Silver Service Menu

A helping hand to polish your manuscript to a professional standard, or assist you in marketing your book when it has been printed.

Select as many additional services as you need.

Initial Editorial Assessment – £70

If you're not ready to start your publishing journey yet, but simply require editorial advice and assistance, then an Initial Assessment is a good place to begin.

Send us the first 50 pages (approximately 3 chapters) of your manuscript and a one-page synopsis with a covering letter and we will make a preliminary assessment of your work specific to the genre in which you're working. We'll examine and report back to you on commercial potential, structure and characterisation, along with brief advice about any areas of your manuscript which we feel may benefit from further improvement.

We aim to be as thoughtful and sensitive as possible in making our suggestions because, as professional writers ourselves, we're aware how frustrating and discouraging it can sometimes be to receive editorial input on work that you've poured your heart and soul into. Our advice is intended to be positive and constructive, with the aim of helping you to improve your work.

Copy-editing and proofreading – £6 per 1000 words

One of the most important decisions an author can make is to have their work professionally edited. A common criticism levelled at privately or self published works is that they are poorly edited or amateurish in their presentation. This can be avoided by investing in professional advice, copy-editing and proofreading which aims to eliminate errors and inconsistencies.

Working professionally on your own manuscript can be difficult because you're so familiar with it, and correcting errors later in the production process may be costly. Having a third party copy-edit and proofread your manuscript before you make a submission can highlight errors in punctuation, grammar and consistency.

During your copy-edit we will identify and corrects errors, working to a style sheet so that consistency is maintained throughout. If appropriate, we may also make sensitive suggestions for small improvements in the prose.

We will copy-edit and mark-up your printed manuscript by hand, then incorporate amendments into your Word document so that it's ready for typesetting/page layout formatting.

Copy-editing tutorial – £100

Give your work a professional polish before submitting it to agents or publishers. Send us the first 20,000 words of your manuscript and we will copy-edit these important opening chapters for you to ensure accurate punctuation, grammar and spelling, consistency of chapter headings, abbreviations and other style variables.

We'll also send you a copy-editing tutorial and tip-sheet for you to continue the process for the remainder of your book.

Full Manuscript Appraisal – £7 per 1000 words

A full read-through and detailed appraisal of your complete manuscript, assessing commercial potential, structure, characterisation, plot development, and commercial potential. You'll receive a full written report (usually 4–6 pages) to help you make positive changes to your work, with recommendations, suggestions, and advice about any areas of your manuscript which may benefit from further work.

As with the Initial Assessment service, our editors aim to be as thoughtful and sensitive as possible in making suggestions. Advice is intended to be positive and constructive, with the aim of helping you to improve your work.

One-to-One Editorial Support – from £7 per 1000 words

Many of our writers approach Editorial Support as a longterm project, forming a supportive, one-to-one relationship with an editor over a period of time. This arrangement allows you to concentrate on issues that are relevant to you and your work within a structured and supportive framework.

Each Editorial Support arrangement is different, being uniquely tailored to an individual writer and their work, but typically a writer and an editor would work together on a monthly basis over a period of time, with goals clearly defined at the outset.

Each month, your editor will engage in a full read-through of an individual chapter (or chapters) of your manuscript. He or she will assess commercial potential, structure, characterisation and plot development within the context of your previous writing and your aims. You'll receive a detailed written report to help you to make positive improvements to your writing, with the option of a telephone conversation to chat over issues or clarify any points. Recommendations and aims will be established for the next month, so that you have a clear idea of where your work is going.

Submission Package Service – £95

Most literary agents receive between 50 and 100 submissions a week, yet only sign up 1 or 2 authors a year. Those are long odds if you're seeking representation for your manuscript.

Maximise the chances of your submission getting past the first round of the selection process with excellent presentation, professionalism and outstanding content. These are things you can achieve yourself with hard work, research and persistence, but sometimes professional assistance can make all the difference between a request to see the whole manuscript and yet another rejection slip.

