Wings for Your Words

WHY SHOULD YOU HIRE AN EDITOR? 

Your manuscript must be polished and pleasing to read, whether you are pursuing a publisher or launching it yourself--an increasingly viable option. If you have landed on this page, it's likely because you have lingering doubt about whether your manuscript is as strong as it could be.

Maybe you've run it through an AI tool and it looks okay, but something still feels off. Whatever's holding you back, I can help. A good editor can make or break your publishing experience.

Or maybe English isn't your first language and you're second-guessing word choice or grammar. Problems in these areas can keep your hard work from getting a fair review.

In short . . .

YOU WANT YOUR WORDS TO MATTER, AND AN EDITOR CAN BRING OUT THEIR FULL BEAUTY AND POWER.   

WELCOME!

I'm Lynn Cross, and unlike some copy editors, human or otherwise, I hear and respect your voice first. I fix only what isn't working, in keeping with the first rule of copyediting: Do no harm.

My clients include individual authors, students, scholars, and publishers. 

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Academic editing. Dissertations, theses, articles, and reports.  I'm an expert in APA and Chicago Manual style and have helped many PhD candidates get their dissertations approved. 
  
  
• Fiction.  I particularly enjoy fantasy and speculative fiction, but I work across all genres.
  
  
• Nonfiction. My specialties include self-help, metaphysics and philosophy, social and political science, alternative and integrative medicine, food writing, and memoir.
  
  
• Websites. They need to hit a home run at first glance.
  
  
• Marketing copy, newsletters, proposals.  Your writing must be correct and clear so your organization’s image remains strong.
  

A NOTE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)

You've probably noticed the editing tools built into every writing app, and you may reasonably wonder what a human editor offers that they don't. 

Quite a lot, as it turns out, particularly for academic and literary work. AI editing tools are pattern matchers:  They're good at catching typos and and can smooth prose toward whatever's statistically common. But they don't understand your argument, can't hold a two-hundred-page thesis in mind all at once, and have no feel for authorial voice--the very thing a manuscript edit is supposed to protect.  I've seen AI-suggested "corrections' flatten a philosopher's carefully crafted claim into something the author never meant, or standardize a novelist's deliberate rhythm right out of existence.  A human editor takes the close attention that an AI just can't manage. 

What i bring is the same thing I always have:  close reading grounded in style expertise, a memory for your manuscript's internal logic across hundreds of pages, and editorial judgment that knows the difference between an error and a choice. I use technology where it's genuinely useful. But the read is mine, sentence by sentence, and so is the responsibility for getting it right.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Send me an e-mail with a brief description of your manuscript's needs. If you are willing to share at least a portion of it, we can get clear on what I can do for you. I can provide a complimentary edit of a few pages, even a free mini-critique if you wish, and an estimate.