We encourage you to do some comparison shopping at other editorial services before deciding on us, because once you’ve seen some of the differences, you’ll come back. Here are just a few.

• Our prices are moderate, especially when you factor in that we combine proofreading and copyediting for a single fee, performing both simultaneously. Most services charge separately for each. When you realize that — and do the addition — you’ll see just how reasonable our rates actually are.

• Almost every other editorial service requires payment in advance before starting on your work. Our billing procedures amount to a practical guarantee. Unlike most of our competitors, we offer up completed work (or at least a portion of it) for your examination prior to initial billing and expect that you’ll honor your obligation to us as well. We don’t ask you to rely on “samples” we’ve contrived and won’t try to impress you with the testimonials of others. Instead, we’ll provide you with an actual sample of your own and let you judge for yourself — before paying us the first dollar.

• Some services won’t even bother with your project unless the charges amount to a very expensive total. Our minimum order is only $10.

We also offer several valuable incentives:

• A discount for providing us with volume business
  
  
• A discount for sending us a document containing no errors
  
  
• A refund for any page where you find a legitimate error of our own

&

• A discount for literacy

Who else does all that?

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All prices are quoted in US dollars

— (If payments originate outside the US, there is an additional 1% fee)
— (If payments involve a currency conversion to US dollars, there is an additional 3% fee)

$10 Minimum Order

      Our minimum price for an individual order is $10 — not including the additional 1–3% fee for transactions originating outside the US. (Therefore, a minimum order originating outside the US would be billed at $10.10, and one that requires conversion of a different currency to US dollars would be billed at $10.30.)

Note: No discounts will be applied to a $10 minimum order.

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• Manuscripts (Copyediting & Proofreading)
  
  $.03 (3¢) per word
  
  Note: We do not charge separately for proofreading and copyediting. Instead, we combine them for a single fee.
  
  
  

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• Literacy Discount
  
        We’re proud to offer what we call a Literacy Discount to our customers. To the best of our knowledge, we’re the first (and perhaps only) editing service ever to do so. Our competitors (at least at the time of this writing) certainly haven’t embraced the idea — though obviously they should. Intelligent use of the English language makes the job of an editor much easier, but it has fallen into such decline lately that we thought it should be rewarded whenever we come across it. Well-written material, like any other rarity, should be valued accordingly. So, in this case, we’ll discount our fee for performing the editing it does require. (Even well-written documents still require editing.)
  
        We’re prepared to offer a discount of $.005 (½¢) per word to customers who bring us projects that are already well composed and reasonably free from defects. Obviously, such projects cost us less time to finish, and we’re pleased to recognize this by deducting a percentage of our normal fee. This discount will be determined upon examination of the particular manuscript and quoted on an individual project (or client) basis. The 50% down payment required for commencement of a large project will be calculated at the normal rate of $.03 (3¢) per word, but the discount would be applied to the entire project and that amount deducted from the final payment at time of billing. This effectively reduces the price to $.025 (2½¢) per word.
  
  Note: This discount primarily applies to manuscripts that contain 1,000 words or more, though we may also offer it to regular customers who consistently bring us well-composed documents, regardless of size. We hope this encourages our clients to do so and that acknowledging our appreciation of it helps us retain their loyalty. The designation and discount, of course, are granted solely at our discretion.
  
  *No discounts will be applied to a $10 minimum order.
  
  

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• Manuscripts (In-Depth Structural Editing)
  
  Submit the entire manuscript for evaluation and a price quote.
  
        In-depth structural editing for longer manuscripts (approx. 2,500 words to book length) will vary considerably from one project to another, depending on the type of material and degree of revision needed. Submit the entire manuscript and an individual quote will be generated, based on the project at hand.
  
  Note: This is a separate function from our standard editing service, which is not included as part of this structural analysis.
  
  
  

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• Business Documents
  
  $.03 (3¢) per word
  
  $10 minimum order
  
  For adjusted rates, see Volume Discount & Regular Business Customers below.
  
  

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• Display Advertising
  
  $10 per page (if the page contains 250 words of text or less)
  
  
• Otherwise,
  $15 per page (if the page contains 250+ words of text)
  $20 per page (if the page contains 500+ words of text)
  
  
• Based on the Word Counts specified above,
  
  2 half-page ads will be priced as 1 full page + $5 (for example, 2 x ½-page ads containing 250 words total = $15);
  
  4 quarter-page (or smaller) ads will be priced as 1 full page + $10 (for example, 4 x ¼-page ads containing 250 words total = $20).
  
  Individual eighth-page ads or smaller will all be considered quarter-page ads for pricing.

There is a $10 minimum price per invoice, regardless of what is submitted.

