Questions, Answered

The questions authors actually ask us, answered plainly — the same answers printed across this site, gathered in one place. If your question is not here, ask us: hello@honestedit.net · (707) 702-EDIT (3348).

What do I send you?

Your book exactly as it stands: an unedited manuscript, a raw manuscript, a first draft. That is exactly the work an editorial scan does. Upload your manuscript file (Word document preferred) with your application on the Apply page. If your book still lives in a notebook, we can work with a PDF of the handwritten pages — see the handwritten question below.

What happens first?

Two things, in this order: the content certification, which you sign as part of your application, and the Gate Scan. You pay the $50 Gate Scan deposit; we verify your manuscript against the certification you signed. If your book passes (CLEAR), the full $50 is credited toward the service you choose next. If the Gate refuses the book, we return your manuscript untouched, tell you plainly and kindly what we found, and the $50 is kept as the fee for the scan that found the violation. No editing is performed on a refused book.

What does it cost?

Every manuscript begins with the Gate Scan: a $50 deposit. Then you choose: Scan Only — $1 per page ($100 minimum); Scan + Obvious Fixes — $2 per page ($100 minimum); Full Service — $4 per page ($100 minimum); and, after a Scan Only report, a Rescan of the same book — $0.50 per page ($50 minimum). From paper to publisher: Digitization — $2 per handwritten page ($50 minimum); Cover Art Development — $150 flat; Publisher-Ready Preparation — $100 flat. A standard manuscript page is 250 words. Full details: Services & Pricing. And the math is never a surprise: the Apply page does it with you before you pay anything — enter your word count, choose a service, and your estimated price, deposit, and balance appear on the spot. The exact figures — counted from your manuscript itself, in case your own count and ours differ — arrive with your Gate answer, with a payment link set up for your balance: one click, nothing to type.

How long does it take?

You will hear from us within 24 hours. On Gate and Scan tiers, your written report arrives within 24 hours of your balance payment. Full Service work is quoted per book, in your Gate report, before you commit to it — most books are delivered within two to four weeks of the balance being paid, and we always strive to be earlier rather than later. Your report will state your delivery date, and we keep it.

What won’t you take?

The Gate turns away: adult or sexual content; devil or Satan material; anything explicitly anti-God; pervasive filth — and, absolutely and always, the Lord’s name in vain, maligning God, sacrilege, or blasphemy. A hard story that lands on redemption can still pass: sin shown with its cost, never glorified, never graphic. You don’t have to be a Christian, and your book doesn’t have to be a Christian book. The full standards stand on our Standards & Certification page — read them before you apply; we would rather you know exactly where we stand before anyone spends a dollar.

Who owns my manuscript?

You do — always. Your manuscript is yours: we never share, quote, or discuss your book or its contents with anyone outside Honest Edit without your written permission, and your unpublished work is never used to train, demonstrate, or promote our service. The promise runs both ways: our methods, checklists, and report formats are the house’s work product, and we ask clients to keep them in the family. The complete text is Part 5 of the intake packet, which you sign at application.

Do I need the whole book finished first?

No. Send what you have — a prologue, opening chapters, a partial draft — and the service runs on the manuscript as sent, priced by its page count. Wherever your book is tonight: an idea, a notebook, a raw first draft — this house can walk with it the whole way. An idea by itself cannot be scanned — there must be pages — but the pages do not have to be the whole book.

What if my book is already partly written?

Then you are in the normal position — most authors come to us mid-book. Apply with the pages you have: the certification covers the manuscript you send, the Gate runs on it, and your report speaks to those pages. When the rest is written, it can come through the same door.

My book is handwritten — can you still help?

Yes. Our Digitization service scans your pages and types the manuscript faithfully: $2 per handwritten page, $50 minimum, paid up front, and the digital file is yours to keep. Anything we cannot read is marked [illegible] — never guessed. Words you supply for the flagged spots, and fixes of our own typing errors, are inserted free within 60 days. Photograph or scan your pages into a PDF and send it with your application — the pages just need to be legible.

I applied but didn’t pay — what happens to my application?

It is held safely, and nothing runs. If your deposit didn’t finish — a closed page, a declined card — your application waits exactly where you left it. The Pay page is where the deposit lives: complete it there, and we confirm receipt, count your pages, and run the Gate first.

How do I pay a balance?

Your Gate report states your exact balance, with the $50 deposit already credited. Go to the Pay page and type that amount at checkout. Then we run the full battery.

How does the referral thank-you work?

