Developmental Edit
The story is out of your head and on the page. Months, maybe years of it, and now it’s something you can hold.
Now what?
You’ve lived inside this story. Every scene felt intentional when you wrote it. Every character felt real because, to you, they were.
Take a step back and read it as if you had never seen it before.
You can’t. Not really. The feeling you had writing a scene comes back when you reread it—fainter, but enough. So does the reason you wrote it that way. It reads as though it's working because, for you, it is.
You're also carrying everything that never made it onto the page: the backstory you cut, the history with a character that shaped every choice you made about them. A stranger opens the book with none of it. They only get what’s written on the page in front of them. That gap is invisible from where you're standing.
A Developmental Edit is the structural pass that comes after the draft is finished, to stress-test the pacing, worldbuilding, character arcs, and plot logic.
I read your manuscript the way a reader will: from start to finish, reacting as I go. Then I question myself. Is this my taste? Is it how I'd have written it? Or is something on the page actually doing this to me?
Only the third kind makes it into your notes, and I hold the book to the standard it set for itself: the rules you built and the promises you made in chapter one.
You get three things back: an editorial letter, an annotated manuscript, and a revision roadmap.
You walk away knowing what a reader gets from your book when you’re not standing next to them to explain it: where that matches what you were going for, where it doesn't, and which of your own writing habits are causing problems in more than one place.
It's your story. I tell you what’s on the page and why it’s landing the way it is, so you can revise toward what you meant—or toward what the book turned out to be, which sometimes means going back and rebuilding the beginning. Never because I would have written it differently.
I specialize in paranormal romance, romantasy, urban fantasy, and dark fantasy.
I read across adjacent speculative genres, and other genres are considered case by case.
Don't want to tackle the revision alone? The roadmap becomes the session agenda, and we work through it one round at a time. That's In-Process Developmental Editing, added after the edit rather than instead of it.
See how sessions work after the edit
Not sure which one fits? Which Edit Do I Need (or Want)?
How I Read
Craft reasoning, not verdicts.
“The middle is slow, trim it down” tells you something’s wrong and leaves you guessing at what and why. What you need is the reasoning: which scenes are doing the same job and which does it best, where the weight is sitting in the wrong place, what the book loses if you cut the wrong thing. Every observation carries its reasoning, so you can question it, argue with it, and decide whether it serves the book.
Two hundred comments, four problems.
One writing habit, made eighty times, looks like eighty separate problems in the margins. My job is to find the habit underneath, so you’re fixing four things instead of rewriting two hundred sections.
And when I notice you've already solved the same problem somewhere else in the book, I'll point you at it. Your own fix is usually better than anything I'd suggest.
What your book is doing, set beside what you meant it to do.
Sometimes the emotion on the page isn't the one you intended, because the scene shifted while you were writing it, and from the inside it still reads as the plan you started with. Sometimes it's the scene you meant and it still doesn't land: the exposition named the emotion instead of showing it, the tension resolved before the scene was over, or the paragraph explaining the moment took the discovery away from the reader. Either way, I tell you what to change so the scene does its own work. Structure does the same thing: a scene is slow because another scene already did its job. Worldbuilding too: a rule you set early quietly stops holding, or the story leans on something it never established, and the reader feels something is off without being able to name what it is.
A plan in rounds.
Chapters move, merge, and disappear in a structural revision. Polishing chapter three before you know whether it survives is wasted work. The roadmap sequences the decisions so nothing you fix early gets undone by something you fix later.
What This Isn’t
A beta read (a beta reader tells you a scene didn’t land; I tell you why, and what would make it land)
In-Process Developmental Editing (the collaborative, session-by-session partnership. A Developmental Edit is the one-time diagnosis; sessions are one way to work through the revision after it)
Line editing or copyediting (sentence-level work comes later, after the structure holds)
Proofreading (a different stage entirely, right before you publish)
Ghostwriting or rewriting (I tell you what to change and why; the writing stays yours)
No AI Touches Your Book Here.
Your manuscript never goes into an AI tool. Not for summaries, not for feedback, and not for “just checking.” Not at any stage, and not without your written permission.
