r/Copyediting

Is it reliable in the Amazon and KDP markets to use ChatGPT to edit the manuscripts you intend to self-publish?

In cases where an author says "said something like." For example: He said something like "I hate tennis shoes." Is there a comma after "like"? I can't seem to find an answer in Chicago or anywhere else.

Also, in a related question, what about after "thinking"? For example: He was thinking Why can't I find my phone? I know there should be a comma if it's "He thought, I can't find my phone" but I'm not sure if the same is true for "He was thinking."

Most writers treat editing as a single purchase. The reality is a four-stage process, and the cost compounds at every stage.

Developmental editing - structure, character arc, plot logic, pacing - runs $0.07 to $0.12 per word from a qualified editor. On a 90,000-word novel that is $6,300 to $10,800, with a turnaround of four to eight weeks.

Line editing - sentence-level clarity, flow, voice consistency - runs $0.04 to $0.08 per word. Same manuscript: $3,600 to $7,200. Three to six weeks.

Copy editing - grammar, punctuation, continuity - runs $0.02 to $0.04 per word. $1,800 to $3,600. Two to four weeks.

Proofreading: $0.01 to $0.02 per word. $900 to $1,800. One to two weeks.

A complete editorial pass on a single novel: $12,600 to $23,400, and up to five months of waiting.

That number surprises most writers. What surprises them more is learning that developmental editing - the most expensive stage - is also the most sensitive to the condition the manuscript arrives in. An editor who receives a draft with pattern-level problems that could have been caught algorithmically will spend the opening hours of their engagement cataloguing surface issues rather than engaging with the deeper work. The deeper work is what you are paying for.

AI analysis tools now occupy the early portion of this pipeline. Pattern-level problems - repeated sentence structures, overused phrases across chapters, dialogue that fails to differentiate speakers, pacing inconsistencies that only surface across three hundred pages - are detectable before a human editor is ever involved. Tools like Draft Sentinel run this kind of analysis directly against your manuscript in minutes, not weeks.

This does not change what a skilled developmental editor brings. The artistic response, the market awareness, the judgment that comes from thousands of hours reading - none of that is reproducible.

But it changes when it makes sense to bring a human editor in. And it changes what the early passes of feedback should cost.

The question for any writer approaching editorial work is not "AI or human." It is "what stage is my manuscript at, and what does that stage require?" Getting that sequence right is where the real money is saved.

Hey I just started learning about copywriting a few days ago

After learning a thing or two I have wrote my first draft. I would like to have your constructive opinion on my copy+ If you have any tips to improvise

Information:

• The Product: "BookSmart" – A simple, automated online booking software for freelance tutors, coaches, and small service businesses. Instead of texting clients back and forth to find a time that works, the tutor just sends a link, and the client picks an open slot on their calendar. It automatically sends automated WhatsApp reminders to the clients so they don't forget the session.

My copy:

Are you a freelance online tutor who is tired of setting up and matching timing with students? Does it feel like one-sided love when they forget to attend the class?

Your problems now can be solved with Book Smart, a software, created to save your time and energy by sending constant reminders to your student.

 You can show your professionalism and send a special link for booking class on available time slots created by syncing your google calendar with the software in just 2 minutes.

Want to try it right on, with 14 days free trial? Click below.

 

Looking for some advice. I paid a copyeditor to give me feedback on an outline for a novel. They said it would be about two weeks. Two weeks came and went and I finally reached out to inquire; they gave me an excuse but said they'd get back to me with the finished edit soon. Well, long story short, two weeks turned into three months with several increasingly absurd excuses along the way.

I'd finally had enough, so I sent an email saying I'd just like a refund. Lo and behold I get an email back the next morning saying they had sent me a file as an attachment weeks ago (sure, cyberspace eats things sometimes, but I'm 99% sure this was a lie), but here is their feedback pasted into the email. At this point, I was just glad to finally get some feedback, so I sent an email saying I hadn't had a chance to look at it carefully, but based on a quick skim it looked helpful.

Well, when I finally did sit down to read it carefully, my stomach sank. This thing was full of AI red flags. To confirm my suspicions, I ran it through the AI detector Pangram, which flagged it as AI with 100% certainty. I realize AI detectors are not foolproof and can elicit false positives, but I ran it through about four other detectors and they all detected AI writing, which seemed to confirm my suspicions.

My main concern is not about the money per se, as it was not that much considering this was just to edit an outline (although, I am kinda pissed about paying anything when I could have just pasted my outline into an LLM myself if I'd wanted to). My main concern is that they pasted my outline into an LLM chatbot without privacy settings turned on which could allow the company to use it as part of the AI model's training data. I'm not sure how to address this with them, but I'm kind of flabbergasted at how unprofessional they've been and just doing/saying nothing seems like a nonstarter given how egregious some of this conduct is. Any advice on how to proceed or what to say would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Edit: Any suggestions for where to leave feedback so potential customers can be aware of my experience before hiring this editor would be much appreciated!

I’ve used different AI rewriting tools too, and sometimes it feels like they don’t fully “understand” the meaning they just rephrase the text in a smoother way. The output often looks better, but it can slightly change the intent or miss the deeper context behind the message. That’s because most of these tools are mainly pattern-based systems that focus on structure and language flow rather than true understanding. So while they can be helpful for improving clarity, important or sensitive content should still be reviewed carefully by a human. UnAIMyText is an AI-powered writing tool that refines text to make it more natural, readable, and human-like while improving flow and clarity.