Top 10 Online Book Editing Services of 2024

• Dec 01, 2023
• 6 min read

• Tags: Book Editing, Book Proofreading, Editing Services

When it comes to editing and proofreading your book, you naturally want to work with only the best book editing service! But how can you decide which book editing companies are better than others, and ultimately, which one should you work with?

Whether it’s a self-help book you want to publish or a novel, we’ve listed the best editing services for you to choose from. We’ve considered their pricing and turnaround time, as well as whether they’ll offer you a free sample and a free revision of your edited book.

Well then, let’s get on with it. These are the top 10 book editing services of 2024:

1. PaperTrue

PaperTrue’s book editing and proofreading services are a part of their wide array of self-publishing services. They’ve been working with self-published authors since 2014, having taken this time to establish themselves as experts in book editing and proofreading.

Book editing and proofreading with PaperTrue is inclusive of the entire editing process. Your manuscript goes through all three stages of editing: developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. You also get details notes from the book editor that consist of critical feedback to further improve the quality of your book.

Pricing: $28-$55 (per 1,000 words)

Turnaround time: 12 hours to 7 days

2. Scribendi

Having been in the business for two decades, Scribendi has a range of pre-publishing services for authors. Of this, their book editing services come in various packages. You may choose a custom package or order a copy edit for your manuscript.

Scribendi’s book copy editing services come with a range of turnaround times, all based on the size of your document. They can deliver a document of 1,500 words in 4 hours, while a book of 250,000 words will take them about 5 weeks.

Pricing: $31–$66

Turnaround time: 4 hours to 5 weeks

3. Kirkus Editorial 

Kirkus Editorial provides its online editing services in three tiers: copy editing, collaborative editing, and a professional editing package. Of these, the copy editing service is exactly what it sounds like, while collaborative editing comes with a one-hour consultation with your book editor. 

Their professional editing package is inclusive of all book editing services: developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. With this package, however, it would take them 45 days to deliver your book.

Since Kirkus’ minimum order value is $500, make sure you’re sending them a long manuscript!

Pricing: $20–$165

Turnaround time: 15 to 45 business days

4. BookBaby

Similar to other book editing companies on this list, BookBaby also offers a wide range of self-publishing services from editing to marketing. Their editing services come in three categories: book proofreading, copy editing, and line editing. They’re probably the only book editors who offer copy editing and line editing as separate services!

BookBaby decides its editing cost on a per-page basis. Their pricing and delivery time vary with the type of service you choose. Line editing is the most comprehensive of their three categories, so it also has the highest price and longest turnaround time.

Pricing: $20–$40

Turnaround time: 6 to 10 days

5. Wordvice

Wordvice’s editing services focus more on the mechanical aspects of book editing. They perform book proofreading, copy editing, and line editing on your manuscript.

A highlight of Wordvice is its express delivery option. This is probably the only book editing company that can deliver your order in 9 to 13 hours! So, Wordvice is a great option for writers working with tight deadlines.

Pricing: $40–$93

Turnaround time: 9 hours to 7 days

6. Proofed 

With Proofed, you can opt for basic book proofreading or editing and proofreading. They also provide formatting and plagiarism-checking services, which may be useful for writers publishing academic material.

Proofed also offers customization on your editing order. You can specify the audience, tone, and purpose of your manuscript to your book editor when you make an order. They also offer superfast delivery, offering to edit a manuscript of 10,000 words in under 24 hours!

Pricing: $30–$135

Turnaround time: 3 to 24 hours

7. Elite Authors

Elite Authors provide professional book editing services in four categories: copy editing, line editing, developmental editing, and proofreading. The downside to this is that neither of these categories covers all aspects of manuscript editing.

So if you want a thorough edit and proofread of your book, you’ll have to choose at least two of these categories and have your book edited in multiple rounds.

Pricing: $27–$80

Turnaround time: 24 hours to 3 days

8. Taylor & Francis Editing Services 

Taylor & Francis are experts in editing and publishing academic books. The editing company offers its services in two categories: standard book editing and consultative book editing.

Standard book editing refers to basic rounds of manuscript editing: fixing language errors and refining word choice. The consultative editing category comes with a substantive check, under which a book editor performs a thorough review of your manuscript.

Pricing: $55–$110

Turnaround time: Not specified on their website.

9. The Book Butchers 

The Book Butchers specialize in editing books of fiction, so this would be a good novel editing service for you to work with! They offer manuscript editing services in four diverse categories: quick kill, extra bloody, and perfect murder.

Of these, quick kill refers to basic book proofreading, extra bloody combines copy editing and developmental editing, while perfect murder is a combination of all three. The editing firm also has a low-cost manuscript review category called general autopsy.

Pricing: $40–$60

Turnaround time: 1–6 weeks

10. First Editing

Unlike other book editing companies, First Editing has divided its book editing services into fiction editing and nonfiction editing services. However, both of these categories branch out into four more verticals: basic, standard, advanced/executive, and developmental/plus.

When you put in an editing order, however, multiple plans will appear with different features and pricing. This gives you a variety of editing options, from which you can choose the one most suited to your manuscript.

Pricing: $30–$90

Turnaround time: 3–4 days

So this was our list of the top 10 book editing services. We hope it helps you choose the right book editing company for you!

If you’d like to keep reading, here are a few more of our articles:

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Tanvi

With a foundation in Life Sciences, Tanvi enjoys curating technical writing tips tailored for ESL students. When she's not translating complex concepts into bite-sized nuggets, she can be found playing with dogs or painting landscapes.