Happy New Year from Scarlett Editorial Services

Happy New Year from Scarlett Editorial Services!

We are here to serve you seven days a week.

If you have a question or concern about editing, drop us a line!

Now Accepting Clients!
Currently, we are booking clients for January and February. Reserve your spot early so that you don't miss out.

We never take on more clients than we can service properly so don't delay when booking your spot.

If you have a deadline, let us know.

If you don't know what kind of service you need, send us an email describing what you need and we'll help you out.  This is an easy breakdown of some of the types of editing we offer: Editorial Services

When asking for a quote, please give us a word count, genre, and if you have to meet any specific deadline.

We offer discounts when you use a combination of services such as developmental editing and copy editing. Members of the Horror Writers Association always enjoy deep discounts!

It is recommended that you hire a proofreader who isn't your developmental editor or copy editor in order to have as many eyes as possible to catch any mistakes.

Hire an Editor
There are many articles about self-publishing these days with people trying to figure out the best shortcuts and advantages. Some offer great advice, some offer not so great advice. The best advice is to hire at least one professional editor. After all, a traditional publisher would hire four or five editors to work on your book before it's released into the world. Yes, they do! There's the acquisitions editor who bought your book, a line editor, a copy editor, and a proofreader at the very least. That's not including input from the publisher, the marketing team, or even the cover artist who might have something unofficial to offer. And that's just one round. Many authors working with a publishing house go back and forth with various editors in different stages of the process several times until each word is perfect. And even then, mistakes happen, as we've all seen.

As a self-publisher, you need to provide the same professional attention to your own book. Never skimp on editing. You are competing with companies who sink thousands of dollars into a product; you need to do the same. If you can't afford to pay an editor, get a job and save up until you can.

I just read an article about someone offering to edit entire books for five bucks because she thinks it's fun and books need to be edited. Do not take this offer.What professional offers any service at all for five bucks? I'm not even talking about Fiverr, that's something different. People who offer to edit your book for free or five bucks or even fifty bucks will likely not give it the professional workout that you need. Sure a book worm can offer great advice, this is your audience and you should at least listen. However, there are things that happen under the hood that bookworms or your mom or your beta readers won't know or understand as they are not professional editors.

Real editors have to pay rent like everyone else and charge accordingly. Real editors edit for a living and therefore charge professional rates. Google the rates, real rates for real editors. Editors, like us at Scarlett Editing, who have actually taken courses, have a degree, and have years in the trenches as professional, working, good quality editors will charge rates that a lot of writers don't want to pay. However, who likes to pay for the dentist or the cleaning lady or a lawyer? An editor is the same. A professional providing a valuable service that takes years of training to achieve shouldn't give it away for five bucks or fifty.

You will see people offering editorial and proofreading services on Fiverr. On closer inspection, many of them aren't "giving it away" at all. They have figured out how to charge a living wage on Fiverr once you look at the process. Scarlett Editing is also on Fiverr (as Sephera Giron) and our rates on there are the same as when you order directly from us on here except there will never be a sale or combination of services discounts on Fiverr.

Eleven Years in the Business
We have worked with self-published authors for over eleven years and hundreds of books. We have not only watched the evolution of self-publishing but have been working in the trenches for years. We were here before it was "cool" to self-publish. We know what to look for and how to help you create a book that will be professional.

We care about your book, your hard work, and will do our best to make it shine!

Happy New Year from Scarlett Editorial Services!

Please think of us when you are looking for an editor for your next book!

sephgiron @ gmail. com

Summer Journals and Self-Publishing

Write a Book, Publish a Book

This summer, why not keep a journal or diary of all your adventures?

This is especially wonderful if you have small children or are taking a unique vacation or working at a new and unusual job.

It doesn't take long to record your memories into a date book, on Instagram, or even by voice recording on your phone.

Then in the cold months of winter, you can relive all of those magical times.

Perhaps you did something truly amazing that you'd like to share with all of your friends.

Maybe there was a fabulous family reunion you can share with the family.

These days, it's easy-as-pie to compile your adventures into an eBook or even a print book.

Create wonderful souvenirs for the summer of 2015 that you can look back on for years to come!

If you need help with compiling, editing, proofreading, or any other aspect of your creative endeavours, give us a shout and we'll see if we can help!

Big Discount Editing Special Ends June 30, 2015 at Midnight!

Let's celebrate all things summer and all things wonderful!

What are we celebrating?
School's Out! More time for writing or maybe there's no time for writing depending on your situation. But Scarlett Editing is here to do your editing and proofreading for you! Oh yes, we can also write for you. We can ghost write your book. We can write your web content, your blogs, your SEO articles. Pop us an email to find out more!

