ESTIMATE YOUR COST

EditorStone Basic Recommendations for Serious Writers Use a Standard PC or Laptop with a Full-Size Keyboard & Monitor (You can also use a MAC, but we find a Mac is generally more expensive). You are going to want a large screen to prevent eye-strain. You need a full keyboard for speed and ease of function. You are better off with a writing application on your local PC, rather than in the cloud. The trade-off is that the cloud is constantly updated with the latest software for you. Locally you can have Microsoft do it for you with a few system settings. Local work operates faster and is always available. The cloud can be down for reasons of weather or internet availability and is less secure. To try writing a long document on a tablet is punishing. Trying to write on a mobile phone is debilitating. For our authors, we recommend Microsoft Word version 2007 or higher. * Using Word for your original draft and the ultimate manuscript has a powerful advantage over all other document writing software programs and always takes precedence over a typewriter. ** You can easily convert .dotx files to .pdf to create read-only files for test readers and the printer. Our editors (and most all professional editors) use MS Word to provide you with their markup in the document margins. You can easily accept or reject editor changes using MS Word’s ‘Track Changes’. Documents shared in a .dotx format are universally accepted as an industry standard. MS Word documents can be read by most automated systems and can be inserted into a database. DOCX files are quickly formatted or reformatted with a highly flexible set of tools. MS Word is compatible with Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemmingway Editor electronic editing tools. * At EditorStone, we accept all manuscripts in all formats, however we will necessarily convert them to MS Word to process them, which will incur more time and expense, and may require the author to make recommended editorial changes manually. ** We try to accommodate all document types.