One type of editing you can have done is copy editing.

This generally includes:
• Correcting spelling, capitalization, punctuation and obvious grammar errors
• Ensuring the text is clear and understandable (which may involve minor rewriting)
• Checking for potential copyright violations
• Cross-checking for consistent use of references and sources

While copy editing includes elements of proofreading (correcting spelling, capitalization, punctuation and obvious grammar errors), the latter also can focus on formatting issues. At the copy editing stage, your manuscript is still getting in shape to be formatted, so checking such items as the table of contents would be premature.

The manuscript that needs copy editing usually is fairly far along in the drafting stage, though, as major issues such as organization and maintaining a consistent voice have been worked out.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.