Pride Week in Toronto! Celebrate who you are and love your fellow humans!

Summer Is Here! It was a long cold winter in Toronto. Although the weather is still iffy, there's no doubt summer is here.

Ten Years of Editing!  Sèphera has been editing books for over ten years!

From today until midnight on June 30, 2015 Scarlett Editing is offering a deep discount on all editing, proofreading, and content writing services.

How does the discount work?
If you reserve your spot for editing this summer or fall with a deposit of $100 by midnight of June 30, you can enjoy a discount of 25% on your final price no matter when you actually have your book or story edited.

Send $100 by Paypal to sephgiron@rogers.com with the estimated date that you would like your work edited between now and December 2015.

You don't need to know the exact date you will be submitting your work, just that you will want editing between now and December 31st, 2015.


EXAMPLE: Let's say you know you'll be ready by September 16 to send in your book.

The $100 paid by June 30 reserves your priority spot and your deep discount of 25% off the final price. You don't have to know exactly how long your work is until you send it in for editing. Just let us know if it's a story, an article, a book, a novella, and so on.

When you send in your manuscript on or before September 16, you are required to send in half the payment based on the word count.

Let's say you think your book is 50,000 words.

Your fee for line editing would be $1000.00

So if half the payment is $500 and you've already sent in $100, you only have to pay $400 as a prepayment.

When the work is returned to you, the balance is due. The calculation is as such:

$1000 fee
    100 reservation fee for spot
    400 prepayment

$500 is prepaid or submitted with the manuscript.

$1000 x 25% off = $750 final price

The balance that would be due upon receipt of your edited work would be $750 -500= $250

The final price you would owe immediately once your work is returned to you would be $250 payable.

In this example a 50,000 word book had a deep discount of $250 off the final price! Pretty nice summer special, eh?

Do you have to know the exact date you want editing?
Scarlett Editing knows that you likely don't know for sure when you'll be finished writing your book. But if you can give a general idea of the week you'd like your service, it will help all of us schedule. However, we understand that it can be difficult to gauge.

If you're taking advantage of the 25% off deep discount you need to have your $100 deposit paid before midnight on June 30, 2015 and your manuscript submitted to Scarlett Editing before midnight on December 31, 2015. However, we also know that situations arise that prevent writing so we ARE flexible.


Does it have to be a certain genre or certain length?
Scarlett Editing works in ALL genres.

Scarlett Editing will work with fiction and non-fiction.

Your book or story can be any length and any genre to take advantage of the 25% off special. However, the minimum rate to edit any work is $10 even if the work is a short limerick.

Your book can be for adults or children or YA. You can be an adult, child, or teen! We work with and in all age groups.

You can be a beginning writer, self-published writer, seasoned pro or any other kind of writer. It doesn't matter to us!

Your $100 deposit to take advantage of this one-time deep discount of 25% off is non-refundable.

If you have any questions, please ask  sephgiron @ gmail.com

Please put Editing or Proofreading in the title line of your correspondence.

Spread the word about this once-in-a-lifetime deal!

Have a great summer!

Celebrate!

Five Reasons You Should Self-Publish

There will always be arguments from all sides about the value of self-publishing. There are traditionally published authors who complain that self-published authors are sloppy and lazy. There are self-published authors who complain that traditionally published authors are snotty and elitist. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion when it comes to the pros and cons of publishing.

At the end of the day, your writing career is yours alone. You are in charge of your own career. You can steer it in whatever direction you desire. And these days, you can be in full and complete control of every step of your writing career if you so choose.

Many authors choose to self-publish because they don't want to wait months or years for agents, editors, and publishing houses to get back to them. Others are impatient. Others want control.

There are dozens of reasons you should self-publish your book just as there are dozens of reasons you should NOT publish your own book. However, here are five reasons that some people use when they choose to self-publish.

1. You are in control of your own content. 
No one is going to tell you to remove chapter sixteen because it sucks. No one is going to tell you that the story doesn't have a proper ending. No one is going to squash down your idea of telling your story from three points of views in one paragraph. No one is going to tell you that your choice of genre is dead. You can tell your story in whatever manner you desire in as many words and chapters as you want.

2. You are in control of your own cover.
Gone are the days when authors freak out over cover art that doesn't reflect their books. You can hire and fire as many cover artists as you desire in your quest for the perfect vision for your opus. You can even save money and design your own cover. Many of the self-publishing platforms provide templates to do just this. Your book cover art, author blurbs, and book description are under your complete control. You no longer have to suffer with cover art that you hate.

