Welcome to Cogitate

Hello. We’re two book-smart word nerds with over 100 edited books in print. We eat, sleep, breathe editing, writing, and reading. Our backgrounds in the book publishing industry as a former agent (Gretchen Stelter) and managing editor (Henry Covey) have given us expertise in many editorial arenas:

• Reader’s reports
• Query letters
• Book proposals
• Developmental editing
• Copyediting
• Proofreading

We also give editing and writing workshops and
have spoken on numerous book-publishing panels. Check out our blog on books and editing. If it has to do with words for books and the book industry, and you’re wondering who could help — whatever stage of the editorial process you’re in — we’re the bee’s literary knees.

Our Egghead Name

Cogitate [koj-i-teyt]

To cogitate is to think long and hard about a person, place, thing, or idea. This what we do at Cogitate Studios. Our clients choose us because we think carefully about words, the ideas behind them, and the ways that they are conveyed. Given the definition above, appropriate synonyms for Cogitate  include ponderous, deliberate, expert, Scrabbe-licized, cross-worded, stet-meisters, free-agents, Stumptowners, and eggheads! See our list of published titles and/or about us for more about our work.

Reader’s Reports

There are a number of reasons to get a reader’s report. You may not be in a writers group, book club, or MFA program, for example, so access to honest readers and constructive criticism may be limited. You may be getting ready to pitch a number of agents and need your query letter reviewed. You may have already written a smashing query that’s getting gobs of requests for partials but no bites and need an editor to read your sample chapters to make sure the writing is meeting expectations. Or you may be at the end of a major rewrite and in need of a professional opinion on how to prepare your book for a publisher. Regardless of where you are, if you’re beginning to ask yourself what direction you should be going in with your manuscript, our reports can help you figure where to go editorially.

A reader’s report is a full review of your manuscript, proposal, query letter, or other book-related document. Reports range in size but are usually 7 pages or longer. In our reports, we cover a whole gamut of editorial issues, including main idea, book positioning, content development, organization, introductions and conclusions, transitions, sentence structure, grammar, mechanics, and use of resources. Whatever we end up reporting on, you can be sure that no stone is left unturned.

How does it work?

Email us at info@cogitatestudios.com: in your message include a description of your project and its word count. You can also attach a sample of the writing. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates. Whichever editor you choose (and/or who we think would fit best) to read your work  marks-up your document in track changes with mainly developmental notes and a little copyediting in spots and then writes a report detailing plot holes, character development, dialogue issues, and so forth, depending on what the elements that need addressing are. Please note that we ask for at least a 3–4 week turnaround time for every report, but manuscripts of monstrous proportions have sometimes taken more than a month. When your report is complete, we send it back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

In addition to books, we read a lot of book-related documents, so rates differ accordingly.

• For a reader’s report on a book proposal, we have a flat fee of $200.

• For a readers report on a one-page query letter, we have a fee of $50 per page (doubled-spaced, 12 pt., and Times New Roman).

• Our book reporting fees are based on a sliding word-count scale, and our minimum reader’s report fee for a book is $300 if the manuscript is under 30,000 words. From here we base our fee on the style of writing and the book’s genre (reading the Berenstain Bears is different than reading Umberto Eco, after all). In general, manuscripts falling within 50,000–80,000 words are approximately $350; 80,000–110K, $400; 110K–140K, $450, 150K–180K, $500; and so on. If you’re manuscript’s word count is higher, please inquire.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Query Letters

Not everyone knows how to write a query letter or what material to include that will automatically snag the attention of that agent or editor you’ve been fishing for. What’s great about a query letter is that it forces you to articulate your work in an interesting and succinct way. It helps you know your book better. In our reviews, we help isolate and define the essence of your work. What’s the demographic? What are the titles it’s most like? How is your book different than what’s already out there? These are just some of the vital questions that need to be addressed in your query letter, and we can help you answer them.

How does it work?

Email us your query letter as a word document to info@cogitatestudios.com, and we’ll provide developmental notes and copyediting marks as needed using track changes in Word. Since query letters are so small, they don’t take long and can usually be turned around in a week. When your report is complete, we send the marked-up file back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

Our rate for editing a one-page query letter is $50 (doubled-spaced, 12 point, and Times New Roman). As always, we follow the Editorial Freelancers Association rates.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Book Proposals

You did it; you penned a book or have the perfect idea for one, but a lot of writers don’t realize that the content you put into your book proposal is some of the most crucial material your book will have supporting it throughout the editorial and publishing processes. After all, as a writer, you first have to sell your book to an agent, and that agent has to sell it to an editor, who must sell it to marketing and publicity. Then marketing and publicity have to sell it to the sales department, who in turn must sell it to chain and independent book buyers. And so on and so on, until it ends up on your readers’ bookshelves. A strong, well-structured book proposal significantly increases your chances of seeing your book through this whole process.

What a lot of people don’t know is that sometimes you don’t have to write an entire manuscript before submitting a proposal, which can save time, blood, sweat, and tears in the long run. In the case of many non-fiction and graphic novel projects, for example, publishers, literary agents, and commissioning editors will ask for more work based simply on a cogent, sparkling proposal with sample material.

However, it’s essential to follow the right format and prepare the critical information to increase your chances of snagging the book deal you’re after. Several areas must be addressed, such as making sure you have a snappy book blurb and a section that that analyzes your book’s demographic. What are your marketing or social media plans? What kind of sample material should you include? What titles are similar, and what’s new about your book? We can help you craft answers for these questions and more.

