Member
MFA, New Mexico State University
Short-form editing
Not everything that needs an editor is a book.
A physician with an argument about AI. A professor with a chapter that won't settle. A founder with a piece an outlet has half-agreed to run. The work is the same as it is on a manuscript, at the scale of one piece.
Most of the people who come to me for this write their own drafts and want an editor who can see the shape of the argument, tell them where it slips, and get the piece to the desk in a form the desk will read. Work I've shaped or written has run in Forbes, Bloomberg, American Banker, Nasdaq, and CoinDesk.
A substantive review of one piece of up to about 5,000 words: margin annotations throughout, and a short memo on structure, argument, and what the piece wants to become. If you're aiming at publication, the memo ends with a venue recommendation.
$650, back to you within a week.
For one op-ed of up to about 1,000 words. I shape and edit your draft, give you headline options, build a target list of outlets with the angle for each, prepare the pitch letters in your name, and lay out the order to send them in. Every route is checked against the outlet's own submission page at the time we send.
$950. If you move to a retainer within thirty days, the fee credits toward the first month.
For people who publish regularly, or who have a longer essay in progress alongside the short pieces. You draft, I shape. The retainer covers the op-ed work above for whatever is in motion, a review of the longer piece when it's ready, venue strategy and cover letters, and an ongoing written exchange with a scheduled check-in each month. Turnaround on each exchange is 48 hours, faster when a news cycle is live. No more than two pieces are in motion at a time.
$1,750 a month, two-month minimum, invoiced at the start of each month.
Send the piece. Within two business days I'll write back with what I see in it and which of the three fits. No charge for that read, and nothing is due until we've agreed on the scope.
Email stephen@slwebber.com with the draft attached, or book a short call if you'd rather talk first.
Do you guarantee placement? No. Desks decide what they run. What I can do is make sure the piece and the pitch are ready for the desk, and that they go to the right ones in the right order.
Is this ghostwriting? It isn't. You write the draft and the byline is yours in every sense. If you'd rather have the piece written for you, that's ghostwriting, and it's priced differently.
What about a longer essay for a magazine? That's usually where the retainer earns its keep: the short pieces keep you in print while the long one takes the time it needs.
Is this confidential? Yes, by default, and under NDA if you'd like one.
"Stephen has a unique capacity for listening that allows him to understand the feeling that I'm struggling to communicate, and sometimes blindly seeking, in my writing. On many occasions, with a few insightful words he's helped me clarify and amplify my connection to my true and powerful voice."
Shawn N, writer
Member
MFA, New Mexico State University