About Us
OUR FOUNDER
Hello, I’m Anja Jovic-Humphrey. In 2015, I sent an application letter for a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship. My letter ended up in a pile of seven hundred letters, which were all written by qualified PhDs. I could not call and ask for an interview or a phone conversation. I could not send a video. I did not even know who the members of the committee were, and neither did the writers of the other seven hundred letters. All we had was one single-spaced page in order to convince the committee members that we were the person worthy of the coveted fellowship.
Because of that letter – which was chosen among seven hundred others – I stand in front of 200 people (both students and professionals) every semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaching them how to achieve their goals through better communication. How to write college papers worthy of the best grade. How to write business proposals that will get funded. How to write cover letters that will make their potential employers excited to invite them for an interview. Every day I see people’s lives transformed because of the well-crafted and persuasive pieces of writing that they sent into the world. Every day I see the effectiveness of changes that can make a good piece of writing great.
This is the story of the gestation and birth of Editor City. It is my passion and commitment to find the best, most knowledgeable, and effective editors and proofreaders and pair them up with the texts that they will be passionate to perfect. Even the best writers need editors. There would have been no Great Gatsby if it had not been for the great editor Maxwell Perkins. Businesses would lose clients if there were no proofreaders to catch potentially embarrassing mistakes. Scientists would not get the same recognition for their discoveries if it weren’t for the editors in peer-reviewed journals. Every piece of writing can benefit from a great proofreader and editor. We are not here simply to “correct” your words; we are here to make them shine and achieve the goal that you set out to do.
OUR EDITORS
An exceptional editing and proofreading service can exist only with exceptional proofreaders and editors. Our editors complete a carefully designed testing and hiring process, which allows us to be highly selective and employ only the most qualified 0.3 percent of those who apply for the job. Being able to notice a mistake, an inconsistency, or a syntactically inaccurate sentence is a rare and valuable skill. Each of our editors excels in a specific field of proofreading and editing, and they all hold prestigious degrees.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Confidentiality is one of our most important principles. Every editor who works for us signs a strict non-disclosure agreement. Upon request, we offer to sign a separate non-disclosure and privacy agreement directly with you. This means that you can send us your most sensitive information, your business plan, your unpublished article in which you unveil an important discovery, your college essay, or a book manuscript with complete certainty that your work will remain unconditionally private and confidential. As writers and business owners, we understand the importance of confidentiality firsthand.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the difference between proofreading and editing?
A proofreader will correct any misspellings, typos, minor grammatical mistakes (such as “it’s” versus “its”), and punctuation. An editor will do all this as well, but they will also look at your syntax (the flow and grammar of your sentences) on a deeper level; they will suggest synonyms or different phrasing; they will look at your work as a whole. If we think of this through the metaphor of building a house: a proofreader will make sure that every room is perfectly tidy and clean; the editor will look at the foundation and – if needed – perform larger “repairs.” For the exact quantifiable difference between different types of proofreading and editing, please refer to the guide on our shopping cart page.
I’d like to have my manuscript edited and proofread because I want to make sure that I did not overlook anything, and I want it to be the best that it can when I publish it. However, I fear that I will not perhaps agree with every suggestion or correction by the editor. Can I still have the last word?
Absolutely. Unless otherwise requested, all texts are sent to the clients with the possibility to track all changes – as well as to “accept” or “ignore” each suggested change. If our editor sees something ambiguous – in which they cannot be certain what the writer’s intention was – they will insert a comment about this to bring it to the author’s attention. Our editors have experience in ensuring that the texts are correct, more persuasive, effective, “shinier.” However, we strongly believe that the owners of the texts should have the final word in regard to their texts and manuscripts!
Why does editing take longer than I expected?
Many people think of editing as “reading through” – and it seems that just reading something and correcting or rephrasing an occasional sentence should not take too much time. However, editing is an exceptionally careful and intentional craft; it is less similar to reading and more akin to “research” of the text. It is sometimes easier to write a new paragraph than to correct and restructure a paragraph that has already been written. Editors also have to carefully weigh every correction and ask many questions in the process: Is the edit absolutely needed or not? Does it clarify and support the overall message of the text? How can I make a good sentence great while preserving the style of the text? Some of our editors have worked as translators, and they find the process of translating a text from one language to another – and the process of perfecting an existing text in English – to be comparable. Editing requires an exceptional knowledge of the language and its rules, rich vocabulary, perfect knowledge of grammar, as well as intense focus and attention to detail. We work only with the most knowledgeable and most qualified editors, and the best editors know that they cannot “rush” an edit. That said, we always strive to meet our clients’ deadlines without compromising the quality of our editing and proofreading work.
Why is ESL a special category? What are “heavy” edits?
If the text has many foundational problems – and most commonly these are related to sentence structures – the editor needs to “rewrite” the text. In this case, their labor is very different than in a more typical editing job, which requires some changes and more detailed-oriented work. We need to compensate our editors properly for the jobs that will require significant restructuring of the text. This is often the case when English is not the author’s first language, as well as when the author is under strict time constraint and could only write the “main gist” of their argument without having the time to carefully construct their sentences or think about the best available word choices. For the exact quantifiable difference between different types of proofreading and editing, please refer to the guide on our shopping cart page.
What customers are saying
After Editor City helped me format and reword my cover letter, I felt one hundred percent more confident in sending it out. Thank you!
- Mike D.
I had a very difficult deadline with my dissertation. After contacting Editor City, they were able to accommodate my tight deadline and still return my dissertation with the best edits I could have asked for. I am so grateful to my editor in Editor City for not only making my dissertation error-free and beautifully formatted, I am also grateful for the inconsistencies he pointed out and questions he asked about its deeper meaning – it allowed me to go to my defense with a polished dissertation, as well as confidence and answers to many potential questions. You have this PhD’s eternal gratitude!
- Heather F., PhD
I believe that the decision to hire Editor City helped me get a book contract. I also learnt more from my editor about the submission process than I did in my MFA, and she made my manuscript infinitely better. Thank you!
- Ellen C., Author