You wrote it. Now let's make sure it sounds like you—only better.
Eighteen years of editing nonfiction books for women writers, and I'd love to see yours. Send me your manuscript and I'll tell you honestly what it needs, what it will cost, and include a free 500-word sample edit so you can see exactly how I work.*
*A note on shorter works. This process is for book-length projects. If you're sending an article, a blog post, web copy, or a manual, it's simpler—send it over with your deadline and I'll quote it flat. Sample edits are for manuscripts only.
IVETTE MAYMI
You've finished the draft. Or you're close.
And now it's sitting there, and you don't quite know if it's ready. Maybe you've read it so many times the sentences have stopped meaning anything. Maybe you can feel that something isn't working but you can't name it. Or maybe you're simply afraid to hand your precious words to a stranger.
That last one is the fear I hear most often. It's also the one I take most seriously—which is why nothing in your writing gets changed without you seeing it, and why you're free to reject any of it.
Who you'd be working with...
I've spent eighteen years working with words, and I've built a business on one conviction: women carry ideas and wisdom worth capturing, and too often those words go unwritten.
It started with my husband. He felt compelled to write, and I edited his first manuscript—then his second, and eventually his tenth. Somewhere in that process I realized what came naturally to me was exactly what most writers need and rarely have.
I specialize in nonfiction—memoir, faith-based writing, and business and thought-leadership books—the kinds of books women write when they've lived something worth passing on. After all that time, I went and trained formally anyway. I've never stopped wanting to be better at this.
I don't work at arm's length. I partner with you the way a good friend would—the one who tells you the truth kindly, who's still there when you're panicking about chapter nine; someone who genuinely wants this book to exist.
Most of my clients feel like friends by the time we're finished. That isn't an accident. It's how I work.
I'm also an author, which means I've sat with the same doubts I hear from my clients. That isn't a small thing, and I don't treat it like one.
My greatest hope is a literary marketplace with more women's voices in it. Women have so much to say—about surviving things, building things, believing things, starting over again. Not one of those experiences is wasted. My job is to help you say yours clearly enough that someone else can hear it.
I live in North Dallas with my husband, children, and fur baby. When I'm not editing, I'm usually cooking, decorating, or spending time with my amazing family. I proudly attend Movement Church in Celina, TX.
How this works
Hiring an editor shouldn't feel like a mystery. Here's exactly what happens.
Tell me about your project.
Your word count, a sentence or two about what you're writing, and what kind of nonfiction it is. Two minutes.
Send me the full manuscript.
I need to see the whole thing to tell you honestly which level of editing it needs and what it will cost. A quote based on a few pages isn't a quote — it's a guess, and you'd be the one paying for the difference later.
I'll send you a proposal, along with a free 500-word sample edit.
The proposal lays out what I'd recommend, what's included, the timeline, and the cost. The sample is a passage of my choosing—usually somewhere in the middle, where a manuscript tells me the most—so you can see exactly how I work and how I treat your voice before you commit to anything.
You decide.
If it's a yes, we agree on a schedule and the payment terms set out in your proposal — usually a deposit to reserve your spot, with the balance spread across the project. If it's a no, you keep the sample and we part as friends.
I edit.
What comes back to you depends on the level you've booked, and we'll agree exactly what that includes before we begin. One thing holds at every level: nothing in your writing changes without your approval. Every suggestion is yours to accept or reject.
I'm with you the entire way.
Once you've booked, I don't disappear until delivery day. Questions as they come up, check-ins along the way, and a real conversation at the end means you'll never wonder where your book is or what's happening to it.
A note on shorter works. The free sample edit is for projects of about 20,000 words or more. Below that it's simpler—send it over with your deadline and I'll quote it flat.
Where your manuscript is right now
Most writers aren't sure which stage their manuscript needs, and it's not a decision you should have to make alone. Tell me about your project and we'll determine the right starting point.
Stage One
Manuscript Evaluation
You want to know what's working and what isn't before you spend months revising.
Stage Four
Copyediting
The pass that makes a manuscript professional—grammar, punctuation, and consistency, until nothing distracts from what you're saying.
Stage Two
Developmental Editing
The bones need work, not just the sentences. This stage addresses structure, order, and how the pieces fit together.
Stage Five
Proofreading
This is the last check before you publish. It catches typos, small slips, and the errors that hide in work you've read too many times.
Stage Three
Line Editing
You know what you mean—a reader might not, yet. This stage sharpens clarity and emphasis, and finds the sentences that bury your point.
Author Extras
Bios & Back Cover Copy
The words that do the selling. A bio that establishes why you're the one writing this, and back cover copy that makes someone want to find out.
Most writers land between two of these. Answer a few questions and I'll tell you which one to start with.
The quiz gets you close. The conversation gets you the rest of the way.
Anywhere the words matter
Books are most of what I do. They're not all of it.
I've edited board manuals for private Christian schools, websites for churches and nonprofits, magazine features, and more blog posts than I could count. Different formats, same job — making sure the words say what the writer meant, and hold up to the people who'll read them.
The thread running through all of it: these are organizations and people whose words carry real weight, and who don't have an editor on staff. If something has your name on it and it needs to be right, send it over.
A few books I've helped into the world
. . .and what their authors said about my work.
"After a less than desirable editorial process with a previous editor, my experience with Polished Pages was a breath of fresh air. . . Don't make the same mistake I made—hire Polished Pages Editorial first!"
Layla Slater
Saving Abigail Grace
"Ivette was so patient with me as a first-time author. My book was complicated and she held my hand through the entire process."
Emanuela Visone
Healing Through Nature's Medicine
"Ivette Maymi worked on editing my manuscript and suggested thoughtful changes that retained my unique voice within the book."
Anastasia Robinson
Who Stole My Dream?
Life doesn't hand you a road map — but sometimes, it gives you someone willing to walk beside you.
Send me your manuscript. Not a deposit, not a contract—just the thing you've been working on. If you don't like what you see, you've lost nothing but an email.