      Various publications print to different sizes, of course, and employ various ad templates. We only use “page size” (full page, ½ page, ¼ page) as a guideline and estimate a full page to a generous and approximate 8½ x 11 inches. The precise size of an advertisement usually matters less to us than its word count. We do use page size as a rule of thumb, however, since the overall size of an ad obviously affects the size of its text, and the smaller the text the more tedious proofreading it is. (So, please don’t try to outwit us by submitting a full-page ad set on a quarter-page template; we know the difference — and our prices are already quite affordable.)

      Submitting an ad composed in PDF format will allow us to do a cursory check for other associated problems, like font color. When white or yellow text is placed on a light-colored background, for example, it becomes nearly illegible. Our staff is trained in graphic design and conversant with such issues. If the complete ad is submitted, we’ll alert you to any composition flaws.

      On the other hand, you’re always free to submit advertising copy as regular text, which will be proofread and billed at the same rate as any other business document. Submitting content in MS Word format will afford you the use of its Track Changes option, which permits you to accept or reject each change in turn.

      We also have no objection to you combining your smaller ads with those of other businesses for submission as one project in order to obtain a more favorable rate. If you wish to do so, we merely require that only one client is being billed for the whole.

For adjusted rates, see Volume Discount & Regular Business Customers below.

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• ESL (English as a Second Language) Material
  
  $10 per page (if the page contains 250 words of text or less)
  
  
• Otherwise,
  $.05 (5¢) per word

$10 minimum order

Note: For various reasons, we charge somewhat more for ESL documents initially. Once we have established a relationship with an ESL customer, however, the client may be moved to our Business Document rate of $.03 (3¢) per word.

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• Web Pages
  
  $10 per page (if the page contains 250 words of text or less)

• If web content is submitted simply as text,
  $.03 (3¢) per word

$10 minimum order

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• Blogs
  
  $.03 (3¢) per word
  
  Submit as much text or as little as you choose.
  
  $10 minimum order
  
  

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• Volume Discount
  
        A 10% discount will be given to Regular Business Customers. (For an explanation of how a client is designated as a Regular Business Customer, see below.)
  
        This is our way of showing appreciation to our regular commercial clients who help us maintain our operation while we help them maintain theirs.
  
  Note: This designation primarily applies to clients who submit Business Documents or Display Advertising, but it may be applied to other categories, at our discretion.
  
  *No discounts will be applied to a $10 minimum order.
  
  
  

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• Regular Business Customers
  
        Any commercial client who submits more than $100 in orders per month for three consecutive months is eligible to become one of our Regular Business Customers.
  
        This entitles that client to our Volume Discount of 10% off the price of future orders.
  
        Eligibility for this category will not be rescinded for one slow month, but the designation will be lost if the client submits less than $50 in new orders for each of two consecutive months. After that, the discount will no longer be applied until the designation is restored.
  
  *No discounts will be applied to a $10 minimum order.
  
  

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• Error-Free Discount
  
        In addition to what’s been described above, we also offer a 10% discount off the price of any complete project, regardless of its length, which contains absolutely no errors. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, does it? If we complete your project without once having to make any significant alteration, we’ll send you a nice note and apply a ten per cent discount to the final bill.
  
        Don’t worry, if all we do is make helpful suggestions, we’ll still give it to you (and might even decide to if the document only contains a minor error or two). We do this because we want to encourage your active cooperation in the process. We’re on your side.
  
        Keep in mind, though, that we’re more concerned with getting the final result right than assessing a small discount. You should you be, too.
  
        (And please don’t even ask why we can’t simply complete the project totally free of charge in such circumstances — we still have to read it, don’t we? When you become so confident of infallibility that you consider yourself free of any necessity to engage a proofreader, you can price your own results accordingly. In the meantime…)
  
  Note: This discount may be combined with our Volume Discount.
  
  *No discounts will be applied to a $10 minimum order.
  
  

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• Error Refund
  
  If brought to our attention within seven days, we’ll refund the price of any page found to contain a demonstrable error.
  
        If, in any document we complete, you find that we have made an error (of punctuation, spelling, or grammar), we will refund the price we charged to proofread the page where the mistake occurred. Since style guides vary significantly, however, you must make the case that it is a genuine mistake, not merely the opinion of one particular “authority.”
  
        Please note that such a refund will only be applied to the individual page where this occurs, not the entire document. (Also note that submitting text set in a ridiculously small font size — 4 pt., for example — in the hope of obtaining an even more generous refund, should an error slip through, will merely inconvenience everyone. We routinely resize such documents for legibility while our work is in progress and then return them to their original settings when the work is finished. In any case, for purposes of this refund, a “page” will not be construed as containing any more text than could be set double-spaced on 8½ x 11 in. paper if the font size was 12 pt. or larger (350 words maximum).