Hi, I just joined NABBW and this is my first look at the forum and my first time to post. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I'm currently scrutinizing my memoir, "Grandma's Letters from Africa: Quaint I Ain't." I'm almost obsessed with catching errors, making revisions, and polishing. The on-line critique groups I belonged to were a huge disappointment (new, inexperienced writers). However, a former professional copy editor has critiqued it, along with several professionals in journalism, and now an English teacher. I found that each brings his/her own perspectives, which is very helpful to me. Nevertheless I long for a good "professional" edit. One I looked into would charge me $2600. Does that seem reasonable for a 300+ (double spaced) page book? We are recently retired and that seems like a lot for our budget. I plan to work with iUniverse (self-publish) because I know others who have worked with them and they have a good product. Also, I have heard that if I have a targeted audience with good marketing options, going the self-published route is a fine option. (Two huge organizations have already agreed to publicize the book, with probably speaking engagements with them). iUniverse offers an editorial "evaluation" (I think that's the word they used). A professional editor will go over the manuscript and make recommendations for revisions and corrections. My big concern is to have this edited well. Should I trust the iUniverse editorial evauation? If not, could anyone recommend an affordable professional editor? Many thanks

Linda Thomas, Wayfaring Wordsmith
"Grandma's Letters from Africa: Quaint I Ain't"