30 pages of professional editing, free

The course

Working editors move through a manuscript in separate passes: a copy edit for what is wrong, a line edit for the music, a proofread for whatever survived. The Three Passes teaches you to do the same on your own book, one job at a time, with a worked example in every email that you can follow error by error.

1. 1 ·Email 1 shows you why editing is three different jobs, and you choose the chapter you’ll work on for the whole course.
2. 2 ·Email 2 is the copy edit, on a deliberately broken paragraph.
3. 3 ·Email 3 is the line edit, where your voice lives and where it is most at risk.
4. 4 ·Email 4 is the proofread, and the trick your own brain plays to hide typos from you.
5. 5 ·Email 5 is the honest talk: what a human editor gives you, what one costs, and the plan for your pass.

All you need is a printed chapter and a pencil. The course works fine if you never touch our software at all.

The pass

When we launch, your free chapter goes live: 30 pages of editing through VSProse, free, with 30 days to spend them. It’s the same 30 pages as our $12.99 Chapter Pack. One per person, ever.

Here’s what the course builds toward. By email 5 your chosen chapter has been through all three passes by your own hand. The pass runs that same chapter through the tool. You’ve already caught everything a pencil catches; now see what a fresh set of passes finds after you. Your marked-up chapter is the answer key. If VSProse earns a place next to your pencil, you’ll know. If it doesn’t, it cost you nothing.

What VSProse is

VSProse is a manuscript editor built around the same three passes. Every suggestion appears as a diff you accept, reject, or rewrite your own way, and it never writes a word for you. You choose how light or strict an editor to face. The AI suggests. You decide.

VSProse opens in closed beta this summer. Your pass goes live at launch, and the course starts today.