Clean The Slop.
Fix The Prose.

Which Editing Level Do You Actually Need?

Most writers overestimate what kind of edit they need. They hear "line editing" and think it sounds thorough, so they buy line editing when proofreading was enough. Or they hear "proofreading" and think it sounds sufficient, so they buy proofreading when their draft actually needs structural work. Either way, they waste money.

Here's how to figure out which level you actually need.

You need a PROOFREAD if:

• You've been through multiple self-editing passes already.
• You're confident in the prose, the pacing, and the voice.
• You just need a final mechanical sweep for typos, punctuation, and the confused-word errors you can't see in your own work.
• You're publishing in 2 weeks and you can't afford a bigger edit right now.

You need a COPY EDIT if:

• Your draft reads "fine" but you know it's not tight.
• You have repeated words and phrases you can't quite spot on re-reads.
• Your sentences are mostly the same length and the rhythm feels flat.
• You want your prose smoothed but not aggressively rewritten.

You need a HEAVY LINE EDIT if:

• Your scenes feel flat despite strong concepts.
• You're telling instead of showing and you know it.
• Your emotional beats aren't landing.
• Your pacing sags in the middle.
• You want surgical improvements at the sentence level, not just mechanical cleanup.

You need the FULL POLISH if:

• You've never had professional editing on this manuscript.
• You wrote it with AI assistance and need the slop scrubbed out.
• You want everything — mechanical, flow, and stylistic fixes — in one pass.
• You're submitting to agents or publishing to a competitive market and need to be publishable on every dimension.
• You want the 7-phase Python pipeline running loops until the quality score is publishable.

What The Pipeline Actually Does

All four service tiers use the same underlying infrastructure: our Python-based editing pipeline that chunks your manuscript into scenes, processes each scene through a series of specialized AI passes, and reassembles the result into a Microsoft Word document with track changes visible.

The difference between tiers is how many passes and how aggressively we intervene.

• Proofread: one mechanical pass with minimal intervention. Only touches objectively wrong things.
• Copyedit: proofread + flow pass. Touches awkward phrasing and repetitive rhythm.
• Line Edit: copyedit + stylistic pass. Restructures weak sentences, fixes show-don't-tell, punches up emotional beats.
• Full Polish: all three passes plus beta reader feedback loop. Runs multiple iterations until the quality score crosses the publishability threshold.

What The Full Service Delivers

• A Microsoft Word .docx file with all edits visible as track changes. You review each change, accept or reject. Nothing is forced on you.
• A summary report of what changed and why — the big-picture patterns, not a line-by-line justification.
• Your voice, intact. The pipeline is tuned to fix mechanics and craft problems without sanding your style into corporate paste.

Two ways to get it: hand the manuscript to the BookButchers editorial desk and receive it back finished, or run the same editing brain yourself in the Chapterra app.

Editing Services FAQ

Which editing level do I actually need?

Run the free tester above with your real pages. Read the three outputs side by side. The level where the changes stop feeling necessary and start feeling optional — that's your level. Most self-edited manuscripts need one level more than their author thinks. Not because the author is bad; because the author is too close.

Is the free sample the same engine as the paid editing?

The sample runs single-pass versions of the same editing prompts, so what you see is an honest preview of the style of intervention at each level. The full service adds what a sample can't show: multi-round loops, continuity checks across chapters, slop scans, and the track-changes deliverable.

Human desk or the app — which should I pick?

If you want to hand it over and get it back done, use the editorial desk. If you want to steer every pass yourself, use the app. Same editing brain, different steering wheel.

Related Tools

• The Rewriter — for single-scene stylistic experiments before you commit to a full pass.
• AI Beta Reader — get a developmental report before deciding which tier to buy.
• Rate My Prose — get a letter grade and recommended service level in 30 seconds.
• Slop Scanner — identify AI tells before you pay for editing.
• The Resurrector — if you need ghostwriting, not just editing.