Your story matters, but does it work?

You are, of course, close to your story — sometimes too close. Too close to notice that your introduction mentions topics that are never explored, or your third and fourth sections should be swapped for better continuity.

A second set of eyes can look for run-on sentences and redundant text, bland language or confusing text during the line editing stage. This typically occurs before copy editing, and it’s a chance to make each line of your manuscript shine, before zooming in even further.

Afterwards, a copy edit checks for grammatical and spelling errors, syntax, stylistic preferences, incorrect statements — all those little details that help your reader get close to your story, too.