Frequently Asked
Questions

• Standard
  Our Standard-tier edits are light-handed edits focused on strengthening your writing and preserving your voice. You made the cake; we put on the frosting. This is ideal for authors who are not willing or able to make large changes to their book and who are looking for more of a polish than a full redo. Does your book contain a lot of personal stories, diaries, or letters? Did you create a method you want explained in a specific way? Are you happy with the events of your fiction story but need to make sure it flows? Then this might be the choice for you. A Standard is also great if you’re on a tight timeline or budget. These won’t be in-depth edits, but if you don’t want to make many changes for whatever reason, this is a great option.
• Professional
  Our Professional-tier edits use a “medium hand.” They focus on strengthening your writing, but also offer more subjective and creative suggestions. Edits are balanced, offering solutions to the author to fix on their own without the editor doing much in the way of rewriting. We’re offering guidance as you bake the cake, teaching techniques and offering advice, giving you a hand where you need it. This is perfect for most authors. If you’re not afraid of putting in some hard work to make your book amazing, but don’t feel it needs a major makeover, then this is the tier for you.
• Premium
  Our Premium-tier edits are heavy handed—the heaviest hand we offer! If you want us to cover your book in red ink and do whatever it takes to make it awesome, this is the level for you. It may include rewriting, heavy rearranging, and large cuts and additions. We’re your sous chefs, baking that cake alongside you, flour on our aprons and batter covering our hands, and maybe even suggesting changes to the recipe. This is for authors who want to go above and beyond—to not just have an amazing book, but an outstanding one. It’s also for authors who need or want a lot of help, who feel lost in the writing process, or who really value having someone critique their ideas. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is the best service you could get for your book.

Content editing focuses on the big picture of your manuscript—structure, flow, plot, and character development. It looks at how well your ideas are communicated. On the other hand, Copyediting deals with the finer details—grammar, punctuation, style, and consistency. It ensures your writing is polished.

Read more about the different of types of editing here.

If your manuscript is longer than 150k words, fill out the form above and we will reach out to you soon with a personalized quote.

Yes. Every book needs editing. Even professional authors need (and use) editors. No matter how good your book is, it needs editing.

Read more about why you need an editor in this blog post.

Yes. We’ve edited countless books that have “been through Grammarly” and other programs, and we always need to make hundreds of copyedits. While these programs can be nice, they cannot effectively replace a human copyeditor.

Read more about why you need an editor in this blog post.

Every book is different. Something complex may take longer; something that is polished already may take less time. Once an editor begins to work on the book, we can edit at the average speed of about 30,000 words per week—but keep in mind that this can also vary. Feel free to reach out to us to get a more specific timeline for your book. The biggest variable is on the author’s end between rounds. Some authors can go through the suggested edits in a weekend; others can take weeks or even months to get back to us. You know your writing speed best!

Sure, but we don’t recommend it. If you feel your book is strong enough to not need content editing, or if you really think you like the content as is, we suggest getting a sample edit so you can see what our content editors can do for you. After that, if you still feel it’s unnecessary, then sure, you can skip it—but over 95 percent of people who get sample edits realize how important content editing is, and end up getting a content editing round.

Content editing is powerful, it is the most impactful type of editing, and it is what can really transform a good book into an excellent one.

The editors typically follow the Chicago Manual and Oxford punctuation style in American English. We are also able to copyedit in UK English, but there may be a longer wait time (only some editors on our team are qualified to copyedit UK English). We are unable to edit anything except US and UK English, but we can edit books written in Canadian, Australian, etc. English and change it to fit US or UK English if desired. This matters much more for copyediting, by the way—we can content edit anything!

Yes! Reach out to us at editing@wanderingwordsmedia.com if you are interested in any of those.

You can check out our Cover Design services here.

We do not use any programs (like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, ChatGPT, etc.) to edit. We just use our brains.

To open and edit the documents, we use Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

In that case, simply don’t accept the suggested edit. The author always has the final say. You are free to reject any suggestion we make—we won’t mind! Many edits are subjective, after all, especially in content editing. That said, you can always ask why we made a change before rejecting. We will be able to explain our reasoning with you.

We will not reproduce, give, or show anyone outside of the employees at Wandering Words Media Corporation any of the material sent to us by the author for editing purposes. You, as the author, already hold copyright over your work. We don’t want to steal your writing, but even if we did, you could easily sue us for doing so. So, you can rest assured that your work is safe. 🙂

Projects typically wrap in 2–3 weeks, depending on how many revisions are needed, the complexity of changes, and how quickly the author provides feedback.

This timeline refers specifically to the front cover design. The biggest variable tends to be on the author’s side—some authors respond within a day or two, while others may need more time between rounds.

If your package includes a full print cover (spine and back), we’ll complete that once your book has been professionally formatted, as we’ll need final page count and trim size details. This step may extend the overall timeline, depending on where you are in your publishing process.

Each service includes up to three revisions. However, if you want to purchase additional revisions beyond that, we can do so.

Authors typically provide the ISBN.

This will be discussed during the Cover Vision Call. If you want original illustrations, purchase the Premium Package.

AI may be used only if absolutely necessary and to support—not replace—the creative design process.

No, but you can add that onto your order! We can edit your back cover description or author bio for $30 each, or $50 for both. If you prefer us to write one or both for you, reach out to us for a custom quote.

After purchase, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to your design intake form. Once submitted, we’ll reach out within 2 business days to schedule your Cover Vision Call.