Afric’s editing service includes a close reading of your work, a detailed reader’s report and line by line proof-reading

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Afric McGlinchey received a BA in English literature from Rhodes University, and a post-graduate honours degree from the University of Cape Town. She has over twenty years’ experience as a freelance editor and has worked for a number of publishing companies and consultancies in Southern Africa and Ireland (including College Press, Longman, Juta publishing, Struik publishing, Wolfhound and Macmillan). She has worked in literary fiction, crime fiction, YA, secondary and tertiary textbooks, non-fiction, children’s fiction and commercial fiction. She also edits poetry and short story collections.

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I approach a manuscript holistically, assessing the quality of the writing, the structure, use of all five senses and visibility of setting. Depth of character and motivation are important aspects of a novel and I will focus a writer’s attention on these. I also look for glitches in terms of plot, the process of revelation, repetition, stylistic tics and writing that is a little loose – maybe it’s because of my training as a poet, but I like writing to be lean, with not a pick of extra flab. Due to long experience, I can work fast too, and tend to proof-read as I go, fixing punctuation (I’m obsessed about correct use of the apostrophe, for example!) and copy-editing. I also write a Reader’s Report, which will be anything from 6 to 20 pages long, depending on the amount of work still needed to be done.

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Rates

 

Please send a sample of your manuscript, with a word count, to receive a quotation.