Academic editing services for authors
We make your interdisciplinary text stronger and publishing experience easierIdeas on Fire provides interdisciplinary scholars the academic editing services needed to successfully navigate the writing and publishing process.
It can be challenging to produce innovative work that improves the lives of those in your community while also meeting the professional expectations of the contemporary university.
But those intersections—between advocacy and academia, between culture and the classroom—they’re our jam.
Read on to find out how we can help you write and publish powerful interdisciplinary scholarship that can spark new worlds.
Academic editing services
Developmental editing
Strengthen your manuscript’s overall structure and help your readers see the big picture
Developmental editing focuses on the big-picture content of your manuscript.
We identify ways to strengthen your argument, methodology, analysis, organization/structure, engagement with sources, and overall narrative arc—ensuring your ideas are clear, compelling, and positioned to reach your desired audiences.
Our service includes:
- One round of in-text edits in Microsoft Word using Track Changes
- A detailed editorial report outlining your key audiences and interventions, strengths and areas for improvement, and concrete revision strategies
- Guidance for responding to and implementing peer review feedback
We can work with you before submission to a press or journal—so your manuscript is as strong as possible going into review—or after you receive peer review reports, helping you revise strategically and efficiently.
Rate: USD $0.11 per word
Turn-around: starts at 15 business days for articles and book proposals, and at 30 business days for books
Copyediting
Improve readability and get your manuscript ready for publishers
Copyediting focuses on the clarity, consistency, and precision of your writing.
We attend to sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, spelling, consistency, formatting, and citation style—ensuring your manuscript is polished and publication-ready.
Our service includes:
- One round of in-text edits in Microsoft Word using Track Changes
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A style sheet to ensure consistency across the manuscript
Copyediting takes place once your content is complete. We can work with you before peer review—when you’re preparing a full draft for submission—or after acceptance, when you’re finalizing the manuscript for production and aligning it with publisher or journal guidelines.
Rate: USD $0.10 per word
Turn-around: starts at 15 business days for articles and book proposals, and at 30 business days for books
Manuscript review
Gain a holistic assessment of your book manuscript and a clear revision plan
A manuscript review is a holistic evaluation of your book manuscript.
We focus on revision recommendations that align with current academic publishers’ standards and target audiences.
Our manuscript review service includes a report detailing key interventions, primary audiences, and unique qualities of the manuscript. We provide recommendations for the book’s narrative arc, argument, methodology, chapter structure, and scholarly engagement, along with chapter-by-chapter advice for improvement.
For dissertation-to-book projects, we offer guidance on revising the manuscript to transition from a dissertation format to a book manuscript suitable for today’s publishing market.
Our manuscript review service does not include in-text manuscript edits.
Manuscript review takes place before you submit your book proposal to publishers (and thus before you have a contract).
Rate: USD $2795 flat rate
Turn-around: starts at 30 business days
Proofreading
Ensure that your book is polished and ready for production
Proofreading is detailed editing of your book’s page proofs.
We fix for typos, subject/verb/number agreement, punctuation, document formatting errors, and citation formatting errors.
Our proofreading service includes one round of in-text page proof edits using Adobe Acrobat PDF markup tools.
Our proofreading service is only available for publisher-issued, typeset, book page proofs. If you have Microsoft Word files, you need copyediting, not proofreading.
Proofreading takes place as one of the last stages of the publishing process, concurrent with book indexing.
Rate: USD $7.25 per page
Turn-around: starts at 17 business days
Publisher insight report
Find the right publisher for your interdisciplinary book
Optional add-on service available for book editing projects only.
Our publisher insight report provides a tailored analysis, identifying five US academic publishers that align with your book’s key audiences and focus and that suit your publication goals.
Your custom report includes each publisher’s relevant acquisition lists and major fields, detailed book proposal submission requirements, insights into the book proposal review process, series suited to your book, and contact information for acquisition editors.
Rate: USD $495.00 flat rate
How academic editing works
1. We assemble your team
Our CEO Cathy Hannabach personally assembles and leads your editorial team with the help of our editorial director—matching your manuscript with the right editors and project managers for its fields, editorial needs, and publishing context.
2. You deliver your manuscript
You send us your manuscript on the contracted start date, along with the peer review reports, style guides, publisher instructions, or specific elements you want us to focus on for your academic editing service.
