As editor of Abyss & Apex I’ve helped launch the careers of several writers. Let me put my years of experience as a writer and editor to work for you.
Developmental editing/copyediting rates (both, inclusive):
Flash Fiction (1,500 words or less)………$20
Short stories (up to 7,500 words)…………$35
Novelettes (7,500 to 17,500 words)……..$80
Novellas (17.5K to to 40K words………$140
Novels (40K words to 150K)………………$500 (longer works slightly higher)
Non-fiction articles and books have similar rates based on word count.
Satisfied customer references available on request.
Thanks so much for your edit of the first Combined Service novel! My beta readers loved it ardently, but I felt as if something was missing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Your advice roped, wrassled and hog-tied it, giving me the guidance I needed. Thanks to your keen editorial eye, I was able to set the hook for the rest of the series and enmesh readers even more tightly in the struggles of the Magnetar’s crew. I thank you, and Able Spacer Charlie Cooke may not know it yet, but she’ll thank you, too!
Thank you ever so much for your edit of The Hacker of Guantanamo Bay. You helped me mature the manuscript. The characterization, the setting, the character development are all richer, and the sentences have all their adolescent awkwardness removed. Even the hackers are more fully human. I really appreciate how you helped me mature the plot, working with me to produce a more satisfying ending. Thanks to your help, my manuscript is now grown up enough to brave the world of agent queries.
Wendy helped me maintain consistency through out my short story. The notes helped with story logic, world building, and naming conventions.
The final edits gave me the confidence to send the story out into the world for publication. Shotguns and Jinn was published in Pulp Literature in 2019.
Let me just say this, as a testament to Wendy Delmater Thies’ editorial skills.
Without her, the beginning of my horror novel WIP would have been COMPLETELY different.
We’d moved a chapter/scenes that occurred later on in the novel to just after the beginning, with a scene to lead to the moved portion at the start of the book. Then we needed scenes to have the moved portion fit in its new area.
That was the major change for the first few chapters.
There were LOTS of other major changes, but for the purposes of the grant application, the first few chapters, up to a certain wordcount, was handed in.
And… I got the grant.
Wendy transformed the beginning of my novel.
I got the grant.
That’s it.
Powerful, huh?
With her, you know for SURE you have the basics covered.
And then some.
Hire her.
I worked with Wendy on refining one of my short stories. With a careful eye, she spotted continuity errors and helped focus the piece on what mattered – the character.
After Wendy went through my piece, I found something i was missing; confidence.
And on your second Patreon reward edit your reply made my day, Mike. – Wendy
“Thank you so much Wendy. These edits were awesome :)”
Wendy gave me the push to improve my novel, taking the time to go through the details and ensure that the final product was spot on (a fantastic eye for descriptive detail!!).
She provided many tips and insight throughout that process which was invaluable. I’m very glad to have worked with Wendy as I learned a lot along the way and feel very confident moving forwards.
Wendy’s circumspect eye and belief in my project has curated it into a
shiny gem of a novel I am excited to launch. Her tenacious faith in my prose has given me confidence where previously none existed; I have had disheartening, soul-sucking experiences with mere crit partners before; feedback that often felt like that old game of Trouble—no matter what I did, I was bopped on the head and made to go back, start all over. These sorts of experiences can make any writer gun-shy and reluctant to offer up their work for feedback…yet without professional editing, a novel’s status remains raw, unfinished, and often un-sculpted. Wendy’s approach does not come from a critical angle. She is a collaborative partner in your project’s journey, and works from a strength-based perspective: seeing where her writer’s prose truly shines—then building it up to be the best it can be. The Shadow Collector has greatly benefited from her keen feedback and enthusiastic faith!
That’s what a developmental editor does! I’m a partner in making sure your story perfectly gets across to the reader.
Wendy graciously took on my incoherent back-and-forth time-jumping wild ride (not in a good way) novel. Wendy saved the reader from my own literary indulgences, gave the characters purpose, and tightened the story. She was encouraging without being flattering, telling me specifically what was working but, more importantly, what wasn’t. For the latter, she always had a solution she would soft-sell, being clear this was my novel.
She took my sputtering smoking rattling novel and made it hum.