The work you’re paying me for is my work. Editorial letters, annotated manuscripts, and revision roadmaps are written by me. My reading brain and Word's automatic spell-check are the whole toolkit.
That’s what I can promise you. Anyone else who touches your book, you’ll have to ask them.
The formal version lives in the Terms of Service.
Tiers and Pricing
Standard Developmental Edit
Includes:
Editorial letter
Structure, plot architecture, character arcs, pacing, worldbuilding, voice, emotional engagement, and thematic coherence—with the reasoning attached.
Annotated manuscript
Margin notes tied to specific passages: where the page produced a reaction and what caused it, and which passages to protect so a revision doesn’t break what’s working.
Revision roadmap
Organized in rounds:
Round 1 — the decisions only you can make, the ones every other change depends on
Round 2 — structural work: what moves, what merges, and what comes out
Round 3 — new writing: the scenes that have to exist for the structure to hold, and the beats a character or thread needs
Round 4 — whole-manuscript passes, one habit at a time, checking that the old ones didn’t creep back in during rounds 2 and 3
Delivery: 4–6 weeks from project start for manuscripts up to 100,000 words. Longer manuscripts get a timeline at booking.
Developmental Edit Plus
Everything in Standard, plus:
A 60-minute video or phone call to walk through the editorial letter, ask questions, and stress-test your revision plan. Book it whenever you’re ready, any time within 60 days of delivery.
A 50-page reread of revised pages any time within 6 months of delivery. I read the revision against the diagnosis—whether the specific thing we identified is now doing what you wanted it to.
Delivery: Same as Standard.
Pricing by Word Count
| Word Count | Standard | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 60,000 | $1,800 | $2,500 |
| 60,001–80,000 | $2,500 | $3,200 |
| 80,001–100,000 | $3,000 | $3,700 |
| 100,001–120,000 | $3,600 | $4,300 |
| 120,001–140,000 | $4,200 | $4,900 |
| Over 140,000 | Let's talk first | Let's talk first |
A note about 140K (not a no, just a different conversation)
Traditional publishing, especially for debuts, often comes with hard word count limits set by agents and acquiring editors—Five Seconds at the Query Desk has the 2026 ranges by genre. Indie publishing has more flexibility, though pacing and reader expectations still apply. If you're over your genre’s line, that doesn't change the price for your bracket. It changes what I’m reading for.
How It Works
You tell me about your book
Specifically:
Word count and a one-line premise
Where you are: how many drafts you’ve been through, whether anyone else has read it, what they told you, and whether it matched what you were hoping to hear
What you’re worried about: the thing that made you go looking for an editor, even if the best you can do is “something's off in the middle”
What you want the book to do: what a reader should feel and where. A lot of what I flag is the gap between that and what the page is currently doing
Or tell me you don’t know—some people book a developmental edit because it's the next thing on a list they were handed. That’s a real answer, and it changes what I look for.
If you'd like to see how I read before you commit, ask for a sample edit. Send me your first ten pages, and I'll send them back marked up the way the full manuscript would be. No charge.
If we’re a good fit, we lock the start date and sort out payment.
I read it
I read straight through, and when something hits—confusion, the point where I started skimming, or a line that landed harder than it should have—I stop and work out what caused it.
The editorial letter, annotated manuscript, and revision roadmap are delivered together.
We keep going (Plus only)
Plus adds the 60-minute call within 60 days and the 50-page reread within six months, on your schedule.
Once We’ve Booked, What I Need From You
Complete manuscript (Microsoft Word, .docx preferred)
A separate intent document. I open it after my first read, so the first read is the one a stranger gets; then I read what you meant and compare. It holds:
The plot as you understand it, one to two pages, including the ending. Not a query synopsis, and it doesn't need polish. It's what the book is meant to do, so I can set it beside what the book is doing.
What you want readers to feel, and where.
Anything deliberate that could read as a mistake without context.
If this is part of a series: what the earlier books established and what this one sets up for later. If I haven't read the earlier books, let's talk before you book.
Helpful, not required: content or trigger warnings, and any specific questions or areas you want me to focus on.