3. Your team gets to work on your edit
Your team dives in, working together through the manuscript multiple times, shaping it for clarity, flow, and impact. We refine structure and organization, strengthen your arguments, smooth grammar and punctuation, format citations, and ensure your writing speaks effectively to your intended readers. We also create the supporting editorial documents—a style sheet for copyediting and an editorial report for developmental editing—to guide you through the revision process and ensure your ideas shine through.
4. We conduct a final review
Our CEO and editorial director conduct a final review to ensure your argument and voice shine through clearly and consistently and that all editing elements have been addressed. We create the final files that present a unified Ideas on Fire edit with detailed tracked changes and revision recommendations.
5. You receive your edited manuscript
We return your edited manuscript and editorial documents, with tracked changes you’ll integrate to create a submission-ready text. You can be confident that your work meets professional publishing standards and truly reflects your scholarly voice.
Recent academic editing projects
Frequently asked questions: academic editing
How do I know what kind of editing I need?
Most manuscripts move through three editing stages:
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Manuscript review and developmental editing: focus on argument, analysis, structure, and organization
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Copyediting: focuses on clarity, style, grammar, consistency, and citation formatting
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Proofreading: a final check of typeset page proofs before publication
If you're just getting started with a dissertation-to-book conversion, you can start with a manuscript review.
If you’re still shaping the argument or structure, you likely need developmental editing.
If the content is set and you’re polishing the writing, you’re ready for copyediting.
If you’re reviewing publisher-issued page proofs, you'd benefit from proofreading.
For a deeper explanation, see our article When to Hire an Academic Editor or Indexer.
Can you help me turn my dissertation into a book?
Yes, this is one of our specialties.
If you’re early in the revision process, we typically recommend a manuscript review, which provides big-picture guidance on how to reshape a dissertation into a publishable book.
You might also check out our First Book Publishing Series, covering everything from finding a great publisher and preparing your book proposal to navigating peer review and marketing your book.
What kind of manuscripts do you edit?
We work on academic and scholarly publishing projects in the interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences, including:
- Academic books, proposals, and chapters
- Scholarly journal articles, special issues, and full journals
- Institutional and department-based editorial projects
We work with individual authors, scholarly publishers, and institutional partners including museums, research institutes, academic departments, scholarly associations, nonprofits, and cultural institutions.
You can see examples of our work on our portfolio page.
Do you format citations?
Yes. Our copyediting service includes citation formatting and consistency checks.
We regularly work with Chicago, APA, MLA, ASA, Harvard, and publisher- or journal-specific styles.
How is my editing team assembled?
Each manuscript we work on is supported by a collaborative team throughout the entire publishing journey.
Our CEO Dr. Cathy Hannabach handpicks and leads each team, ensuring the exceptional quality our editing projects are known for.
This collaborative method provides your manuscript the benefit of multiple professional perspectives and Ideas on Fire’s unique, holistic publishing support.
Learn more about our outstanding team members on our team page.
Can I reschedule an editing project?
Yes. Please get in touch with us as soon as possible to adjust your start date.
What other publishing support do you offer?
Unique among editors and indexers, we provide comprehensive publishing support for books, including strategic book promotion and targeted marketing campaigns designed specifically for academic and crossover audiences.
We leverage our extensive interdisciplinary network and expertise to maximize your book’s visibility and impact through coordinated social media campaigns, conference placement, email newsletter features, blog posts, website showcasing, and other strategic promotional opportunities.
We know interdisciplinary scholarship can help build more just worlds, which is why our goal is to ensure your ideas reach the widest possible audience while maintaining the scholarly integrity of your work.
How do I pay for services?
We will send you an invoice with the edited manuscript, and payment is due within 15 days.
We accept credit/debit cards and bank transfers. We do not accept paper checks.
If you are using university funds, please confirm with your university before the project begins that they will pay via credit/debit card or bank transfer.
We are a registered vendor with hundreds of colleges and universities so the process is streamlined for payment.
If we are not already on your institution’s vendor list, we will register to enable direct payment.
Do you offer ghostwriting?
Absolutely not.
We have a strong ethical and political commitment to academic integrity. For scholarship to have credibility, it needs to be researched and written by the person whose name is on it.
Academic editing should never include ghostwriting or creating original content for an author.
Further, we will not edit any manuscript that contains plagiarized material.
Do you have any additional resources on scholarly publishing?
Tons! Check out our extensive scholarly publishing resource library.
And for those of you working on your first book, check out our comprehensive First Book Publishing Series, featuring advice from more than a dozen leading university presses.
Your work can change the world
It deserves an awesome interdisciplinary team of editors supporting you every step of the way.