So, you’ve just finished your manuscript. It’s been to a couple of friends or beta readers and you’ve completed at least one self edit. Soon, you hope to publish your writing and share it with the world. But before you do, you’ll want to work with a professional editor. Editing is a subjective business and even the type of editing offered by professionals can be called different things, with some services overlapping the type of work offered. Broadly speaking though, editing can be broken down into three tiers: Developmental Editing, Copy Editing and Proofreading. Read on to demystify the what’s what of editing.

Developmental Editing

You might see Developmental Editing referred to as story editing, structural editing or big picture editing. Developmental editing ­– as with story or structure editing – is a big picture edit; they are one and the same. Your editor will look at things like characterisation, character goals, motivations, and conflict. They will also look out for things like exposition (info-dumps!); narrative viewpoint and head hopping – where the point of view changes within scenes or chapters; genre conventions and reader expectations; and pace – amongst other things. 

Your developmental editor will often offer a revision letter of several pages detailing some of the big picture issues that may need fixing and will comment in the manuscript to highlight examples and offer solutions for those issues. A good developmental editor should explain the issues they’ve found, why they are issues for the manuscript and offer solutions for how to fix each of the issues. They won’t rewrite your novel for you, but they should offer the guidance you need to rewrite aspects of your novel yourself.

Following a developmental edit, there will be some decisions to be made and rewriting to be done. Depending on your writing experience, it may also be that your novel requires more than one round of developmental editing – or book coaching if you want to work more closely and more regularly with an editor. This is why it is important not to jump in at the copyediting or proofreading stage before you are completely happy with the structure of your novel. Rewriting will always introduce more material to edit!

Copy Editing

Sometimes known as line editing, Copy Editing looks closely at spelling, punctuation and grammar. A copy edit will also ensure consistency in style; for example, if numbers are written in words or as digits, where hyphens are placed and which words should or shouldn’t be capitalised. In fiction, a copy editor will also look for inconsistencies (Did that character have blue eyes on Page 5?) and style (Does the text flow well? Is the dialogue realistic – and punctuated consistently?). It is likely that a copy editor will raise queries with a fiction author when changes outside of spelling, punctuation and grammar might be required. This is so that the writing retains the author’s voice and style, and changes aren’t made without author consent.

A copy editor will mark up your manuscript, often using the comment function in Word to raise any queries, and the track changes function to show you where they have made changes to spelling, punctuation and grammar. They will also provide you with a style sheet that gives you an overview of stylistic choices made in the manuscript – this is useful if you plan to write more novels and, in particular, more books in the same series. A style sheet might reference everything from how you use hyphens to the name of the pub in your village setting. The final decision as to whether you accept any changes is down to the author. 

It is important to make sure your story is structurally sound before you invest in a copy edit. At this stage of editing, you don’t want to be making huge structural changes, as adding in new chapters or moving plot points around can introduce new sections that will need copy editing. If you haven’t had a developmental edit to explore your plot and characterisation, I would recommend going through that process first before moving onto copy editing. For authors on a budget, a manuscript evaluation would be a cost-effective option to find out how much of a developmental edit might be required before you move onto the copy editing stage.

Proof Reading

Proof Reading is the final stage of editing and can be completed on a manuscript in Word, or a book that has already been formatted and/or typeset. The aim of a proofread is to catch any errors that have made it through the various rounds of editing so far. If already formatted or typeset, a proofreader may also look for words that are split over two pages or ensure the formatting is correct (e.g. there are no missing page numbers or two chapter 20’s). At this stage, it is unlikely (and ideal) if no significant changes to sentence structure (or indeed the plot structure as a whole) are needed. New writing introduces new material to copyedit and/or proofread.

Following a professional proofread, your manuscript should be ready for publication.

Manuscript Assessment

If you are new to writing, it is difficult to know how much editing your manuscript might need. Here, some editors will offer a Manuscript Assessment to help determine what shape your book is in. A manuscript assessment is a light developmental edit where an editor will read the manuscript and provide the author with a recommendation letter highlighting the strengths of the manuscript and the areas that might need further work – they are unlikely to comment within the manuscript itself. They may also be able to recommend your next steps – perhaps your book is at the stage where a developmental edit could move it forward; or maybe there are still some aspects that could be self edited before you invest in a developmental edit. A Manuscript Assessment should come early on in the editorial process and assesses the next steps for your novel.

What now?

Wherever you are on your writing journey, if you are planning to self publish, it is wise to have a professional editor work with you on your novel at some point. It’s a competitive market out there and you want your book to match publishing standards and be the best it can be.  

If you are considering working with a Developmental Editor or Copyeditor soon or are in the market for a Manuscript Assessment, contact me to talk about your project.