In-Process Developmental Editing

You send material. I read it, stress-test it against what your story has already established, and find where the page and your intent drift apart. Then I write back before we meet.

We spend an hour on it together: what’s holding, what isn’t, and why. You decide what to do, and you leave with the decision and the reasoning behind it.

Then you go write the next piece, and we do it again.

Developmental editing usually starts when the book is finished, which means the whole time you were making the structural decisions—what this character actually wants and how many subplots the book can carry—you were making them alone. By the time it reaches a reader, changing any one of those decisions means changing everything that comes after, and sometimes everything that comes before too.

I do that work with you while the decisions can still change.

You might be here because you have:

  • A world and a premise, with characters or a plot starting to take shape

  • A book in progress, at whatever stage it's in

  • A draft you've rewritten more than once that keeps coming back with the same problem, and you'd rather rebuild it than fix it

  • A finished draft that's been diagnosed, and a revision to work through

It’s your story. I stress-test it with you as we go, so you know what’s holding before you build on it.

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.

If Your Draft Is Finished

If you have a complete manuscript and want to know what it’s doing, that’s the Developmental Edit: one read of the whole book, with an editorial letter, an annotated manuscript, and a revision roadmap. If you’d rather not tackle the revision alone, the roadmap becomes the session agenda and we work through it one round at a time.

See how the Developmental Edit works

How I Read

The reading is the same as a Developmental Edit. I read start to finish and stop at each reaction to work out what on the page caused it.

What’s different is that your book can now change from one reading to the next. You send chapter five, we work through it, and what comes next gets written differently because of that conversation. Or it’s chapter five again, revised, and I read the new version.

What it costs is anything that needs the whole arc: whether your ending pays off your setup, whether your character’s change is earned across the book, or whether chapter one’s promise gets kept. Those wait until I’ve read enough of the book to answer them.

Patterns are the opposite: a habit repeating across three hundred pages is something I flag the third time I see it, not the eightieth. You can start working on it while you’re still writing, instead of finding seventy-seven more instances waiting for you at the end.

How We Work

You bring the ideas, and I stress-test them.

I read what you sent and work out what's holding, what isn't, why, and what it costs you, measured against what your story has already set up. Every observation carries its reasoning, so you can argue with it.

You make every call.

I tell you what I think and why. The final decision is yours. The most useful sessions are the ones where you push back and we find the problem somewhere neither of us expected.

Some sessions are one scene. Some are the whole architecture.

It might be a plot hole you already know about and can’t close without breaking three things downstream. It might be that something feels off across four chapters and you can't name it. It might be a world you know so well that every part of it looks equally important.

You don’t have to diagnose it before we start. Naming it is my job.

Sometimes the Work Loops—That Isn’t Rework

Chapter three isn’t always finished when we finish chapter three.

Setup is defined by payoff, and until the payoff exists, there’s nothing to check the setup against. Sometimes that’s a first draft. Sometimes you’re three drafts in and the ending still hasn't settled. So if chapter nine sends us back to chapter three, that's the process working.

Going back is the only way the two chapters get to talk to each other, and it's a smaller fix now than it would be with the rest of the book already built on it. It doesn’t happen every time. When it does, it usually means writing chapter nine taught you something about chapter three that you couldn’t have known before you wrote it.

What This Isn’t

  • A Developmental Edit (one read of a complete manuscript, three written deliverables, and you revise from them on your own)

  • Book coaching (coaching works on your process: accountability, output, and getting words down. This works on the story)

  • A beta read (a beta reader tells you a scene didn’t land; I tell you why, and what would make it land)

  • Ghostwriting or rewriting (you write every word; I tell you where the structure gives)

  • Line editing, copyediting, or proofreading (sentence-level work comes later, after the structure holds)

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. Session Notes and the written feedback that precedes each session 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.

Sessions and Pricing

Sessions are sold in packages, so you use them at the pace the work needs.

