Crafting Your Book

Tweed’s book preparation services give you a competitive edge. Revising your dissertation for publication? Writing a scholarly monograph or article? Tweed offers developmental editing packages that realize the potential of your manuscript or idea.

Developmental editing can proceed on a page-by-page basis—of an entire manuscript or a portion of it—or a writer can elect a potentially multiphasic approach that begins with an assessment. Feel free to email me to discuss your situation: time, budget, and intensity of intervention are all factors in choosing the most beneficial developmental path for your project. For more information on developmental editing as it compares to other types of editing, see all service descriptions.

Developmental editing helps you make the right impression on your reading audience, peer reviewers, and acquisitions editors. 

 

 

Conceiving Your Dissertation Anew

Your first book is especially important in defining the arc of your career. Remember, dissertations are not books. Academic presses are feeling pressure to produce books that have wider appeal than the specialist communities for whom you may be accustomed to writing. More and more, scholarly publishers are suggesting that prospective authors seek out developmental editing—the earlier, the better.

Page-by-Page Developmental Editing

At any manuscript stage, from brainstorming to full draft, I immerse myself in your writing and help you shape its argumentation, conceptualization, and organization. The object here is a manuscript that will successfully reach its  target audience, whether you’re writing primarily for gatekeepers (such as acquisitions editors, peer reviewers, or award committees), readers (such as scholars or the general public), or both.

 

  • Working with you to develop manuscript from initial concept, outline, or draft (or some combination thereof) through any number of subsequent drafts
  • Making suggestions about content, organization, and presentation
  • Identifying and solving problems of overall clarity and accuracy: organizational weakness, lack of focus, redundancies, nonacademic tone, wordiness, triteness, vague generalizations, unsubstantiated claims, and weak sentence style

Developmental Assessment

I thoroughly read, analyze, and evaluate your manuscript and create a report that suggests appropriate style, tone, and structure for your project. The assessment is a statement of where your project stands and what its strengths and weaknesses are. Anticipate the concerns of the acquisitions editors who make decisions abut book contracts!

For a flat fee, the assessment gives you:

  • a summary of the project’s opportunities and challenges, from a publishing perspective
  • a detailed restatement of your argument—as it comes across to the intelligent, nonexpert reader
  • a run-down of how it could be recalibrated—as thoroughly or delicately as needed—for submission to scholarly presses
  • a detailed list of structural issues that gives you the tools to move forward
  • an accounting of stylistic issues related to grammar, mechanics, formatting, and disciplinary standards
  • for your use, an accounting of all the theses and subtheses identified throughout the manuscript
  • a tally of all the topics and subtopics you cover

This is no slim volume; it’s a substantial packet that reflects your precious research and outlines a way forward.

Additional Developmental Services for Your Book

Structural Plan (after an assessment)

Upon extensive and careful consideration, I suggest a thorough restructuring of your argument and table of contents, if warranted. You receive precise recommendations for logical, graceful organization beyond the scholarly apparatus typical of dissertations. Even academics can deploy the kinds of techniques that good journalists and novelists use to create suspense and sustain pace. Plan implementation is also available, as is conversation on any aspects of the process, including constructing a timeline and sticking to it, from initial contact with a publisher to final revisions before submission.

Strategic Feedback on Your Book Proposal

An excellent scholarly book proposal has a compelling concept and makes the case that the title will bring prestige to the publisher. Tweed helps you make the pitch, including identifying your target readers and surveying the book’s market.

Shaping an Effective Title

Even at the proposal stage, this is a critical opportunity to grab attention.

Identifying Publishers

Targeted solicitation is key. Tweed provides a prioritized list of potential outlets for your unique work.

Read about all Tweed Editing’s services.

Work with Tweed

Let me know where your book project stands. We can talk opportunities, challenges, timelines, and next steps.

Reach Out