3. You don't have to wait years for your book to be published.
The minute you type "The End" you can upload that baby and have a published book within a day or two, depending on which platform you use. You don't even have to invest any additional money for the print version if you use a platform such as CreateSpace.

4. You earn a way bigger royalty.
You will discover that if you self-publish you can earn huge royalties. If you publish e-books, you have virtually no overhead except for hiring your developmental editor, your copy editor, your proof-reader, and your cover artist. After those expenses, every penny you earn goes back to YOU! No publishing house is scooping the majority of your royalty money. No agent is scooping up 15 - 20% of your earnings. Nope, you get to keep every single shiny penny for yourself! Forever. Unlike traditional print publishing houses, your e-books and p.o.d. books will never go out of print until you unpublish them.

5. You are in control of your own career.
If you burst awake in the night with an idea for a sequel to your book, you can spend a few weeks writing it, send it off to your favourite freelance editor for a month of vigorous editing while your favourite cover designer works on your new cover, and boom, your sequel is ready within weeks. If you wanted to write a sequel with a traditional publishing house, you would have to pitch it, wait for the sales team to crunch your numbers, your editor would decide if it's financially viable, and then you would have to wait for a contract IF you passed all the financial hurdles. After the contract, you can get started on your sequel which likely won't see print for another year or two. When you self-publish, you can get your work out to your fans at your own pace without wasting time for others to dictate your fate.


Self-publishing isn't for everyone but it can be way for authors with entrepreneurial spirit and a bit of money in the bank to get their work out into the world. If you approach your writing career like a business, you will likely have some measure of success. As long as you write the best book that you can, and get it professionally edited and proof-read, you have as good of a shot as anyone else for a long and possibly even financially successful career as a writer.

If you need a developmental editor, copy editor, line editor, or proof-reader, please contact us today at Scarlett Editing.  sephgiron @ gmail.com

Spring Forward with Your Book!

Spring is the time of new beginnings, new growth, and for some, renewal.

Spring is a booming time for writers to fling themselves into the editing process of their masterpieces...or not.

For most people who live in chilly climates, winter is the time to hibernate, to work on books and stories, to read, to write, to rewrite.

Once spring arrives, the writer is excited about getting out into the world, and likely doesn't want to be bothered with all that pesky editing and proofreading that opus needs.

Don't start running down the wrong path!

Give your work to the professionals. Here at Scarlett Editorial Services, no project is too large or too small. We've worked with all genres and project sizes from blog posts to novels.

Need a book doctor?

Need a ghost writer?

We handle all of that as well.

Do you need content for your website?

Do you need someone to proofread your content before you put it on your website?

Scarlett Editorial Services will handle any of your needs when it comes to making your work sparkle and shine.

Email us today for rates!  sephgiron @ gmail.com

Now accepting new clients for book manuscripts. We work with all genres from romance to horror!

We've worked on over 1000 books!

Tell us about your project and let us work with you to determine your needs. Check out our rates! Contact us for your own personal quote. We are willing to work with your budget!

sephgiron @ gmail.com

Remember, we don't know  you need help unless you ask! We don't know your budget unless you tell us!

Expiration Date Launch and Spring Editing!

On Thursday April 9, author and editor Sèphera Girón will be signing autographs in Toronto at the Sellers & Newell Bookstore for the Expiration Date Anthology. If you've had questions for Sèphera about her editorial services, feel free to ask her at the launch.

Sèphera will also be attending Ad Astra April 10 - 12 and will be on several panels as well as attending the mass autograph session from 2 - 4.

It was a very long and cold winter in Toronto. In fact, it's snowing right now on Easter Sunday!

The great thing about long, cold winters is that a lot of books and stories get written.

After you've written your book or story, you will need an editor.

Scarlett Editing has over ten years experience with hundreds of clients. Services range from a general reading of your work with general comments to very specific editorial services.

If you're not sure what kind of editing you need, don't be shy. Pop us an email and describe your work. We'll let you know what you need.

Our rates are very competitive and reflects our years of professional work and satisfied customers.

When you purchase two or more services, you will receive a discount.

We encourage you to book your spot in advance if you have a specific deadline, otherwise we work on a first come, first serve basis.

We take great care and detail in our work. Turnaround time varies per project but we work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Scarlett Editorial Services looks forward to hearing from you!

Contact us today for rates and availability.

sephgiron @ gmail.com

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday Discounts

The holidays are fast approaching. Will so much to do and so little time, editing your opus is the last thing you feel like doing!

