Clients' Endorsements
Editorial Service
“Susann Cokal is the most talented, insightful editor I have worked with in my twenty-year career as a professional writer. She helped make my first novel a reality with her keen eye for detail, extraordinary patience, and ear for the language. I have repeatedly relied on her editorial skills for books of nonfiction as well. She possesses a staggering range of knowledge and expertise, and her intuitive sense for structure and pace makes her feedback invaluable. I cannot recommend her highly enough.”
—Thomas Fahy, Professor of English at Long Island University and author of Understanding Truman Capote; Dining with Madmen: Fat, Food, and the Environment in 1980s Horror, and numerous other books.
Susann is the best book doctor out there. I’ve had several pairs of eyes on my novel-in-progress, but no one gave me comments nearly as good as Susann’s. She immediately understood the novel’s strengths and gave me practical, concrete suggestions for how to fix its weaknesses. Once she'd diagnosed the issues, I could clearly see for myself how to make the story tighter, cleaner, and better all-around. In addition, Susann also gave me minute, page-by-page comments about structure, pacing, character, and plot--not to mention word choice and grammar. I highly recommend her!
–Terry A.
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"Susann Cokal is a smart, sensitive editor who will help you bring your manuscript to the next level and beyond. From line editing to character arcs to plot development, Susann was an invaluable guide for me. She's a professional who loves stories--and it shows in her editorial advice."
—Mike R.
A developmental editor will help you get those first scribblings down on paper. (You'll probably need to type them up before you show them to anybody, however.)
Line editing, copyediting, and proofreading can look much the same--cross-outs, additions, sometimes some suggestions on query flags (Post-its). What's above is a final read-through of some galleys that are just about to go to the publisher for final printing. Comments and corrections are minimal at that stage.
The staff of Broad Street Magazine, circa 2013, goes through proofs of the second issue.
What is a book coach?
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The book coach has become very popular lately. This person is a counselor and a cheerleader, someone who will encourage you to get yourself to the desk and get started ... and perhaps explain how to look for an agent or publisher ... help brainstorm marketing ideas ... but mostly focus on you, the writing person, even before looking at the writing and its aftermath.
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The book coach does NOT read your work or make editorial suggestions; they are for talking, not reading (unless you also hire your coach to be your editor, which some coaches will do).
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Think of it this way: The coach is sort of like a professor holding office hours, sort of like a therapist, sort of like a developmental editor. You get to bounce ideas around, talk about how to defeat your writer's block and the reason you're blocked, what scares you about writing and publishing, and how to defeat those fears with a bit of guidance from someone who knows a bit about how that world works. You might also get to talk about your project's specifics, such as who the characters are and how the plot is working. (Some coaches see those topics as too editorial and will steer away.)
The book coach is not an agent or editor themselves, and they are not going to represent you out there--the key is to help you represent yourself.
In addition to writing my own books, articles, and stories, I've worked as a developmental editor, line editor, copyeditor, book doctor, and coach--and university professor of creative writing--for thirty years.
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(Want to know what those jobs are? I'll explain below.)
My clients have included people finding their way through a first novel, a first nonfiction book proposal, or a scholarly dissertation ... and major publishers of all types of books.
I am also editorial director of Broad Street Magazine, an interdisciplinary nonfiction magazine. See our website for examples of work I've helped writers bring from draft to fruition.
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Bring what's on your page to what's on everybody's reading list! I can help.
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Kinds of Editing
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I do all of these types of editing, often in combination--we can discuss what you're looking for and how to get there.
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Developmental Editing: You work with this type of editor when you have an idea--a glimmer, a spark, or something that has already led to a hundred pages or more--and need to talk through how to make it work.
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For a novel, maybe some great starting point or nugget of a mystery has occurred to you, but you don't know how to build a story around it and the books you've consulted just haven't done the trick. Working with a developmental editor, you talk through all possible aspects of your idea and construct the world of the story, the characters, plot ideas ...
Or if you're working in nonfiction, you might talk about the subjects your book will have to cover and how to organize them chapter by chapter to make a book.
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See below for an idea of what a first-stage developmental editing experience might cover.
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Once you've got your draft done, you might want to revisit your developmental editor for a comprehensive reading--that means the editor goes through what you've written and gives feedback on the whole, often some more suggestions (if you want them!) for further work. This is still developmental editing, just at a more advanced stage.
