Professional copyediting and proofreading in U.S. and U.K. English

I have copyedited 83 books over ten years, the vast majority from US authors. I am available during Pacific Time (PT) hours.

I am proficient in US English grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style (The Chicago Manual of Style).

What my clients love most is that I help them understand the error and its resolution not just with comments but also with a full copyediting report.

I have copyedited books in these genres:

- legal thrillers
- crime thrillers
- dystopian political novel
- sword and sorcery comedy
- cozy murder mystery
- adult fiction
- dystopian military romance
- science fiction
- children's fantasy
- young adult fantasy
- paranormal shifter romance
- allegorical fiction
- social paranormal novel

Please see my profile: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/ravindrab?s=1110580753635725312.

As a copyeditor, I ensure correctness of spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, word usage, and style (capitalization, italics, and hyphenation).

Further, I check for factually incorrect statements that can violate trademarks.

I also keep track of inconsistencies (such as hair and eye color).

In particular, I am proficient in punctuating dialogues.

I take great care to maintain your voice and style.

As a professional copyeditor, I have a system devised to maximize efficiency and consistency, and to minimize errors

I am an eagle-eyed perfectionist, but I don’t just do a read-through; I follow a well-defined series of steps.

I do not depend on just the human eye or the standard spelling and grammar checkers.

I use a judicious mix of the two: software and human checking.

I use an array of macros (VBA routines and wildcard searches) to ferret out the most elusive errors.

In other words, I preprocess the manuscript to catch errors in names, spellings, homonyms, hyphenation, punctuation, and word usage.

I apply corrections in spellings and capitalization to the entire manuscript in one shot. This ensures consistency.

After I have performed all the preliminary checks, I do a thorough reading to catch the remaining errors. Now that most punctuation and spelling errors have been accounted for, there is very little chance that an error can slip through.

I also go the extra mile to maximize formatting consistency and readability by applying MS Word styles. This not only helps minimize chances of an error slipping through the net, but also makes typesetting easier.

While copyediting, I do not make unnecessary changes.

Sometimes, to correct faulty sentence structure, I do make minor changes.

Often, even for dangling modifiers, rather than modifying the sentence, I make suggestions in the form of comments.

I make all changes with tracking on, and at the end of the job, I provide a tracked copy and a copyediting report listing the inconsistencies and errors.

English is my first language.

As I was educated at an elite Christian residential school having native-English-speaking teachers, I have an exceptional grasp of the English language.

Work Terms

My hours are very flexible. I prefer a 24-hour turnaround time for messages.