The Editorial Department

From start to finish, my experience with The Editorial Department has been top-​notch.
My novel had already gone through several revisions, but was in need of a professional perspective to get it in publishing shape. Now that it is about to be released, I can say that editor Shannon Roberts and the team at TED, especially Jane Ryder, were instrumental in helping to take the manuscript to the next level.
TED has an array of services, from proofreading to marketing, and different levels for each service to fit clients’ particular needs. I chose the Manuscript Annotation option from among their editorial services, and received a comprehensive memo addressing character, story, structure and writing mechanics, along with what amounted to a line edit and running commentary throughout the manuscript. The results exceeded my expectations.
Shannon Roberts was incredibly incisive in her notes, comprehensive in her critique, demonstrated she completely understood where I was going with the manuscript, and offered specific suggestions that were excellent (I incorporated about 80 percent of what she presented). On top of the quality of her work, the speed at which it was completed astounded me. I was quoted a five-​week turnaround time, and received the full Manuscript Annotation and memo in just about two weeks. Even if the full time allotted had been taken, her work would still have been impressive.
Jane Ryder, who assists TED president Ross Brown and coordinates client services, was an absolute delight to work with — and indeed, she spent a great deal of time actually working with me, to ensure I got connected with the right editor and most helpful level of service. She was genuinely interested in my manuscript and me as an author, and sought to understand what I needed. Our conversations were a true pleasure, and her help was outstanding.
The price for all of this was not what one would call cheap, but was completely in line with what most comparable high-​quality editing services cost (and far less than some). Given the results, I consider what I spent to be a bargain.
I cannot more highly recommend The Editorial Department, and plan on using their services again as soon as I have need.

Hmmm… this one’s hard to rate. But after thinking about it for a while, I would have to say they are just average to just below average. I’d give them 2.5 stars if I could but I can’t.
They are very expensive and the professional editor who read over my submission wasn’t as helpful as I thought she would be for how much I paid. I had better luck taking a writing class at Pima and with working with other writer’s as well. On top of that the editor responded to my content and what I had written (which she wasn’t supposed to do), instead of helping point out what was wrong with it and how to fix it. The errors she did point out were good, but then there was no solution on how I could fix it– she just told me I «couldn’t» do something a certain way. But then didn’t tell me how to do it right.
Somehow I found a writing class at Pima, which was more useful AND less expensive for the entire semester! It was a better deal and I had my pages critiqued by multiple people instead of one expensive but ineffective editor.
However, on the positive, I will say this about TED– everyone I talked to was very nice. But I suspect that’s because I was paying them and was a client.
In the future I would prefer to not use them again. And at this point, I can’t recommend them– but others have had good experiences so I’m sure it’s different for everyone.