We want a good project. A diamond in the rough. Something we can really sink our teeth into and take from good to great. And we want writers who really, really want to see that happen.

Our favorite clients:

• feel passionately about their project

• have done research on the audience they’re trying to reach

• have spell-checked, proofread, revised, and employed beta readers before looking for an editor

• recognize their project’s weaknesses and are willing to accept advice on how to fix them

• recognize their project’s strengths and are willing to stick to their guns when it matters

Most importantly, clients should understand that no editor anywhere in the entirety of the universe can make a book perfect. Why? Carol Fisher Saller (best-selling author of The Subversive Copy Editor) explains:

The manuscript doesn’t have to be perfect because perfect isn’t possible. There’s no Platonic ideal for that document, one ‘correct’ way for it to turn out, one perfect version hidden in the block of marble that it’s your job to discover by endless chipping away. It simply has to be the best you can make it in the time you’re given, free of true errors, rendered consistent in every way that the reader needs in order to understand and appreciate, and as close to your chosen style as is practical. (pg. 115)