If you’re a first-time author, it is important to understand the different types of editing. Understanding the differences helps you determine which one you need for publishing your book. In our previous blog post, How to Self-Edit Your Manuscript, we explained how you can do this on your own. When editing your manuscript, keep in mind that there are various aspects that will require your attention. It is not just grammar or spelling checks that must be performed; you must also focus on the tone of the narrative, specific words used to convey your thoughts, the overall message of the text, and the intended audience that will be reading your book.
If self-editing is not for you, you can hire a professional editor to get the job done.
Advantages of Using a Professional Editor
As far as the varying types of editing go, one advantage of choosing a professional editor is that it saves you time. After writing your manuscript, you can take a break from the text and get it professionally edited by someone else. Also, a professional editor is familiar with common writing errors, so he or she will be able to spot mistakes easier and make the necessary changes to clean up your manuscript.
In addition, it is always beneficial to have at least one other pair of eyes reading your manuscript before it is published. When writing your text, you became familiar with the topic, so it might be helpful to see how an outsider would respond to your text. By having someone else read your manuscript, you ensure that it is understandable by a neutral party who has not done extensive research on the specific topic.
It’s clear that a manuscript should be edited before it is published, but what do you do when it comes time to edit your text? Well, editing in itself is a broad category. There are many types of editing and editors have varying styles. Below, we explain the most common types of manuscript editing.
Developmental Editing
Let’s start by looking at developmental editing, which focuses on making the message of your text clear and consistent throughout. Developmental editors won’t necessarily rewrite your manuscript. They will ensure that your story is clear, leaving out confusing phrases or topics. When you have a rough idea of what to write, a developmental editor will help you eliminate unnecessary components. Additionally, developmental editors can assist you in determining how you can best approach and communicate your ideas on paper. These editors make sure your plot is strong and fill in any possible gaps in the narrative. They pay attention to the characters mentioned and confirm that each one is well-developed. Developmental editors could, for example, suggest that you leave out a character if that person doesn’t contribute to the plot. This type of editing is ideal for longer stories, such as novels, because it is more thorough and covers every aspect of storytelling.
After sending your manuscript to a developmental editor, don’t be discouraged if you have to rewrite or restructure substantial portions. When giving you feedback, the developmental editor keeps in mind your target audience and how best to engage them. With that, there may be several things you missed in your writing process or didn’t take into account. Your developmental editor may also compare your text to industry standards about the topic and make suggestions accordingly to ensure your book’s success.
When writing, you may have found yourself putting down and picking up the manuscript over an extended period of time. Developmental writing is advisable for you because your editor checks for inconsistencies throughout the text.
Content Editing
Content editing, which has a lot in common with developmental editing, is sometimes interchangeable with line editing. With content editing, the focus is on the frame of the text on a more micro level than developmental editing. Content editing looks closely at the different pieces of the text, especially novels, that are subdivided into chapters and paragraphs. Content editors determine whether the text is easily understood and if the different parts all contribute to the bigger picture. There may be portions that can be omitted because their functionality doesn’t add up to the rest of the text. Ultimately, a content editor ensures all aspects of the text work together to make it easy to read.
When writing, if you included many plot twists and turns or different sentence structures, content editing is advisable. Your editor will focus on the text’s readability, aspects that help with the story’s flow, and sentence functionality.
Line Editing
While developmental editing focuses on the overall story and whether the message is consistent with your vision as the author, line editing zooms in on the paragraphs and sentences used in your manuscript. This type of editing does not necessarily focus exclusively on grammar or spelling errors because that is the job of a copy editor, which we will discuss below. (You can note, though, that many editors view line and copy editing as interchangeable.) Instead, a line editor’s main responsibility is to make sure the diction, tone, and flow of the sentences make sense. Line editing is also be called stylistic editing because it sets the mood of a scene and style used in a text.
A line editor performs edits line-by-line an advise you on the best words to use to communicate your ideas. Line editing is done to make sure your text is easily understood by readers. It leaves out unnecessary words that don’t enhance the text because long sentences, when not well-constructed, can create confusion to a reader. Line editors also check for redundancy to leave the text running well.
Some first-time authors tend to skip this type of editing to save on costs or because they underestimate the value of line editing, but it is crucial. The mood set in your manuscript is probably one of the most important aspects that you want to communicate well to your readers. It is imperative to grab each reader’s attention so that they finish your story instead of putting it down in the middle because they became bored by the less-than-stellar writing. Line editing fine tunes the feeling of your text to prevent this from happening.
If you are not a grammarian or do not feel confident about how you expressed your ideas in your manuscript, line editing is the type of editing to choose. Your line editor will look at each sentence structure and advise you about the best words and phrases to use to make your writing clear, crisp, and understandable by your audience.
Copy Editing
Copy editing is when the editor pays detailed attention to grammar, spelling, and interpunction errors throughout the text. Some editors, like ours, perform line and copy editing simultaneously. Keep in mind that copy editing is best done after your manuscript has been written in its entirety. A professional copy editor finds grammatical mistakes that your friend, who also read your manuscript earlier, missed. Like line editing, copy editing is done phrase-by-phrase. Many editors rely on style guides, like The Chicago Manual of Style, to follow the most current grammar rules. Copy editors must also adhere to many rules it is focused more on grammar.
Copy editors may also review text for illustrations in the manuscript, and check information in the footnotes or table of contents to make sure they are free of mistakes. After your text has been copy edited, it should be almost completely error-free. We say “almost” because sometimes autocorrect or other software issues arise that were not caused by the copy editor. This does not mean that your text should still have numerous grammatical issues. We just want you to allow for a slight margin of error because things happen.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the final type of editing performed before your manuscript is published. At this stage, the proofreader checks that the printed text does not have any typos. Compared to copy editing, proofreading is done more on the surface to eliminate visual errors. Proofreaders do not go into much detail about sentence structures or word choice. Instead, they look to see if the final layout of the printed text is correct and check for errors regarding word spacing, placement of illustrations, headings, and incorrect punctuation. Proofreading is beneficial for your text once your final product is ready for print. This type of editing is most often done on printed paper to uncover any last mistakes you might not have noticed while typing your manuscript.
Takeaway
We’ve reviewed several different types of editing authors should be familiar with. Often, we only focus on grammar or spelling errors when finalizing a text before it goes to a publisher. However, as you can see, there is much more to editing than that.
If you think self-editing might be too difficult or time-consuming, consider hiring a professional editor to get the work done. Based on your budget, you can now decide which type of editor you’ll need for your specific needs.
A professional editor is more knowledgeable about grammar and will ensure your manuscript expresses the right tone for your audience. An editor understands the nuances of language and has a more extensive lexicon than any editing software.
We, at Speak Write Play, would love to speak with you about editing services you may need for your manuscript! With our experience in editing and proofreading, we make sure your manuscript is ready for publication. Schedule a consultation today to speak with one of our experienced editors.
