Dog Ear Publishing
Editorial Services:

This suite of services is typically performed by traditional publishers on the final "printer ready proofs".

Postproduction Proofread - Cost: $0.009/word ($250 minimum)

After your text has been composed into book form, it needs to be thoroughly reviewed. No book’s design or layout is ever 100% perfect; a look at any traditionally published book is proof of that. Traditional publishers try to get as close to perfect as possible, though. They have a “second set of eyes”—a proofreader—review content once the manuscript is in book form. The proofreader seeks out and eliminates anything that makes your book less readable, scouring composed pages, looking for any editorial mistakes, bad line breaks, mis-formatted text, or incorrect design elements.

Note: A proofread, copyedit, literary edit, or development edit must have been applied to your book before we can perform this service.

Indexing - Cost: $0.015/word ($250 minimum)

All nonfiction books benefit from an index. Readers experience the true value of a book with a good index to help guide them. We create a full index of your book based on the topics contained in your text. The indexer reviews the main body of your book and creates entries for names of the book’s important people, events, dates, and concepts. The index usually does not contain content from the front matter (preface, acknowledgments, dedication). It may contain content from an appendix or from endnotes or footnotes if those elements contain significant discussion of a topic not provided in the main text.

Note: If there are terms or topics that you feel must be included in your index, particularly in front matter or rear matter, please provide a list of these terms when your book is ready for indexing so our indexer can ensure that these special terms important to you are included.

Book Cover Copywriting - Cost: $99 - minimum fee does not apply

Your book’s cover is its most important sales tool! It will grab potential buyers … or it won't. The words written on your book’s cover are the key to closing a sale. The text must be crystal clear. It must build a case for a reader to choose your book over another. It must deliver compelling reasons for someone to open the book and read it. Our marketing experts provide complete development and writing services for your back cover copy, your author biography, and extended versions of both for our web site.

Permissions Research - Cost: A $500 minimum fee is charged for this service. Final fee is estimated upon consultation.

Note: Dog Ear makes no decisions on items that need permissions for use but can help you get those permissions.

Dog Ear’s permissions editor will perform a comprehensive permissions search for the items that you wish to use in your book and for which you have determined that permissions are required. Text that typically requires permission is currently under copyright, whether from a printed or an electronic source.

Some common examples include:

  • long passages of quoted text (approximately 300 words or more); key phrases or ideas of text; the majority of a short work; a quotation of 50 words or more from a newspaper, magazine, or journal; all or part of a song or poem.
  • artwork (including sculpture, drawings, paintings, and the like), photos, or photos of artwork.
  • forms, charts, graphs, or tables.
  • slide shows, databases, screen shots, or other images of or from websites or computer systems.
  • trademarks and registered trademarks, including photos or other representations of brand-name products and/or trade names and logos.
  • photos of individuals who are considered private citizens (rather than public figures).

Some materials do not require permissions to use. These include:

  • information considered fair use (typically short portions of a work that are quoted or paraphrased for discussion or criticism).
  • interviews you have conducted.
  • facts, information, and ideas that you have gained from other sources.
  • items in the public domain.

The editor will identify and contact the probable rights holder to request permission to include said item(s) in the book. Please be aware that under some circumstances, rights holders cannot be located. In those instances, the fee will still be charged, as every appropriate effort will have been made to contact and gain permission from the rights holder.

** Please note the minimum Editorial Services fee is $250

To learn more about having Dog Ear Publishing as your self publishing company, visit our homepage.

Read The Editor's Corner

Have editing questions?