Academic editing services for authors
We make your interdisciplinary text stronger and publishing experience easier Get startedIdeas on Fire provides interdisciplinary scholars like you the academic editing services needed to successfully navigate the writing and publishing process.
Like you, we know how challenging it can be 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 activist and academic, 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.
“Working with Ideas on Fire was an oasis, an opportunity to receive affirming, consistent, and constructive academic editing feedback on my writing. I trust my scholarly voice more consistently, have discarded the perfectionism that comes with long writing projects, and have more confidence with my capacity as a writer and thinker from their edits.”
“Ideas on Fire’s advice to maintain rather than resolve the tensions embodied by the fraught position of my research subjects helped to draw out my book’s critical framework and gave me important direction for revising and reorganizing chapters. They are wonderful readers who offer exactly the right amount of critical feedback and positive nudging forward.”
“I am so very grateful to Ideas on Fire for their expertise, professionalism, and prompt assistance. They get right to the heart of a chapter’s workings, and I’ve found their suggestions again and again to be absolutely on point. My manuscript is so much stronger for their excellent reading and advice. I feel I have a smart, subtle reader in my corner; it’s like a superpower.”
Academic editing services
Developmental editing
Strengthen your manuscript’s overall structure and help your readers see the big picture
Academic developmental editing is big-picture editing of your content, including argument, methodology, analysis, organization and structure, engagement with sources, and narrative arc.
Our developmental editing service includes one round of in-text edits using Track Changes in Microsoft Word and a detailed editorial report addressing the manuscript’s key audiences and interventions, the manuscript’s strengths and areas for improvement, our detailed revision recommendations, and ways to address peer review reports.
We can developmentally edit your manuscript before you submit the manuscript to a publisher or journal—ensuring you put your best foot forward when you send it in for review.
We can also developmentally edit your manuscript after you’ve received peer review reports—helping you implement those recommendations.
USD $0.11/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
Academic copyediting is detailed editing of your writing and language, including sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, consistency, spelling, document formatting, and citation formatting.
Our copyediting service includes one round of in-text edits using Track Changes in Microsoft Word and a style sheet to ensure internal consistency.
Copyediting takes place after you’ve finished the content and want help polishing the text for publication.
We can copyedit your manuscript before you’ve secured a book contract or article acceptance—when you’re creating a full draft to submit for peer review.
We can also copyedit your manuscript after you’ve secured a book contract or article acceptance—when you’re preparing the final manuscript for production and need to make sure it conforms to the journal’s or publisher’s guidelines.
USD $0.10/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, focusing on revisions to 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).
USD $2695.00 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 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.
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.
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 the 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
“When I came to IoF, I was feeling stuck and not sure what I needed to do to my book manuscript and proposal to make them suitable to send to presses. IoF made excellent suggestions to help me strengthen and clarify my argument and also gave me confidence with positive feedback on the things I did well. My book was accepted by Duke University Press thanks to Ideas on Fire’s editing.”
“Working with IoF has cut the time I will have to spend preparing my book for production in half. This frees me up to be able to focus on polishing the manuscript itself as I work toward my final submission. I recommend Ideas on Fire to everyone, especially junior colleagues with manuscripts to prepare for submission before tenure.”
“Like many academics, I struggled with conceptualizing my second book project and getting it in motion. I felt like I was spinning my wheels in a sea of wonderful, scattered ideas that would take forever to sift through and synthesize into a completed manuscript and book proposal. Working with Ideas on Fire, I gained a pragmatic game plan for completing my proposal and project, and academic writing feels fun again.”
Frequently asked academic editing services questions
How do I know which type of academic editing services I need?
Developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading are the stages a manuscript progresses through as it moves toward publication. All manuscripts will need all three types of editing, whether you do them yourself or hire a professional.
Manuscript review addresses early-stage content elements and holistic concerns, as well as dissertation-to-book revisions. If you have just begun converting your dissertation into a book or want feedback on the overall direction of the book manuscript, you are at the mauscript review stage.
Developmental editing addresses content. If you are still hammering out your ideas and want detailed, page-by-page feedback on what makes sense, how your argument lands, how to organize your chapters/sections, or what needs to be cut or added, you are at the developmental editing stage.
Copyediting addresses writing. If your content is all set but you need help fixing the sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and citation formatting, you are at the copyediting stage.
Proofreading addresses lingering errors in the typeset page proofs issued by a publisher. It is a last-chance review of your proofs for typos, formatting inconsistencies, citations, and inaccuracies before the manuscript gets sent to the printer. If you are expecting typeset page proofs from your publisher, you are at the proofreading stage.
For more info, check out our article on When to Hire an Academic Editor or Indexer.
Can you help me turn my dissertation into a book?
Absolutely! Many of our academic editing services clients are in exactly your shoes, and we LOVE helping scholars write and publish their first book—you can see a bunch we’ve edited on our portfolio page.
If you have not yet started revising or have only done so lightly (perhaps you’ve sketched out a new chapter or have an idea for some things to cut), we recommend our manuscript review service.
The manuscript review provides a holistic overview of the entire manuscript as it is now and offers specific recommendations for what needs to be revised to transform it into a book manuscript that publishers would be interested in. It also includes detailed advice on how and where to implement revisions.
We focus on what needs to be deepened, updated, trimmed, expanded, reorganized, moved around, redistributed, or left for another project—and how to do that.
What kind of manuscripts do you edit?
We edit academic books, book proposals, and book chapters aimed at scholarly presses.
We also do a lot of scholarly journal editing: full journals, individual articles, and special issues.
We specialize in academic editing services for the interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences. See our full list of fields here.
We do not edit manuscripts in STEM fields, business, or marketing.
For more examples of our editing work, see our portfolio page.
Can you format my citations in Chicago, APA, MLA, or another format?
Yes. Our copyediting service includes citation formatting for in-text parenthetical citations, endnotes/footnotes, and bibliographies.
Our editors are well versed in the formatting styles used across the interdisciplines, humanities, and social sciences, including those set by the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), American Sociological Association (ASA), Harvard, Associated Press (AP), and others.
Additionally, we can format your citations and manuscript to fit the style required by a particular scholarly journal or publisher.
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 (our OG editor and indexer!) hand picks 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 the our team page.
What happens if I need to reschedule my academic editing services?
No problem.
If you need to reschedule your project, we are happy to do so. We ask you to get in touch with us as soon as possible to set a new 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 does payment work? Are you already a registered vendor with my university?
Ideas on Fire is a registered vendor with hundreds of universities, publishers, and scholarly associations, 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.
We will send you an invoice with the final index; payment is due 15 days later.
We accept payment by credit/debit card and bank transfer only. We do not accept paper checks.
Will you ghostwrite my manuscript?
NO.
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 scholarly publishing resource library.