FAQs: The Editing Process
What are the different types of editing?
Developmental Edit
This edit primarily addresses structure, plot, characters, and stakes/conflicts. It can also make note of point-of-view issues, inconsistencies, and settings/worldbuilding.
Line Edit
Focusing on the language as a delivery method, this edit looks at word choice and usage, sentence structure and paragraph length, and overall flow of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, and how they each play off or misalign with each other.
Copyedit
Turning to the mechanics of language, the copyedit primarily addresses things like spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. Queries of new terms, possibly wrong facts, or even copyright violations can be expected.
Proofread
The final look-see at a formatted book before it goes to print. Only the most egregious errors are addressed (e.g., obvious misspellings, incorrect end-of-line breaks, line spacing misalignment, header and footer information, consistency between the table of contents and internal chapter titles and page numbers).
Is a beta read the same as a manuscript evaluation?
A beta read is a reader’s review of your work from that reader’s standpoint. They are your target reader (though only one person) and thus are well-versed in your genre from that perspective. With guided feedback questions regarding principles like story and character consistency, internal and external conflict, and even dialogue and POV, you get an overall feeling for how your story might be received by your larger target audience.
A manuscript evaluation is a professional service provided by an experienced editor with special knowledge of your genre. What I like to call a Developmental Edit Lite, a manuscript evaluation provides tangible solutions to the areas of concern for that specific manuscript. Those solutions may be on rearranging plot events into a more causal arc, delving deeper into your characters to make them more relatable to your readers, or even using your setting to explore potential themes that appear throughout the manuscript.
What’s the difference between a cold readthrough, editing pass, and editing round?
Cold Readthrough
A front-to-back reading of a manuscript with no intention of deep analysis, only high-level impressions as a casual reader and editor.
Editorial Pass
One read through a manuscript for editorial analysis.
Editing Round
One or more editorial passes through a manuscript. The final deliverable returned to the author will include either 1) the marked-up manuscript and Editorial Letter, or 2) the Manuscript Evaluation letter.
How can I prepare for an edit?
The biggest thing is to deliver as clean a manuscript file as possible. That means self-editing until you’re sick of looking at the damned thing. You’ve narrowed the gaps between plot events, your characters jump off the page, your prose is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize (in your eyes). Like knowing when to hire an editor, how you prepare your file for a professional edit is a journey unique to the story you want readers to experience.
When should I hire an editor?
As soon as you feel you’re ready. As shown above, there are different levels to editing, and they don’t necessarily follow a linear path. Just when you’ve gotten through a copyedit, you might realize—or your copyeditor might point out—some glaring plot holes that should probably be fixed if you want readers to come back for your next book. That may mean seeking out a manuscript evaluation or developmental edit, or you can keep going to the proofreading stage. No one can tell you a precise time in your publishing journey of when you should hire an editor, not even me.
Reflecting On Your Story One Word At A Time!