Can you edit my formatted manuscript?

Can you edit my formatted manuscript?

Ideally, no.  Your formatter will already have taken care of everything necessary to get your manuscript to the point of being ready for publication.  If you were to have your formatted manuscript edited, any changes we make could ruin everything that your formatter had done to that point.  One of the things an interior formatter will do is to ensure there are no widows or orphans in your text, and that all chapters begin on the right-hand page (among myriad other things).  Any changes we make to a formatted document could knock everything out, and you would then have to take your manuscript back to your formatter and have them complete the job for a second time.

To answer the question, though… yes, we CAN edit a formatted manuscript.  We, and your formatter, would prefer not to.  If you have already had the manuscript formatted and you’re considering passing it to us for proofreading, we’d ask that you first clear it with your formatter.  Make sure they’re happy to go back through your manuscript and re-format it if necessary, or, at the very least, check through every page to make sure nothing has been affected.  Dropping it on their lap without advance notice could result in a breakdown in your relationship.