How I Work
I’m as happy providing a focused “read and review” of an early draft as I am collaborating closely on developmental editing or co-writing. My goal is never to impose a voice, but to help you discover—and strengthen—your own.
Read & Review
This includes a careful reading of your manuscript and a detailed editorial letter addressing structure, voice, pacing, and overall direction.
Rate: $175 per hour
To begin: Please send a sample of around thirty pages on email (via link) so I can see if I am the right one to help you. It’s also useful to have a short synopsis of a novel or a succinct statement of purpose for a nonfiction manuscript.
Developmental Editing & Collaborative Writing
For more involved projects—such as memoir development, deep structural revision, or substantial re-writing—fees are negotiated based on the scope and nature of the work required to bring out the best in the material.
If you’re looking for an experienced and honest partner for your book, I’d be glad to talk.
Quick Answers to
Common Questions
I love to edit fiction, both literary and genre, that is, crime and detective fiction. What’s better than a good puzzle? I consider myself a story editor primarily but have also worked on memoirs and even business books where a strong narrative anchored the business details.
My basic fee for editorial overviews (usually eight-ten pages, double-spaced) is $175 an hour. For collaborative writing assignments, I base the fee on an estimate of the amount of time I will probably need to complete the job. This can vary widely. Feel free to drop me a line to inquire about my services. Always include a succinct description of your project and a short writing sample (thirty pages, more or less).
I may give clients suggestions on where to go to find an agent, but don’t guarantee representation as part of the deal. My goal is always to help writers do their best work. I am focusing on the words on the page (or screen!); but given my many years as a publisher, I keep marketplace considerations in mind when I compose the editorial overviews.
Line editing is very labor intensive, hence a lot more expensive. It is not copyediting. For the editorial overviews, I do of course point out grammar mishaps and typos when I see them as I take notes.
I don’t offer those as a first point of contact, for two reasons. One, I might have a lovely chat with you, but then decide I am not the right editor once I have seen sample text. Two, working first with words on the page or screen makes for a more solid foundation moving forward. Once we have decided to work together, I am happy to talk with you and answer questions as we move forward.
I am part of an editorial collective, 5E Independent Editors. We query colleagues to see if they are available and interested if it doesn’t work for one of us. Also, we refer people to other editorial groups. Finally, we offer Zoom sessions on literary topics of interest a couple of times a season. See the blog entries on our website for an idea of the topics addressed, everything from craft challenges to bookselling and author promotion.
Patricia Mulcahy offers editorial and co-writing services to authors and publishers, combining on-the-page guidance with marketing and sales instincts honed in a long career as a publisher.