SilverWood Books offers comprehensive advice and suggestions for how to polish and perfect your cover letter, synopsis and opening chapters.

Promotional materials – from £70 per 100 postcards

Spread the word about your book with specially designed postcards which show images of your book jacket in full colour gloss finish, with your chosen text in colour or black & white on the reverse. Available in quantities of 100, 250, 500 or 1000.

Postcards can work well with other promotional materials such as A4 flyers or 'sell sheets' which give you room to offer readers more information, quote reviews or trail author events such a signings or seminars you might have planned as part of your marketing campaign.

Also available: A3 colour posters, bookmarks, author business cards and stationery, all of which can feature your book jacket and ordering details.

Marketing and PR support – from £140 per half-day

Signing up for one of our pre-press packages means that you'll receive a comprehensive free guide to marketing and promoting your book. However, if you'd like more help we can offer an individualised marketing strategy carefully tailored to you and your book.

We can work with you to work out your marketing objectives, to establish a typical reader profile and plan how to reach those readers – whether they're local, national or abroad.

Once we've planned your campaign, we'll prepare press packs (to include press releases, author bio details, book synopsis) and support you during the organisation of book launches, signings and other promotional events, as well as alerting you to relevant opportunities for publicity within your target market.

Writing and re-writing – charged according to the complexity of the project

All the help you need to polish your prose to perfection, or we can ghost-write an entire book.

Additional amendments of your text at print proof stage – £1 per line

Even the smallest correction can result in the need for re-formatting of an entire document, which may be costly. We recommend that you have your manuscript professionally copy-edited before submission to avoid unnecessary changes later.

Our pre-press packages allow for up to 2 small changes on each typeset page at the print proof stage. Due to the time and care involved in making changes, further amendments that you choose to make will be charged at £1 per line to a maximum of £10 per page with heavy re-writing charged by quotation.

Our pre-press packages allow for one proof to be sent to you. If you require a second or third printed proof after amendments we will make an administration and materials charge of £40 (covering materials and postage). Low resolution PDF proofs sent by email are free of charge.

Just text – charged accordingly to word count

We can prepare print-ready PDFs of your text, formatting page lay-out using InDesign, choosing from our house styles. Delivery of laser proofs and final CD-Rom sent to your chosen UK address using Royal Mail Recorded Delivery.

This option is ideal for self-publishers who don't require a complete pre-press package, but who understand that their book needs to be professionally presented if it is to stand a chance of competing in the commercial marketplace.

Just design – from £350

Our professional design service offers bespoke book jacket designs which perfectly capture the essence of your unique book in the context of your intended market (includes use of your images or licensing for royalty-free library images if you prefer). Delivery of laser proof of jacket design and final print-ready CD-Rom sent to one UK address using Royal Mail Recorded Delivery.

As with Just Text, this option is ideal for self-publishers who don't require a complete pre-press package, but who understand that their book needs to be professionally presented if it is to stand a chance of competing in the commercial marketplace.

Jacket design for your book in an additional format – £80

If you would like your book to be published in both paperback and hardback editions, please budget for this supplementary design charge. A hardback dustjacket design will be somewhat different to the paperback jacket design because of additional flaps on the dustjacket and the re-positioning of some elements of the images and/or type. This involves additional work for our design team, who will also need to prepare an extra print-ready file for the hardback (or paperback) edition of your book.

Your book available in e-book formats – charged according to complexity and platform

If you would like your book to be published in e-book formats as well as paperback and hardback editions (or even instead of), please let us know and we'll outline the options for you.

Although your book can be made available in any available format, we recommend ePub files because they have a built-in structure which allows the text to be adapted to the particular needs of the reader, making your work more readily available to readers who can't enjoy standard print editions of books because of (for example) sight loss or dyslexia.

Typing services – £4 per 1000 words

We can turn your handwritten manuscript into a document that complies with our submission guidelines.

Printing – 10p per page

Along with your Word files as email attachments, please post a paper copy of your work. We can print a copy of your manuscript but will make this small additional charge to cover the cost of paper and ink.