surprises.
If you’re looking for an editor or proofreader with the above offerings, I’d love to hear from you =)
Timothy