Book Editing and Design Services

Alec Clayton and John Knold working on Bluebird Song
Alec Clayton and John Knold working on Morrison Phelps’ Bluebird Song. Photo by Gabi Clayton.

From rough copy to finished product, we can make your words and images sing with clarity and precision.

We help self-publishing authors prepare their books and upload them for print-on-demand (POD) sales online as trade paper books and e-books.

There are many self-publishing, POD services. The services we generally use are KDP (an Amazon company) and Lulu.

With most POD services you can publish your book at no cost to you if you prepare the book yourself, meaning all the editing, interior and cover design. Or you can pay additional fees to have their professional editors and designers do the work for you.

Mud Flat Press can do part or all that work for you. We will consult with you once without charge, and together we will decide how much of the work you want to do yourself and how much we should do for you, and we will continue to consult with you at every step along the way.

• We can edit your manuscript from developmental editing to simple proofreading. See “An Introduction to Our Editing Services” by Alec Clayton.
• We can format and paginate your book interior.
• We can design your book cover, using artwork provided by you or created by us.
• We can advise you on how to create a KDP account if you don’t already have one. We can walk you through the step-by-step process of uploading your book to their service.

We charge you only for the work we do. We do not get a cut of the sales of your book(s).

Our prices are comparable to or cheaper than what POD companies charge. The more of the work you do yourself, the less it will cost you.

We do not offer distribution services, but some POD companies do.

“Without qualification, I heartily recommend the folks at Mud Flat Press. Alec and Gabi Clayton combine an invaluable set of publishing skills from multiple perspectives: author, editor, graphic designer, computer skills and literary insights. It has been a great pleasure to have their gentle guidance through the publication process of my first book.” ~ John Knold, PhD

The Mud Flat Press Imprint

We are not seeking submissions, and we do not offer all books we work on the Mud Flat Press imprint. When we come across books that strike us as unique in style and originality, and a story we believe in, we may enquire about publishing them under the MFP imprint.

Editing Services

Separate from our book publishing services, we offer editing of stories, papers, articles and other written documents.

There are many types of editing with a lot of overlap between types. If you search online you’ll discover that every professional editor has his or her own definition of developmental editing, copy editing, proofreading, line editing, substantive editing (sort of the same thing as developmental editing). And then there are sub-categories of these such as heavy and light copy editing and fact-checking. Generally speaking, developmental editing leans more toward structure and helping the writer find the right tone and the best possible flow of words, and copy editing focuses more on grammar and spelling.

Your editing needs may also vary depending on whether you are doing a self-published book or preparing a manuscript to submit to an agent or publisher, and on what type of publication you’re writing for. For example, many online publications are laxer in style requirements and are more casual in tone than print publications or academic journals. Most newspapers insist on using the AP Stylebook, while books and magazines often prefer using the Chicago Manual of Style. We are experienced in these, and we like to tailor our editing services to the writer’s needs. We will have a consultation with you before getting started so that we understand exactly what you need.

We also have a web and graphic design arm of Mud Flat Press where we design websites, logos, brochures, business cards, banners, t-shirts, etc. See more information here.

See our rates here. (PDF format)