Final Polish

Fine-tune your manuscript with a line-by-line edit. 

Commission an experienced editor to read your manuscript in its entirety, and then line-by-line edit 50% of the text (accompanied with brief notes if necessary). Your editor will deliver two revised versions of your manuscript; the first with their suggested changes highlighted, and the second version with all suggested changes applied.

We recommend our Final Polish service if you are:

• looking for a line-by-line edit at a competitive price
• considering self-publishing or submitting to independent presses
• looking to polish your manuscript before approaching literary agents

As part of the 30-minute follow-up consultation included within this service, your editor will offer additional guidance on overall structure and how to maintain consistency.

Features

• Professional read-through and thorough edit of a substantial section of your work
• Correction of poor grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Tackling of inconsistencies, repetition and writer blind spots
• Detailed mark-up on your original manuscript
• Sample 'clean' manuscript, purged of errors and inconsistencies
• Guarantee of fundamental standards should you opt to submit to a literary agent or self-publish
• A follow-up phone call of 30 minutes in order to further discuss how the manuscript works as a whole and address any other questions you might have

Please note: unless alternative arrangements have been agreed with W&A Admin and your Editor, your follow-up call should take place no more than two weeks after your Editor has uploaded their documents.

How it works

Read our short guide to the Final Polish service.

If you are writing fiction or narrative non-fiction, please upload a one-page synopsis. Please read our Writing a Synopsis guide.

If you are writing subject-led non-fiction you need to upload a chapter outline. This should be no more than 5 pages. Please read our Writing a Chapter Outline guide for more information.

Why does the editor only edit 50% of the manuscript?

The purpose of this service is not to offer a developmental edit of a narrative, but to concentrate on addressing punctuation, grammar, spelling, and highlight errors and/or inconsistencies. This is known as copy-editing, a line-by-line approach that is a time-consuming process. The vast majority of errors and/or inconsistencies made within a manuscript, however, are often made within the first half and continue to be made throughout. The Final Polish editing service has been set up to make a writer fully aware of mistakes that have crept into their work and provide a framework in which to edit the rest of the manuscript independently.

Please remember

All feedback is entirely subjective. The editorial suggestions made by one editor could differ from those of another, but if there are commonalities in the feedback you have received then these suggestions might be worthy of consideration as you continue to develop your manuscript.

Pricing and next steps

Here is our full range of prices for the Final Polish service.

Click on the ‘Next’ button to tell us more about your book and select an editor you’d like to work with.