Ghostwriting & Editing

GHOSTWRITING

Writers in the Sky is a premiere writing service offering ghostwriting for fiction and nonfiction books, as well as articles, press releases, web copy, resumes, query letters, book proposals, business documents, and marketing materials. Our ghostwriters work behind the scenes to write, rewrite, edit, or proofread on behalf of the client. The finished product will capture the client's voice and appear with his or her name.

Books

You may have a great idea for a book but don't have the time or skills needed to complete the project. We will use your notes or rough draft, conduct author interviews, and/or transcribe your audio files to write your book. And the best part is, your name will be on the cover!

The cost and length of the process depends upon the amount of work involved. If an author comes to us with just an idea and offers to collaborate, it will take about four to six months. This includes the time to collect the information, create the outline, and write the book per that outline. If the author provides us with a detailed outline or a partial manuscript, it will take considerably less time. Depending upon the condition of this manuscript we may even suggest that you skip the ghostwriting process and opt instead for developmental editing. In either case, the ghostwriter/editor will make regular submissions to the author for his/her approval. After the author has accepted the manuscript, he or she may wish to engage a second member of the team for proofreading. When the manuscript is ready for publishing, we can also write you a query letter and/or proposal. If you are planning to self-publish, we can refer you to a trusted colleague to assist you with layout, cover design, and marketing.

If your manuscript is complete, you may want to get a market evaluation to see if it is ready for publishing. If additional work is required and you choose one of our editors, the cost of the evaluation will be applied to the editing and/or proofreading services.

Most ghostwritten books are billed on a per-word basis. Please contact us for an exact quote for your project.

Query Letters

A query is a one-page letter used to pitch a manuscript to a literary agent. This very important piece must convey key points about the book and the author, in the hopes of enticing an agent or publisher to ask for more information. There is an art to writing a query letter correctly, so hiring a professional who knows the publishing industry is a smart thing to do.

Book Proposals

If an agent or conventional publisher likes your query, they may request a full book proposal. Therefore, we advise people to have the proposal prepared before you send your query letter; that way, you won't have to keep the agent waiting while you prepare this very important document. A typical proposal includes:

An overview of the book
A marketing comparison listing three to five books in the same genre and with a similar storyline as yours. It also should state how your book can be expected to compete with these other books.
A detailed author biography
A marketing plan that details how you plan to market your book. We will help you develop your marketing plan if you have not done so already.
Chapter outlines summarizing each chapter of your book
Sample chapters from your book that best demonstrates your writing and the scope of the story.

Business Writing

Outsource your business-to-business, business-to-customer, and corporate writing!

We write press releases, training manuals, white papers, product descriptions, brochures, reports, and resumes. As these documents include confidential business information and fiscal accounting, we work under a non-disclosure agreement with our business clients. Therefore, we do not have samples to show the public. However, we do offer the following services:

Speeches and presentations are an important part of public relations and disseminating information within the company, to the local community, and to the world at large. Let us write the speech for you.

From product descriptions to company profiles, business-to-business (B2B) copywriting is an important part of marketing your business to your clients. Our copywriters will provide you with concise, high-impact promotional copy for your company brochure, website, or magazine ad.

A fact sheet or statistical report typically includes a one-page brief highlighting the selling features of a product, parcel of land, or business offered for sale. The fact sheet gives a biographical sketch of the company and an overview of its fiscal accomplishments to provide readers with the facts needed to make informed decisions.

A case study or executive study effectively communicates the results of strategic efforts made to resolve a particular business problem. The summary describes the nature and scope of the problem, gives relevant background, and explains the course of action taken to resolve the issue, as well as the result.

Business Reports give a description of the overall business, including its owners and products. The report may also contain statistics to back up any claims made. Some reports may have a marketing slant or a soft call-to-action sales pitch.

Press releases for businesses feature newsworthy accomplishments and provide public information about your company. There is a right way and a wrong way to approach the media, and it takes a professional copywriter to know the difference. WITS can help.

Contact us to have a WITS copywriter create business articles that meet the specifications and guidelines for trade magazines and industry journals.

Need a company newsletter to help promote your business, communicate internally with employees, or keep in touch with your clients? Our business writers are able to write dynamic, content-rich copy specific to your target reader, business, or industry.

