Thanks to over 30 years of experience and skills development in the publishing industry, Maria is a highly experienced publishing professional. She has all the knowledge and skills to offer every service required to take a document or book from first draft to publication - and beyond to continued promotion and distribution.
She is equally happy undertaking just a single service or the full one-stop package, with project management included along the way. Whichever services are required, her clients benefit from this wide-sweeping knowledge of production and publishing.
Clients who choose the full range of services appreciate the seamless continuity she provides with this way of working, as well as speedy turnaround times and an inevitably strong and effective working relationship.
​Who might benefit Maria's support?
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Anyone producing serious health-related content, whether that's for self-publishing or submission to a mainstream publisher or journal, or for an organisation in need of support with various forms of internal, external or online documentation and communications.​​
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What sets Maria's services apart?
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Not many freelances offer the full gamut of services, covering content (textual, illustrative, data-based and more), from first draft to publication - and, for books, beyond publication. As well as dealing superbly with the details of the content from start to finish, Maria offers valuable insights into the big picture. ​
And because every client works with her alone - regardless of the number of services they require - they only have to explain themselves ... and their project ... and their requirements ... and their aspirations ... once! Maria gets to know them and their content inside out, so she can apply that knowledge not just to the editing per se, but also to other elements of a complete document, such as the page design, cover design, cover blurb, index, metadata, sales copy, and any other associated material.
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Maria has a strongly client-centred approach that is highly flexible, and capable of adapting to changes in, for example, timelines, staff, project requirements and scope creep. This approach also means that clients can be as involved as they want to be in any aspect of their project.
Once a firm working relationship is established, Maria is happy to accommodate extra materials and documents on top of the original project, making her highly suitable to working with organisations with longer-term needs.
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​What services are available?
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Everything required for publishing any document or book - that is, the full suite of editorial, design and production services - on any platform, print, digital or online. ​​See below for more on:
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The boundaries between editing and writing are often blurred when a text requires heavy intervention, language editing or development. For texts that are in great condition, a copy-edit is normal all that is required.
Editing - all types provided
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Fiction, nonfiction, academic​
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Development editing
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Substantive editing
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Stylistic editing
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Paragraph and line editing
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Copy editing
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Specialist editing
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Sensitivity editing
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Language editing (ESL)
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STM editing
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Manuscript mark-up'
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Plain language
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​​​​​​Writing services
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Copy writing
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Technical writing
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Re-writing (development)
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Re-purposing
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In text-feature writing
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Caption writing
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Blurb writing
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Promotional writing
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Educational writing​
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Maria uses the latest industry-standard version of Adobe InDesign.
Typical provisions
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Covers (front only or full wraps)​
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ISBN barcodes & images
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Book/page design & layout
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Indexes
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Figures, tables & diagrams
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Artwork & illustrations
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Full-colour documents
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Print-ready proofs
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Pre-press mark-up
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E-book conversion
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Print on demand (POD)
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Suitable document types
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Books, manuals and reports​​
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Author-support materials
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Leaflets and brochures
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Single-page documents
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Posters and banners
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Book launch/promo material
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Educational/training materials
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Conference and display materials
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Advertising material
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Corporate documentation​​​
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Merchandise
Proofreading and indexing are ONLY carried out on the final (edited) version of texts, generally at proof stage.
Suitable for proofreading
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​​​Edited content
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From single page to hefty tome
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Hard copy or on-screen
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Web and online content
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Any genreE-book copy
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Complex and illustrated texts
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Texts with multiple features
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"Proof editing"
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Types of indexing​
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Back-of-the-book indexes​​​
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Any type of document
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Any genre or subject
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Special indexes (e.g. subject, author, legal cases) and concordances
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Key word/term selection and metadata
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Figure and data/table indexing
Indexing is a highly intellectual and meticulous task that requires a human! Maria follows the UK Society of Indexers Code of Professional Conduct.
Maria performs all the following also, to cover all the bases. If what you are looking for isn't listed here, just ask.
Project management
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Team recruitment/management​
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Liaison with in-house teams,
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agents, printers, distributors, external suppliers, etc.
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Creation of editorial style guides
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Marketing and promotion
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Print and online marketing materials
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Press releases
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Extra services
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​Prelim pages and end matter
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Fact-checking and research
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Feature generation
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Picture research
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Permissions acquisition
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Contractual issues
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Multi-media output
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Multi-platform selling
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ISBNs/Nielsens
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Metadata generation
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Subject classifications (e.g. BIC, Thema, Amazon)
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Sales blurb