A boutique genre publisher since 2011, specialising in all flavours of speculative!

Challis Tower Books is delighted to offer editorial services to select clients in both Fiction and Corporate/government.


Fiction

We have two packages on offer:

Manuscript critique

This is a high-level view of your manuscript that examines the strengths and weaknesses of your story. We will provide written feedback on what works and what doesn’t and make suggestions on what to concentrate on.

Editing package

We don’t demarcate between developmental vs content vs copy vs line vs any other editing you can think of! If you pick this package, you get the lot: developmental edits regarding logic, flow and drama; content regarding style and rhythm; not to forget the nuts and bolts of grammar and spelling. We will also look at your back copy (blurb) and edit that as well!

 

 How we work

You’ll notice I said “we”. That’s because “we” consist of three editors, each with their own specialty. For most freelance editorial services in the marketplace, you pay one editor to do all the work. At Challis Tower, for the one fee, you’re getting the expertise of three different editors looking at your story. Whatever one person misses, another will pick up. We also discuss your manuscript amongst ourselves to ensure we help you produce as good a story as possible.

We are flexible. If we feel you may need to add or rework part of your novel during the earlier stages, we’ll give you the time (and manuscript back!) to do that before we queue your story for one more re-edit and final polish.

Editor H (H Hammond)

  • H has worked in the academic field and adores SF and SF romance (SFR)! He loves reading work from both male and female authors and is committed to supporting the speculative genre through his editorial insight and services. While not a nuts-and-bolts editor, H’s incisive comments, built on a foundation of a classical (and ongoing) education, are an extremely valuable part of the editorial process.

Editor J (JP Young)

  • J has worked on everything from novels to PhD dissertations. Particular and approachable, J has more than ten years’ experience in editing and is a full-time editor…meaning that he’s good enough to live on his skills!

Editor K (KS Augustin)

  • K has been a writer and technical editor for 30+ years, working around the world in IT, Politics, Environment and Publishing. She is also Chief Editor of the free online magazine Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly, currently on hiatus. She is co-owner of Challis Tower Books that co-publishes the Takamo Universe line of ebooks in association with Takamo Universe.

According to the Editorial Freelancer’s Association (and assuming a standard 250 words per manuscript page), basic copyediting can run you anything from 1.6 to 3.2 cents per word. Heavy copyediting can cost between 4 and 10 cents per word. And developmental editing can cost between 3.6 and 22 cents per word! Yikes! Challis Tower offers you a combined service (with up to three different editors, remember?) for one all-in-one price.

Think about it. Three editors for the one price!

Genres

For our fiction offerings, we are restricting our services to writers of:

  • Science fiction
  • Science fiction romance
  • Science fiction with romantic elements

Manuscripts are accepted in PDF for the Manuscript Critique and ODT and Microsoft Word formats for the Editing Package


Corporate / Government

Editor K (KS Augustin) has been a technical writer and editor for more than 30 years, with experience in private and public-sector organisations. She has written everything from skyscraper contract administration manuals to software training workbooks. She has produced back-engineered system specifications for software product replacement and collated and edited reference books on endangered species. If you have a document, website or presentation that needs to be in flawless Business English, then you’ve come to the right place.

Editor K will make sure that your prose shines. She works collaboratively with the client to ensure that the message that’s crafted is the one that’s meant to be conveyed.

 


Rates

If you have a work of fiction that requires editing, we offer two options: an overall critique of a completed story (or one in progress) and our all-in-one Three Musketeers team effort.

  • Manuscript Critique (Editors H and K): US$1.50 per page of 250 words or less, counted as PDF pages
  • Editing Package (Editors H, J and K): US$0.05 (five cents) per word, as calculated via LibreOffice Writer

For corporate/government, we charge a flat US$0.10 (ten cents) per word, as calculated via LibreOffice.

Payment is 50% deposit via Paypal upon commencement, with the balance due before completion.


 Interested? Have more questions? Please contact us at #Editing# at #ChallisTowerBooks# dot #com# and let’s start a conversation.

Thanks and best of luck with your writing!

The Challis Tower team