EditingDetail

Christina Baker Kline

Editing Services: Project Details

Hourly, by the page, or by the project. See below for some
options. A pricing guide is available upon request.

1) Developmental editing includes a five-page written report
(at least – usually longer) on general and specific issues in the
manuscript such as structure, characterization, plot, pacing,
language, style, dialogue, etc. It also includes a 20-minute
telephone conversation. It does not include line editing.
Sample edit letter available on request.

2) Line and developmental editing, in which every line is
carefully gone over and every page is closely edited (with
attention to everything from spelling, punctuation, and
grammar to word choice, character development, and flow),
includes a five-page report and a 45-minute telephone
conversation.

3) Some clients want to do an overview and then a line edit.
(They usually make changes to the manuscript between the
overview and the line edit.) If you choose this option, the
overview will be discounted by 20%. This discount will be
applied to the final payment.

Photo by Claudine Moore

Note from the Editor

Ever since high school, when I surreptitiously helped my mother, a college professor, grade her students’ midterm
essays, I have loved the process of editing. Figuring out how to help writers present their work in the most effective
way possible is one of the most satisfying experiences I can imagine.

As a graduate student at the University of Virginia fifteen years ago, I started a business called WritingWorks and edited
everything from Guggenheim proposals to resignation letters, scholarly articles to wine shop newsletters. One of my
clients, an eccentric self-made millionaire named Rhae Adams, hired me to ghostwrite his autobiography / business
advice book (which he published independently), and with that contract in hand I moved to New York.

Over the next few years, while working on my first few books, I was a publications editor for a Boston-based company,
The EF Institute for Cultural Exchange, an editorial consultant for VH-1, and a consultant on ABC’s “General Hospital”
and NBC’s “One Life to Live,” critiquing scripts and story outlines. I also continued to edit book manuscripts.

After moving to Montclair, New Jersey, I wrote a book proposal for a scientist that sold in the mid-six figures, and the
publisher asked me to ghost-write the book. Because of the scientist’s inability or unwillingness to deliver what was
promised in the proposal, this project fell apart, costing me dearly in terms of time and money. (I learned an invaluable
lesson, though – I developed a collaboration agreement that takes into account these kinds of contingencies. I’ve never
had another bad experience like that one.) With two small children, another on the way, and a mortgage to pay, I had
to stop writing my own books and take a full-time teaching position.

As it turned out, teaching and raising young children was a good combination. Now that my children are older – the
youngest is seven – and all of them are in school, I am finding that I once again have the literal and figurative space to
write fiction and work at home as an editorial consultant.

In the past few years I have worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor. Recent and ongoing projects include: a
memoir about adoption; a political thriller; a young-adult novel about the friendship between a boy and an alien; a
nonfiction book about Muslims in America after 9/11; a memoir about a daughter’s journey to self-discovery; a novel
about a mother coming to terms with her son’s violent act; a roman a clef about coming of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Contact:
Email Christina at BakerKline@aol.com

4) If a client prefers, any combination of editing services are available by the hour. If a client wants to meet personally
with the editor or talk on the phone to discuss the manuscript, brainstorm, or work on motivational issues, the fee is also
by the hour. A ten-hour, discounted option is available as well.

5) If I client needs a collaborator or ghostwriter – to write and/or edit a book proposal, assist with finding an agent,
collaborate on or ghost-write a memoir or another kind of nonfiction manuscript -- a set fee will be established in
advance. In these cases, the client and editor will sign a mutually agreed-upon collaboration agreement.