Administrative Policies
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50% deposit due upon booking to secure your start date. Balance due upon delivery of the editorial package
Need a different payment structure? Let’s talk. I’ve split payments across a few months before, and I’d rather do that than let money decide whether your book gets the read it needs
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I respond to emails within 1–2 business days (Pacific Time).
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24 hours’ notice is appreciated, but I’m reasonable. Tell me what’s going on, and we’ll work it out.
If you don’t arrive and I haven’t heard from you, I’ll wait 15 minutes and then close the call. We can reschedule inside your 60-day window. If that isn’t enough time, tell me and we’ll work it out.
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I don’t offer it. A developmental read has a daily ceiling, because past a certain point I’m rereading the same paragraph and absorbing none of it. My thoughts need to marinate. If your timeline is tight, tell me early. I can’t compress the work, but I can sometimes start sooner.
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Before reading begins: full refund of any payments made
After reading begins: deposit forfeited, and you receive the in-document comments completed to that point. The editorial letter and revision roadmap are written after the read, so there is nothing partial to hand over. No further balance due
If I cannot complete the edit due to unforeseen circumstances: full refund of any payments made, or the option to reschedule
What This Service Prepares You For
A developmental edit is the structural pass that comes before sentence-level work. Once the structure holds, you’re ready for line editing and copyediting, and after that for whatever comes next: querying agents, submitting to publishers, or self-publishing.
Some books need more than one structural pass. I won’t know whether yours does until you’ve revised.
FAQ
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Good. You should question every piece of feedback you get, from me or anyone else. My job is to tell you what the structure is doing and why I’d change it. Yours is to decide whether that matches the book you’re trying to write.
Sometimes I’ll have misread what you were going for. That’s still information: I’m a reader, and this reader didn’t get it. Whether it matters depends on whether other readers would land where I did.
I can tell you what your genre’s readers tend to expect. What I can’t tell you is who you want reading this and what you want them to feel. That’s your intent, and I only know it if you tell me. Every observation carries its reasoning, so you can weigh it against what you were after.
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No. With me, comment count isn’t a measure of how much is wrong.
Most of what’s in the margins is an example of something the letter explains as a pattern. The rest is reactions as I had them, and passages I’m flagging so you don’t lose them in the revision.
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If you'd like to see how I read before you commit, ask for a sample edit. Send me your first ten pages, and I'll send them back marked up the way the full manuscript would be. No charge.
If I’m not right for you, I want you to say no with real information. Maybe you want a lighter touch than I give, or maybe you disagree with what I'm seeing. It’s better to find that out on ten pages than on the whole book.
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Same work, different working relationship.
A Developmental Edit is a one-time diagnosis you take away and revise from. In-Process Developmental Editing is collaborative, session by session, through every merge, cut, and move.
You can do both, and a lot of authors do. The edit comes first, then sessions for the revision itself. Round 1 is where most authors stall, and it’s usually the best place to start.
Still deciding? Which Edit Do I Need (or Want)? will ask you some questions and point you to one.
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I’ll tell you, and I’ll be specific. I can test story logic. I can’t tell you whether the poison works the way your plot needs it to, or whether that custody hearing would go the way you’ve written it.
Some of those details are load-bearing, because they affect the ending. Most are texture, and nobody will check. You only need the load-bearing ones verified, and you need that done before you revise around them.
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Read them in this order:
1. The editorial letter
2. The revision roadmap
3. The annotated manuscript
As tempting as it is, opening the annotated manuscript first is the fastest way to feel overwhelmed, and most of what’s in there makes more sense once you have the letter’s framing.
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Yes, though if I haven’t already read your prior books, let’s talk first. To edit a book in a series, I need to know what the earlier ones established: worldbuilding rules, character histories, and the threads already in motion that I should be tracking.
If I haven’t read your previous installments, I’ll read them as part of our engagement. I would need the actual books, because I’m checking whether book three pays off what book one made a reader feel, and a summary can’t tell me that. It adds time and a reading fee scoped to the books involved, quoted before you commit.
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I treat every manuscript as confidential by default. If you’d like a formal NDA, I’m happy to sign one.