If a chapter takes three weeks to write, the session happens in three weeks. If you’re deep in revision and want two sessions in ten days, that works too. I used to sell a set number of sessions per month, and it forced a cadence the writing didn’t always cooperate with: authors either rushed material to fill a slot or paid for one they didn’t use.

Four is the largest package on purpose. Nobody can price a book's structural problems before reading it, including me.
Package Price Per session
Single Session $500 $500
2 Sessions $950 $475
3 Sessions $1,400 $467
4 Sessions $1,800 $450

Every session includes three things: written feedback on the material you send, 60 minutes together, and your Session Notes within one business day afterward.

Sessions don’t expire. Book them whenever the material is ready.

When a package runs out, buy another. There’s no ceiling and no obligation to keep going.

Written Feedback Without a Session · $300 

Send up to twenty-five pages—any twenty-five you want—and I'll send back the same written feedback that opens a session: what's holding, what isn't, and why, with no meeting attached. I'll confirm your return date when the pages land; it's usually four business days. 

If we're already working together, I read with everything I know about your book. 

If we're not already working together, know that I'm reading cold: no synopsis, no context, just what's on the page—which is exactly how a stranger meets your book. I can tell you what these pages are doing. Whether the book sets them up or pays them off, I can't see from twenty-five pages, and I won't pretend to. 

If the pages raise something that needs real back-and-forth, that's what sessions are for, and I'll say so. 

Send ten pages and let's talk
Send ten pages and let's talk

What to Send Between Sessions

The earlier you send it, the deeper I can go.

Send whatever is relevant to where we are: outlines, worldbuilding notes, character sketches, plot summaries, or chapters. Most authors send somewhere between five and twenty-five pages, though pages are a rough measure. Fifteen dense pages of worldbuilding can take longer to work through than a full act, so send what the piece needs and let me sort out the rest.

I read in the order you send. Starting at chapter twenty-two means I’ll see how that scene works on its own, but not whether it’s paying off something you set up in chapter four. So if the question is about setup, start earlier.

Materials are due at least four business days before your session. That’s what the reading and analysis take me: I have a daily ceiling on close reading, and what I read needs to marinate before I write back. Because you set the pace, the deadline is yours to plan around: book the session once you know the material will be ready.

If you send more than twenty-five pages, tell me what you most want covered and we’ll start there.

Not sure what to send? Ask. Every session after the first ends with a plan for the next one.

I have a finished draft. Start there.
I have a finished draft. Start there.

How It Works

Step 1: Ten pages, then we talk

Already done a Developmental Edit with me? Skip this step. I’ve read the book. Pick a package and go to step three.

Otherwise, send up to ten pages of whatever you’d want a second opinion on: chapters, an outline, worldbuilding notes, or character work. I'll read it and write back with what I'm noticing. Then we talk for 30 minutes. No charge for either.

That’s the same shape as a real session, just smaller—you read my notes first, we work through them together, and by the end you’ll know whether you want more of it.

Nothing ready to send, or you’d rather just talk? That works too. Same 30 minutes, same no charge.

Step 2: You pick a package, and I catch up on what exists

Starting from scratch? Nothing to catch up on. Straight to step three.

Rebuilding after a draft that didn't work? Send me that draft—the abandoned chapters, the outline, whatever exists. No charge for the read, because it isn't a diagnosis. I read what's on the page, compare it against what you were reaching for, and pull out what the rebuild should keep. Nobody is fixing that draft; a list of everything wrong with it would be a Developmental Edit.

Then session one runs like any other: written feedback beforehand, and we spend the hour on where to start.

Included with any package of two sessions or more, for drafts up to about 100,000 words. For longer manuscripts, or a series where I’d need to read earlier books, I'll quote it before you commit.

Step 3: We work, session by session

Before the session: my written feedback on what you sent, so you arrive having read it.

The session: 60 minutes on Zoom. We work through what I found and what you noticed reading it. You react, push back, ask questions, and decide. I keep track of what each decision sets up, and I'll flag it when a choice you're about to make would send us back to something we already settled.

