Editors  

Prose Wizard’s lead editor, Dana Crum, is a Princeton alum with 15 years of experience in the field. As a team, we provide all editing services (clients can purchase one, or two or more):

• Developmental Editing (Content Editing)
• Copyediting 
• Line Editing
• Fact-Checking
• Proofreading

Developmental Editing

Developmental editors, also called "content editors," edit at the chapter, section and manuscript levels, which is to say they have a macro, or big-picture, focus. A developmental editor might help the author restructure and reorganize chapters, sections or the entire manuscript. She might address pacing, macro-level focus and cohesion, development of plot or argument, persuasiveness, clarity or logic.

Fact-Checking

Fact-checking ensures all asserted facts are indeed factual. 

Copyediting

Copyeditors edit at the sentence level, fixing problems such as wordiness and errors or lapses in grammar, usage, word choice and syntax. Copyediting ranges from light to medium to heavy, light being the least expensive. Heavy copyediting involves a degree of emphasis on sentence variety and some restructuring of sentences. However, copyeditors are not line editors so they are careful not to change the meaning or alter the voice and style. 

Proofreading

Proofreaders correct typographical errors, misspellings, punctuation issues and formatting irregularities.

Line Editing

Like copyeditors, line editors fix sentence-level problems such as wordiness and errors or lapses in grammar, usage, word choice and syntax. However, line editors also go beyond copyediting to address voice and style, giving comprehensive attention to word choice and sentence variety and ensuring the prose is cliché-free. Line editors can help make insipid prose appetizing. However, we will not change the voice without the author’s permission. If we detect issues with the voice, we will communicate that to the author, who gets decide to what degree, if any, the voice is changed. When need be, line editors also extensively restructure sentences. Their attention also goes beyond the sentence level, which is to say they edit paragraphs for focus, cohesion and structure.

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Content We Edit

We edit virtually all kinds of content:

• website copy
  
• book-length manuscripts (all genres)
  
• articles
  
• academic papers

Style Books

• We are well-versed in The Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, etc.

Past Clients

• Thacher Proffitt & Wood
  
• Bear Stearns
  
• Black Issues Book Review
  
• The Doneger Group
  
• The October Gallery (for its commemorative book, Connecting People with Art: Contemporary African-American Art)
• Peoples Publishing Group
• DreamYard Project

Pricing

• Pay by the Hour
  
• Pay a Flat Rate

• speeches 
  
• slideshows and presentations
  
• magazines
  
• newspapers and other print publications

• We can also employ any organization’s house style.

• HCCI/Intel Computer Clubhouse
• MBK Associates
  
• Greg Grant and Martin Sumners, authors of the memoir 94 Feet and Rising: The Journey of Greg Grant to the NBA and Beyond
• Janette Yarwood, author of the dissertation With Mixed Feelings: Negotiating Coloured Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Testimonials
“Dana Crum is one of the most thorough and professional copy editors I've ever worked with.”
—Clarence Reynolds, Former Managing Editor at Black Issues Book Review

“I used Dana Crum's services for editing copy of marketing projects. He is always well researched on the subject matter and precise in his critique and suggestions for improvement. He is a well-trusted professional with a flair for creativity and punctuality.”
—Anthony Craft, Former Marketing Executive at Capital One Financial 

“Working with Dana Crum was simply a great experience! Dana edited our 500+ page book, Connecting People with Art, and provided us with his confidence and his excellent experience. We would hire him again because he knows his craft, he is thorough, cooperative, and he worked on our project as carefully as if it were his own—a quality that is hard to find. Further, he helped us to improve areas beyond the scope of our original work request,”
—Evelyn Redcross, October Gallery