How does it work?

Email us at info@cogitatestudios.com: in your message, include a description of the work and its word count. If you can attach some sample writing, that’s great. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates. We like to start the whole process off by sending you a questionnaire to fill out. It’s focused on all the questions you want to ask yourself about positioning your book (because they’re the same ones agents, editors, marketers, and publicists will be asking). After you send us back the questionnaire, whichever editor you choose (and/or who we think would fit best) reads it and, armed with your questionnaire and any notes, is usually able to build and deliver a targeted proposal in 3–4 weeks. Some take longer, of course. When it’s complete, we send it back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

We charge $50/hour for proposals. Of course, every project is unique, but in the past, it’s taken anywhere from 30–60 hours to build a proposal from scratch. As always, we follow the Editorial Freelancers Association rates.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Ghostwriting

Many different walks of life have hired us to ghostwrite for them, and in each case, we’ve had varying degrees of involvement. Sometimes we’ve been hired to edit and clean up a rough draft, and other times we were hired to do most of the writing based on an outline provided by the author. For some projects, a substantial amount of research is required, like taping and transcribing interviews. One non-fiction project took a full year to research, write, and edit for a client, for example. On the other hand, we’ve completed projects as short as press releases for book launches.

How does it work?

Email us at info@cogitatestudios.com: in your message, include a description of your project and its word count. You can also attach a sample of the writing. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates.

Rates

There are many ways to gauge a ghostwriting rate: we have been paid per page, with a flat fee, a percentage of the royalties of the sales, or some combination thereof. It really depends on the size of the project. If you want something short, say, under a page, we charge $0.50 word. If you need something more substantial, we can create 1–3 manuscript pages per hour at $60 per hour. If it’s bigger than this, a consultation is preferred. Please refer to the Editorial Freelancers Association for example writing rates. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Developmental editing

Developmental editing more radically addresses the content of a work: the way material should be presented, the need for more character development, how the voice should be handled, and so on. Since editing of this kind may involve total rewriting or reorganization of a work, it should be done before submitting to publishers and agencies.

How does it work?

Email us at info@cogitatestudios.com: in your message, include a description of the work and its word count, as well as a sample of the writing if you want to attach one. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates. Whichever editor you choose (and/or who we think would fit best) to read your work then marks-up your document in track changes. We ask for a minimum turnaround time of 3–4 weeks for each pass of developmental editing on a full manuscript. When your mark-up is complete, we send it back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

Our rate for developmental editing is $50–70/hour. As always, we follow the Editorial Freelancers Association rates.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Copyediting

Copyediting, sometimes called line editing, requires attention to every word in a manuscript, a thorough knowledge of the style to be followed, and the ability to make quick, logical, and defensible decisions. This type of editing is usually undertaken when a manuscript is being prepared or has been accepted for print or online publication, but this is not a hard-set rule. The full scope of copyediting falls into two orders of concern: substantive and mechanical copyediting.

Substantive copyediting

Substantive copyediting deals with the organization and presentation of existing content. It involves rephrasing for smoothness or to eliminate ambiguity, reorganizing or tightening text, reducing or simplifying documentation, or recasting tables and other remedial activities.

Mechanical editing

Mechanical editing deals mainly with grammar and other lower-order issues, like consistency in capitalization, spelling, hyphenation, table format, use of abbreviations, and so forth; correctness of punctuation, including ellipsis points, parentheses, and quotation marks; the way numbers are treated; consistency between text, tables, and illustrations; citation format; and other matters of style. This also includes attention to grammar, syntax, and usage at the most basic level.

How does it work?

Email us at info@cogitatestudios.com: in your message, include a description of the work, its word count, and attach a sample of the writing. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates. Whichever editor you choose (and/or who we think would fit best) to read your work then marks-up your document in track changes. We ask for a minimum turnaround time of 3–4 weeks for each pass of copyediting on a full manuscript. When your mark-up is complete, we send it back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

Our rate range for light/mechanical to heavy/substantive is $30–50/hour. As always, we follow the Editorial Freelancers Association rates.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the last major stage of the editing process. As always, reading and consistent marking remain essential. When we proofread, we read word for word, noting all punctuation, paragraphing, capitalization, and italics, and ensure that any editing has been correctly interpreted. We also watch for the kind of errors missed by computer spell checkers and grammar bots: like double-checking word breaks, hyphenation, typeface, font, heads and subheads, set-off material, page numbers and running heads, illustrations and tables, page length, table of contents, article or chapter titles, footnotes, index, cross references, half title and title page, jacket copy, spine, and overall sense of appearance.

How does it work?

You email us at info@cogitatestudios.com with a description of your project and its word count. One of us will be in touch about availability, turnaround time, and rates. Whichever editor you choose (and/or who we think would fit best) to read your work then marks-up your proof pages in Adobe Professional. We ask for a minimum turnaround time of three weeks for each proofreading pass on a full manuscript. When your mark-up is complete, we send it back to you with an invoice. Net-30 terms with PayPal or check.

Rates

Our rate for proofreading rate is $25/hour. As always, we follow the Editorial Freelancers Association rates.

Rush jobs

If you’re in a particular hurry, we can turnaround projects faster than the projected times above, but please also note that the projected rates increase in direct proportion to the urgency.