Don't worry, you are in safe hands with Scarlett Editorial Services.

We love to edit. We work in publishing. We understand the market.

If you need a quick overview of your work, you can order a book report.

If you need a thoughtful, thorough examination of plot, characters, tone, narrative structure, and  style, you can order a developmental edit.

If you require a line edit, we are here for you!

To take advantage of our Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday holiday specials, just pop us an email at

sephgiron@ gmail.com


Tell us a bit about your project, the length, if it is a rush job, and so on. We can work with you to determine which service or combination of services you require.

Between now and December 3, you will receive 10% discount if you book with us and provide a down payment. The manuscript doesn't need to be ready until you are happy with it enough to send.

Happy Shopping!

School Daze

It's back to school time for many people. For others, there is great rejoicing as with the kids away, there is finally time to get to work on your new novel!

Writing a novel, a book, even a story, is great fun but also a lot of hard work.

Many people don't realize how much work is involved in taking a piece of work from your mind and turning it into a published piece that others will buy.

Your best friend can be your editor.

Most books that go through traditional publishing routes will see one to five editors along the way. This is a lot of people who will look at your work, disect it, and "make it good;" good enough to expect others to pay hard-earned money to buy it.

Self-published authors need to think carefully about their own route to the bookstore shelf. The savvy  self-published author will hire a team to "make it good" and it can be daunting to decide who to hire for these many and varied tasks.

A self-published author at the minimum should have the expertise of a professional working editor for at least one draft. This should be someone who isn't related to you and who has experience in editing. Sure, your friends can share if the story is funny or scary or makes sense. An editor will help you understand how and why a scene may or may not work. An editor will help you keep your tenses consistent, and keep "head-hopping" to a minumum. An editor can point out where the tension gets lost or if there are lot of "facts" that simply aren't necessary.

Scarlett Editing offers many services for the self-published author.

We can prepare a book report, which is an overview of your work.

We can do line-editing which is the most detailed and expensive service that we offer.

We can do a variety of edtiorial services that fall in-between.

Scarlett Editing focusses primarily on editiorial services but we are happy to provide leads from our professional network for other services.

You may also need to hire book designer, a cover artist, and publicist and there are a great many talented people who are ready to help you with those services as well at a variety of companies aimed towards the self-published author.

An editor is not a publisher.

An editor is not a publicist.

An editor is not a formatter.

An editor is not a lawyer and can't give you legal advice.

An editor is not a cover artist.

An editor is not an agent.

An editor can not guarantee that your book will ever sell at all but we're going to try our best to give it the best possible chance to fly off the bookshelf.

You can contact Scarlett Editing with any questions: sephgiron@gmail.com

Starving Artist Editing Discount:Limited Time Offer

You've spent weeks, months, perhaps even years writing your book. You've typed "the end" and now wonder what's next?

Showing your work to your friends and family is an excellent way to get feedback from your average reader.

However, most friends and family aren't professional publishers and editors. They will not be able to spot grammar errors, or they may find that something doesn't "feel" right but they can't help you correct it.

Editors can help you. Whether it's a quick "book report" overview of your work, or thorough word-by-word line-editing, shining up your work to its absolute best shows your readers you respect your work and that you respect the time they put into reading your work.

Some writers write full time. Some writers have day jobs. Some writers have spouses who pay the bills.

The reality is that professional editing by an experienced editor is not cheap. Editing is a real job and can make a huge difference to the quality of a manuscript. Whether it's finding plot holes, removing repetitive information, finding spots where names change, or hacking out those unnecessary commas, an editor can make your work excel.

From now until midnight July 8, 2014, Scarlett Editorial services is offering a 15% discount on all editing services. 

To take advantage of this offer, you must make a deposit by July 8, ensuring your spot for editing.

You don't have to have your work ready by July 8.

All you have to do is reserve your spot for future editing by making a small deposit today that will go towards your fees and you will be locked into the 15% discount rate.

For instance, you are working on a 100,000 word manuscript and you know you'll want line editing for it when it's complete. Secure a 15% discount by reserving your spot with a deposit today. The deposit goes towards your final fee.    

Even if your book isn't ready for editing until December, you will still receive the 15% discount as long as you've paid your deposit by Paypal by midnight of July 8, 2014.


100000 x .02 = $2000 x 15% discount = $1700 


You would enjoy a $300 savings on this project if you take advantage of our offer by July 8, 2014.

Timelines for editing vary by project and service. Expect a book to take from one week to four weeks to be edited.


We look forward to working with you. Now go outside and enjoy the summer while we take care of your work for you!