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"Big idea" editing like this comes with a variety of price tags from different editors. Some will offer a quick read for a few hundred dollars; others go up steeply from there. Make sure you and your developmental editor are clear about what exactly your work together will be.
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In general, if I do any developmental editing or comprehensive reading of a project, I do not line edit (see below) but do write a substantial letter of reactions and suggestions (3 to 5 pages) and a video or phone conference one to two hours long. The price depends on the length of your project and what kind of response you are looking for.
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Line Editing
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The same person can do developmental and line editing, and line editing can be part of a comprehensive reading if you feel you're ready for it. This is a sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word evaluation--and polishing--of your manuscript, working especially on clarity of ideas and elegance of style.
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Line editing as part of a comprehensive reading is the most persnickety and hands-on, hence perhaps the most expensive service offered by most editors.
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A line editor will probably also copyedit your work--fixing typos, spelling mistakes, grammar, etc.--but you can hire someone just to do that job.
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Copyediting
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This editor loves dictionaries and style manuals--different types of publications use different systems of punctuation, abbreviation, etc. If you're writing for a specialized market, you might want to hire a copyeditor to fix up your manuscript so it's most easily readable to a publisher in that field. Also, it's just good sense to get rid of mistakes in spelling and grammar--you want a publisher to notice your ideas and gorgeous expression, not some clunky misuses of its and it's.
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Fact checking can be part of copyediting; the spelling of brand names is definitely in that wheelhouse. But you may want to hire someone to check dates and obscure facts on their own. You can provide a list of sources you've used, and/or the person can find their own sources. You can hire someone for this service at basically any stage.
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Proofreading
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This is the final stage and usually the least expensive sort of editing. It's a matter of doing a final check to spelling, grammar, format, etc., and giving it a polish.
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If you're a publisher hiring a proofreader, you're also usually paying that person to go line by line through a manuscript and the proofs--the layout for publication--to make sure no lines or words got dropped.
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I do all of these types of editorial work, at rates that vary depending on the length of the project (from short fiction, essays, and articles to fat Russian-length novels) and what you want and need.
Please send an email to susanncokal@gmail.com
to start a confidential discussion of your project and your needs.
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Thanks for visiting!
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What might an early editorial
letter cover?
So you're at an early stage of your novel and you want some feedback about how it's going ... You want some developmental editing--not a comprehensive reading (not yet).
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Every book is different. You have probably identified some areas you want help working on. Definitely let me know what those are. I will also look generally at other elements of storytelling. Typically, at this stage I will read your manuscript (of course), write a detailed editorial letter of around 6 to 10 pages (depending on length), and chat with you for about an hour about all the topics covered in the letter, plus anything you might still be wondering. (We can talk again afterward, of course.)
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The letter will typically cover some or all of these elements of storytelling--again, depending on what interests you and what I see going on in your manuscript:
• praise for what you're doing brilliantly--I believe in starting with strengths and then moving toward change ...
• evaluation of the plot and how events build on each other, suggesting possible changes to strengthen the reader's experience and meet any particular expectations of the genre
• thoughts about character development and arcs: who the characters seem to be, how their psychology is working, how character creates plot, if anything seems out of character ... plus suggestions for sharpening any or all of the above
• a look at general style that will include notes about possible recurring mistakes and infelicities--but NO line editing
• evaluations of voice, place, etc., as appropriate
• some marginal comments in the manuscript itself to illustrate my points about what could/should be changed to strengthen any of the above areas--but this is not a full page-by-page, paragraph-by-paragraph edit.
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Again, every project is different, and the focus of my work will change depending on what your particular manuscript needs.
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For a comprehensive reading, I'll address all those topics and will make more comments on the pages. I will also do an occasional line edit to show how you can sharpen a moment, show character more clearly, express an idea more gracefully, and so on--but I will NOT line-edit the manuscript throughout; that's a different service, perhaps for when you are close to done.
A comprehensive reading is a deep-dive option, usually good for when you have your story down and feel ready to refine it.
Your Aesthetic
Every writer has to figure out what a story actually is to them--what plot means, and character development, and the whole messy business.
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Some points that work for me can be found here:
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The definitions of terms should be useful for whatever you read, and the thoughts about internal and external plots, character change, and so on may be a starting place as you define your own sense of story.
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This should be a joyful part of being a writer--so go forth, write, and keep defining and refining what you love!
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