Cart 0

Manuscript Editing Services

Order Manuscript EditingOff the Grid Editing has provided manuscript editing services since 2002 for scholarly books, journal articles, novels and memoirs, and dissertations being revised for a press. Our editors work across the social sciences, humanities, nursing, law, and education, and every edit is returned with track changes on.

Our services are arranged below by kind of manuscript and by level of editing. An editor can recommend a level from a sample of your manuscript.

Installment plans are available for longer manuscripts. Contact us to arrange one before you order.

Human manuscript editor

Natural Intelligence

Natural Intelligence is our name for editorial judgment. Our editors know how presses and journals read a manuscript, and they edit with those readers in mind.

Our Promise

We will ensure that the final draft you receive from us is completely ready to publish or submit. We work with you until it is ready or refund your payment in full.

Our editors do not have access to your manuscript until an order is placed. Your draft is secure until you decide to proceed.

Manuscript Editing for Your Kind of Manuscript

Book Editing

Scholarly monographs, nonfiction books, and edited collections, from a full book manuscript to a single chapter or a book proposal.

Journal Article Editing

Research articles and essays edited to the journal's author guidelines and citation style, ready for submission or revise-and-resubmit.

Dissertation to Book

Developmental and line editing that turns a dissertation into a book a university press will consider.

Fiction and Creative Nonfiction

Novels, stories, and essays edited for clarity and consistency while keeping your voice.

Biography and Memoir

Life stories edited for voice and chronology, from a family history to a memoir headed for a publisher.

Publishing and Printing

Layout, cover design, printing, and binding for authors publishing on their own once the edit is done.

Levels of Manuscript Editing

Each level includes the work of the levels before it.

Manuscript Proofreading

Spelling, punctuation, typos, and consistency, with grammar and usage corrected and your wording left as you wrote it.

Manuscript Copy Editing

Grammar, usage, and awkward phrasing, followed by work on clarity, concision, and sentence structure, with your style manual applied throughout.

Manuscript Line Editing

Paragraph-level clarity: topic sentences, transitions, and sentences reordered within a paragraph, with every claim kept as you stated it.

Developmental Editing

Sections reordered, gaps in the argument repaired, and prose reshaped at length, with the scope agreed before work begins.

Manuscript Formatting

Margins, headings, pagination, contents, figures, and citations set to your press or journal guidelines.

Express Turnaround

Proofreading, copy editing, and line editing on 24-, 48-, and 72-hour deadlines for manuscripts with a fixed date.

Preparing a Manuscript for a Press or Journal?

Our publisher and journal pages cover what each one asks of authors. Start with academic presses, trade and literary publishers, or academic journals.

Instant Invoice

Ready to commission your edit? Use our secure portal to generate an immediate, word-count-based quote and secure your delivery deadline.

Our editors do not have access to your manuscript until an order is placed.

Manuscript Instant Invoice Button