Article Writing

Well-written, content-rich articles are an effective way to drive targeted traffic to your blog or website. We will write an article of your desired length and specific to your business or industry, which you will receive as a Word document to use however you choose. This is a ghostwritten work-for-hire project with unique content. You will own all rights to the article, and - unlike articles you find in a public directory - our writer's name (and resource box) will not be mentioned.

Pricing is specific to each project based on its scope and complexity.

Editing

Writers in the Sky offers three different levels of editing--developmental, copy editing, and proofreading for books, articles, and other documents. WITS has edited many books for publishers, several of which became bestsellers in their category. We offer full or partial edits, as well as the opportunity to work with an editor as much or as little as you like.

Typos, grammatical errors, confusing sentence structure, and inconsistent writing can prevent your work from being published. As writers and editors, we will work with you to ensure that your writing is ready to present to the world and make a great impression. We will assess your manuscript's market readiness, without charge, to give you an editing estimate. We can also do a full evaluation of your book, assist you with book formatting, and write your query letter and/or book proposal to submit to agents and publishers.

We will analyze your manuscript and mark all technical errors, then return two electronic copies to you. One will be a redline copy tracking the changes we made. This allows you to accept or reject each change individually. The other will be a clean copy to show how the text will look with all of our suggestions accepted.

Developmental Editing

Also known as "book doctoring," this editing service is used to coach or guide an author's manuscript to the next level by offering suggestions for improvement. In addition to marking errors in the text, we assist you with making changes to strengthen your writing and develop your story or manuscript to its best potential. A developmental editor may rewrite some sections for you. We work with you on all elements of book development, including front matter and back matter.

This service is similar to ghostwriting, but when you hire us to assist you with developmental editing you must provide a rough draft of your manuscript for us to work with. We then serve as a mentor of sorts, helping aspiring authors improve their overall writing skills. The end result is the transformation of your rough draft, which will be a quality manuscript ready for publication.

Developmental editing projects may be billed on an hourly or per-page basis, depending on the scope of the work involved. Please contact us for a quote.

Copy editing
Our copy editors will go through your manuscript and complete the needed changes, including:

Correcting mechanical, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage errors.
Checking for proper alignment and spacing of text.
Marking inconsistencies and asking the author to consistently format dates, headlines, and numbers, as well as any alphabetized, bulleted and numbered lists. (We also offer book formatting as a separate service).
Noting awkward transitions, redundancies, and hyperbole.
Noting any biased language or stereotyping.
Noting any place where the point of view shifts without a clear sense of who is telling the story.
Marking improper formatting of dialogue and checking the balance of dialogue vs. action/exposition/internal thought.
Making the author aware of places where he/she is "telling" rather than showing what the characters are doing and thinking.

The copy editor may contact the author for clarification, ask him/her to rewrite some sections, or get permission to make other improvements (such as moving a chapter or segment to a better location in the manuscript). We do not rewrite for you at this level of editing; however, we will proofread the entire document one time once the author has accepted or rejected all changes and sent us a near-perfect document.

Copy editing starts at $7 per 250-word page.

Proofreading

Once your book has been written and edited, it will need a thorough proofread. Our proofreaders will mark all technical errors and return the manuscript to the author as a Word document. The author is responsible for completing the suggested changes.

Proofreading is priced at a rate of $2.50 per 250-word page.

Book Evaluation

One of our editors will read your book or manuscript and give a written assessment of its commercial potential. A kind but honest opinion of the author's strengths and weaknesses will be given, along with tips for improving the overall quality of the manuscript. The evaluation includes an assessment of the manuscript's publishing condition and what it would take to get it ready to submit to an agent or publisher.

Contact us for a quote.

Academic Editing

Do you want a professional eye to review your term paper, Masters thesis or PhD dissertation before you submit it? Do you need help to make your college or graduate school application essay as strong as possible? Does that English essay not seem as dynamic as it could be?

Dana Micheli provides academic editing for students at the college and graduate school levels. She checks the document against the assignment's substantive and formatting (APA, Chicago style) requirements to make sure that all are being met; she also points out any issues with grammar and punctuation. Deborah Wilbrink offers private or group lessons in creative and academic writing, with emphasis on originality. While Dana and Deborah will not write your papers for you, they can assist you in making your points clearly and concisely and will point out any technical errors.

Academic editing may be priced as a copy editing or developmental editing project, depending upon the length of the paper and the amount of assistance required. Contact us for a quote.