After the session: your Session Notes within one business day. If you have quick questions between sessions, email me; if something needs real reading, we'll put it in the next session.

Then you go write the next piece, and we do it again.

Your Session Notes in One Place

One running document rather than a stack of separate files. Each session gets a new entry at the top, and the full history of the work stays underneath: what we covered, what you decided, what we considered and set aside, and what’s still open.

Six months from now you’ll remember that we cut the prologue. You may not remember why, and at two in the morning you’ll start wondering whether we were wrong. A decision without its reasoning turns back into an argument.

This isn’t about locking anything in. You can change your mind about any of it; that’s what the loop is for. But change it against what we actually knew at the time, not against whatever you half-remember.

    • Packages are paid in full at purchase.

    • 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 set the pace of your book.

  • I respond to emails within 1–2 business days (Pacific Time).

    • Send materials at least four business days before each session.

    • If materials arrive late, we move the session.

    • 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 session. We can reschedule.

Administrative Policies

Timelines

The four-business-day reading window doesn't compress. If your timeline is tight, tell me early; we can do less material per session or space the sessions differently. What we can't do is shorten the window.

Unused sessions

Packages are non-refundable, and sessions don’t expire. If something changes, tell me.

FAQ

  • A Developmental Edit is a single read of a complete manuscript. I see the whole shape of your story at once, and you get an editorial letter, an annotated manuscript, and a revision roadmap to revise from on your own.

    In-Process Developmental Editing works on material as you build or revise it. Same reading and standard, delivered in conversation across sessions. If you already have a complete draft you want diagnosed, the Developmental Edit is almost always the better buy; then you can add sessions to work through the revision together.

    Still deciding? Visit Which Edit Do I Need (or Want)? for two questions.

  • I don’t know yet. Most authors start with one or two and see what happens. Sometimes one session is enough to unstick one decision. Rebuilding a book takes as long as it takes. That’s part of why sessions come in small packages.

  • No, though I understand why you asked. Coaching works on your process: accountability, output, mindset, and getting words on the page.

    This collaboration works on the story. The only accountability is leaving each session with next steps and setting the date for the next one. If what you need is someone to keep you writing, a coach is the better hire.

  • 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.

  • Yes: up to twenty-five pages, $350, written feedback, and no meeting. 

    If we're already working together, I read with full context. 

    If we're not, I'm reading cold—just what's on the page, the way a stranger would—and the notes will say what the pages are doing, not whether the book earns them.

  • That happens more than you’d think, and it usually means the work is doing its job. Sometimes a first draft is how an author finds the story underneath the one they thought they were telling—the theme that kept surfacing or the character who turned out to be the real center.

    We adjust—that is the advantage of finding out in session four instead of on a read-through of a finished draft.

  • Yes, and it’s a good fit for one. If you’re writing book four, the structural decisions that matter most were made in books one through three, and I need to know them: worldbuilding rules, character histories, and the threads already running that book four has to pay off.

    If I haven’t read the earlier books, we’ll talk before you book. Reading them adds time and a reading fee scoped to the books involved, quoted upfront.

    After that, your Session Notes do the rest. Every decision stays recorded with the reason behind it, so when book five contradicts something you established in book two, we both know what we knew and why.

  • Yes. A short story, a submission package, or a residency or fellowship application with a writing sample.

    One thing to know: deadlines change how we work. If a submission has a clock on it, we’ll triage rather than work front to back, and we’ll bookmark the bigger structural questions for after you submit. I’ll also tell you honestly what’s achievable in the time you have, including when the answer is fewer, better pages rather than a rushed everything.

  • I treat every manuscript as confidential by default. If you’d like a formal NDA, I’m happy to sign one.

Ten pages, then we talk

Send up to ten pages of whatever you'd want a second opinion on, and I'll write back with what I'm noticing. Then we talk for 30 minutes. No charge for either. If you'd rather skip the pages and just talk, that works too.