Refer another author to Honest Edit. When their job is completed and paid, 10% of that job’s price is credited to your own Honest Edit account for future services — a $500 job earns you a $50 credit. One credit per referred author (their first job), and the credit posts when their job is paid. It is a credit, never cash — our thanks stay inside the family.

Can I talk to a person first?

Yes — questions before you apply are welcome. Write to us at hello@honestedit.net · (707) 702-EDIT (3348). Tell us your book’s title, genre, and approximate word count, and we will answer plainly — including if the answer is that we are not the right house for your book.

The Questions Behind the Questions

These are the questions authors ask quietly, after the service questions. They deserve straight answers too.

What if I don’t want to use AI?

Then don’t. Honest Edit edits what you wrote — several of our authors write every word by hand, and we are glad to work with them. Send us your pages exactly as you wrote them; nothing here asks you to write with anything but your own hand and your own voice.

What if I’m afraid of AI?

You are not alone in it, and you are not behind. This house exists because its owner — an author — needed editing she could trust and could not find it, so she built the system herself, and it answers to her. Everything here is out in the open: you see the whole menu, you pick your service, and you know the price before we begin. The certification and the Gate are not hurdles; they are protections — you know exactly where this house stands before anyone spends a dollar. And the author stays the author: judgment calls are reported as options, and you decide. And fairness cuts both ways at this house: every word we publish — this website included — goes through the same battery, and yes, it catches us too. That is the point of it.

Is using AI to help write a book cheating?

No. What matters is honesty about it: if AI tools help you write, disclose that you had AI assistance when you publish. And know this from our side of the desk: AI help only sounds like you if it is trained on you — your characters, their voices, their backgrounds, your storyline, in your words. Given those, it can draft in something like your voice; without them, it won’t sound like you at all. Plenty of authors choose longhand instead — we’re still here whenever you’re ready, either way.

Will it sound like me?

If you wrote it, yes — our work is built to keep it that way. The full battery reports its findings; judgment calls stay yours to decide; the only corrections made for you are the obvious ones. If AI helps you draft, it will sound like you only to the degree it has been trained on you — see the question above. Every scan report also carries an AI Sound-Alike reading, which flags any passage that might sound machine-written to a reader or a detection tool, so you can revise in your own voice before anyone else judges it.

Words We Use

Our trade has its own vocabulary. Here is every term on this site that is not common language, defined the way we use it.

The Gate · Gate Scan

Our front door and our standard in one: a content-integrity check run on every manuscript before any editing begins, verifying it against the certification the author signed. The deposit is $50. The Gate’s two answers are CLEAR — the book passes — and REFUSE — it does not, and is returned untouched.

Certification

The statements every author checks and signs as part of the application, certifying what their manuscript does and does not contain. It protects us both: you know exactly where this house stands before anyone spends a dollar, and we know your book is one that can carry our name.

Editorial scan · the full battery

The complete run of our 179 checks over a manuscript — prose, story craft, consistency, accuracy, faith, and legal and production families — with every finding laid out in a written report.

The Machine

The name our story gives the house’s editorial system: the battery of 179 checks, built and refined book by book, our own books first.

Scan Only

The full battery report, and nothing changed: we fix nothing, and every finding is yours to act on, in your own way and in your own time.

Obvious fixes

The corrections no one argues about: misspellings, punctuation, plain mechanical errors. The Scan + Obvious Fixes tier makes them for you. Judgment calls are never among them.

Full Service

The full scan plus complete corrections and editing. Judgment calls are still yours to decide, presented as options before anything is applied.

Rescan

The full battery run a second time on the same book, after you have made your own fixes: half price, a fresh report, and the Gate checked again.

Digitization

Turning a handwritten or paper-only manuscript into a typed digital file: we scan your pages and type them faithfully. Anything we cannot read is marked [illegible] — never guessed.

Publisher-Ready Preparation

Your finished manuscript and cover prepared to send to your publisher, including KDP.

Standard page

250 words. Every per-page price on this site is figured on standard pages.

Unedited manuscript · raw manuscript · first draft

Three names for the same thing: your book exactly as it stands, before any editing has touched it. It is the state our scan is built for — bring it as it is.

House Rules

Your own profile from the application: the values and non-negotiables a book with your name on it must never cross. Every flagged decision on your book is measured against them.

Referral credit

Our thank-you when you send us an author: when their job is completed and paid, 10% of that job’s price is credited to your own account, toward your own future services. One credit per referred author, on their first job. A credit, never cash.

As-if value

On our Samples page: what a calibration run — on a public-domain classic, or on our own book — would have cost at listed prices. Test runs are never charged; the figure is printed so the price math stays in the open.