Copyedit Query Response Template
Two documents and two sheets that check every recurring decision against every other instance in the manuscript, not just the one flagged.
Free download · No account needed
Consistency Check
[Working title], by [Author]
What every pattern carries
| The decision, in the copyeditor's own words | — |
| Every other instance found in the manuscript | — |
| How many matched, how many contradicted | — |
| The chapters the pattern actually appears in | — |
The number this check exists to produce
Not a note confirming what was decided. The count of places the decision and the manuscript had already diverged, found now instead of at the proof round.
What one query cannot catch
A copyeditor queries the first instance of a pattern, rarely the twelfth. Silence on instance twelve is not agreement, it is instance twelve never checked.
A copyeditor's query points at one sentence. The CIEP's own guide to fiction style sheets names the plainest version of what goes wrong when a decision is only ever checked at the one place somebody flagged. A style sheet exists so James is not allergic to gluten in Chapter 1 and eating a sandwich by Chapter 2. This space starts once a submitted manuscript comes back from a publisher's copyeditor with tracked changes and queries attached, and checks every recurring decision against every other place it should govern.
On the worked manuscript, Cormorant Point by Marisol Kavanagh-Oyelaran, 380 pages and 34 chapters, the copyeditor raised 214 queries: 138 confirmations and 76 judgment calls. Twenty-nine of the judgment calls set a rule recurring elsewhere in the book, 193 other times in total. Checking all 193 against the rule that was supposed to govern them found 11 contradictions, one character's dialect spelling accounting for 4 of the 11 on its own, across eleven of the manuscript's thirty-four chapters.
Finding those 11 now instead of at the proof round is nearly free; finding them later is not. A sample author-publisher contract clause the Authors Guild distributes to its members deducts an author's proof-stage alterations, past a set share of composition cost, from royalties rather than the publisher's budget. The CIEP's own account of the editorial workflow is explicit that a separate round of queries comes at proof stage; it does not promise the copyedit round's decisions get re-verified there. This space checks them now, while the fix is a document, not a bill.
What's in the pack
Query Register
Every query logged in reading order with its type, so a judgment call never gets decided before it is inventoried.
Consistency Check
Every recurring pattern searched against the rest of the manuscript, with how many instances matched and how many contradicted.
Query Response Notes
The fuller answer for every judgment call, decision stated first and reasoning second, in whatever format the copyeditor expects.
Style Decision Record
Every confirmed recurring pattern in one place, so the next proofreader never reverse-engineers a decision from the text alone.
The decision governs every instance, not just the one flagged
The standing rule every prompt reads first: a recurring pattern is searched against the whole manuscript, never sampled or spot-checked.
How it works
- 1
Open or download
Edit with AI installs the pack as a private Space and asks for the copyedited manuscript, the file a signed proposal eventually leads to. Download gives you the blank files, no account.
- 2
Build the register
Every query logged in reading order with its type, before any judgment call gets decided, the same discipline a permission register applies earlier, to what a manuscript may quote.
- 3
Flag the patterns
Every judgment call sorted into recurring or one-off, specific enough to search on: the exact spelling, the exact construction, the character it applies to.
- 4
Check and lock in
Every recurring pattern against every other instance in the manuscript, contradictions fixed now while it is a copyedit-stage correction rather than a proof-stage bill.
Frequently asked questions
Is this free?
The download is free and needs no account: the real Query Register, Consistency Check, Query Response Notes, and Style Decision Record, blank, as Word and CSV. Edit with AI creates a free account and starts logging queries and checking patterns as you send them.
What format are the downloaded files?
Two Word documents and two CSV sheets, zipped. The documents open in Word, Pages, and Google Docs; the sheets open in Excel, Numbers, and Sheets. Nothing needs converting, and a PDF query string on the download swaps the documents to PDF if you want to circulate rather than fill in.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It installs this pack as a private Space, then builds the Query Register from your manuscript and its queries. Every judgment call gets sorted into recurring or one-off, and every recurring pattern gets searched against the rest of the manuscript before any response goes back to the copyeditor.
How do I know which judgment calls are actually recurring patterns?
Ask whether the same choice could plausibly appear more than once: a spelling tied to one character, a hyphenation rule, a formatting convention for a recurring element. When it is genuinely unclear, flag it recurring anyway. A pattern with no other instances costs one empty search; a real pattern treated as one-off leaves every other instance unchecked.
Does this copyedit my manuscript, or replace my copyeditor?
No. This space works through a copyedit somebody else has already done: a professional copyeditor's tracked changes and queries. It does not correct grammar or style on its own, and it does not sequence a revision from a developmental letter, which is a manuscript revision plan's job instead.
What happens if I skip this and just answer the queries?
The confirmations are unaffected either way. The judgment calls are the risk: a decision made once and never checked against the rest of the manuscript is exactly as unverified as a query nobody raised. It is the proofreader, or the reader, who tends to find it next, at the stage a fix costs the most.
Is this the same as a general house style guide?
No. A house style guide answers many writers against one standard, decided in advance. This space is one manuscript, one copyeditor, and decisions made specifically for this book, a dialect spelling for one character, a hyphenation choice for one recurring compound, that would not transfer to any other project.
Find out how many of your judgment calls actually recur
Download the blank Query Register, Consistency Check, and Query Response Notes as Word and CSV, or have River check your manuscript pattern by pattern.
Edit with AI