Editing & Author Services
Present your message with confidence.
Fiction & Nonfiction
Are you an aspiring writer? A self-publisher? The author of the next Great American Novel?
My name is Jayna, and I’m here to help you!
As a Christian editor, I have multiple certifications from The PEN Institute, a division of Christian Editors Association. As an independent author, I have a special passion for helping Christian writers present their messages with confidence. To that end, I offer a number of services: evaluations and project reviews to assess your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses, copyediting and proofreading to ensure a high-quality reader experience, formatting to bring your project to industry standard or prepare it for e-publishing, and book summarization to capture readers’ interest.
Why should you hire a Christian editor? Because the message of your book is as important as grammar and spelling, and only a Christian editor will be prepared to flag biblical inconsistencies, incorrect Scripture references, or inadvertent doctrinal errors—so you can be sure you said what you meant to say. A Christian editor is also ready to help you understand how Christian readers will engage with and respond to your message.
My standard rates are listed below, but I estimate rates on a per-client basis and love to help writers at all stages of their journeys, so please don’t hesitate to contact me even if you’re on a tight budget. Here’s what I can do for your project:
Author Services
Readthrough & Evaluation | The first step ←Recommended
Is your manuscript ready for editing? What kind? How much? By whom? This affordable service, which includes a readthrough of your entire manuscript, gives me a look at your writing and gives you a professional opinion on what your project needs, as well as a brief overview of your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses and suggested resources for self-editing. If you proceed with editing after this step, 50 percent of the evaluation fee will be applied to the cost of the edit. Standard rates: $200.00 per project.
Editing Services
Copyediting | The deep clean
A must for all writing, copyediting (also called line editing) corrects grammar and punctuation and strengthens clarity, sentence structure, and other stylistic issues. Copyediting comes in levels ranging from light to heavy, depending on your needs. Standard rates: $0.02 per word.
Proofreading | The final polish
The last step before publication, proofreading catches grammatical errors, misspellings, typos, and other common mistakes that mar the reader experience. Proofreading also checks for errors that may slip through the formatting process. Standard rates: $0.01 per word.
Manuscript Services
Summarizing | The sales pitch
Every great book needs great back-cover copy! A strong summary, whether long or short, highlights your work’s best points to capture readers’ interest. Standard rates: $20.00 per hour.
Microsoft Word Formatting | The industry standard
Are you finished with your project but intimidated by formatting? Meticulous Microsoft Word formatting transforms your manuscript into an industry-standard file ready for your next step, whether that’s submission to a publisher or your own self-publishing goals. Standard rates: $20.00 per hour.
E-book Formatting | The digital touch
Carefully coded for all e-reading devices, digital formatting converts your file to a clean, attractive e-book ready to upload to major platforms or send straight to readers. Standard rates: $20.00 per hour.
I offer free samples of my editing and formatting services. If you’re ready to get started, or if you have any questions, please contact me here and I’ll be in touch as soon as I can!
“Jayna was precisely the editor I needed. Not only is she well versed in the intricacies of language and storytelling; she’s also thoughtful and easy to work with.”
~ D. J. Speckhals, author of The Lord of Luserna
✎ Pro Tip
Before you contact any editor (yes, including me), try this simple strategy to catch more errors on your own: Read your book out loud. The whole thing. One word at a time. It’s no substitute for a full edit, but you may be amazed at the awkward wording, repetition, and inconsistencies you discover. I once had a character say, “That blackguard Taggart” and thought nothing of it until I read it aloud.
Flex Your Editorial Muscle
The Chicago Manual of Style is the standard style guide for all book publishing, the resource I rely on for accurate editing information. CMOS also provides loads of entertainment for English language nerds, and nowhere more so than in the sixty or so Chicago Style Workouts: ten-question quizzes that let you test your knowledge of Chicago style. This is the stuff editors do for fun. Strange, I know, but if you’re the quiz-taking type and want to match wits with the gold standard of book editing, check it out.
