Stories come in every shape and size, and as an author, you bring your own expertise and experience to your tale. So when it comes to editing, you might not need the same sort of help as someone else.
You might excel at catching grammar problems but struggle with writing the blurb, the back-of-the-book description. You might be great at big-picture analysis but have no idea what to call your finished story.
And all of this falls under editing, because, by definition, editing is what goes into preparing written material for publication. At times, it’s condensing it, correcting it, or modifying it. Other times, it involves expanding your vision, encouraging you in new directions. Finally, it can involve summarizing what you have in succinct ways, either in making a title or a blurb.
So here are 7 different types of editing, and chances are, no matter how good an author you are, you’ll need one of them for one of your stories at some point in your career.
Book Coaching
This can also be called “Developmental Editing” or “Big Picture Editing,” but book coaching is basically designed to help you know how a story “reads.” Book coaches look at the big picture of what happens in your story, addressing how scenes unfold, what characters say, how your world functions, and where your story stacks up to genre expectations.
Because of its “big picture” focus, it’s the ideal editing phase to start with, when you’ve finished the manuscript and are just moving into the editing process. Beta readers can help with this stage too, but unless they’re professional readers, they may not have the experience it takes to help you or have the dedication to spend the time it takes to comb through your manuscript and tell you what really works…and what is still a little rough.
Manuscript Evaluation
Similar to book coaching, a manuscript evaluation or manuscript critique provides the same “big picture outlook” but in a summarized package. Instead of a line-by-line feedback, you usually get a 2-5 page report that outlines the story’s strengths and weaknesses.
Because of its short nature, manuscript evaluations usually cost much less than book coaching, but you do get what you pay for—after all, the size of the report will constrain editors from being able to respond to everything in your manuscript. They may be forced to leave out comments about the slow plotting of certain scenes, for example, in favor of mentioning the memorable plot hole in the climax.
Copyediting
This usually happens after your story is set and your scenes are locked into place. A copyeditor will go over the whole thing, looking for redundant passages or awkward wording along with grammar and spelling errors. Thus, they won’t suggest any plot-altering changes, but they will help the writing flow better and help clear up any confusing passages readers might have struggled with.
Proofreading
This level of editing is what we all wish our word processing softwares achieve, but don’t. A proofreader catches spelling errors and grammar problems, straightening out punctuation and capitalization, but he or she won’t rearrange your writing or point out awkwardly-worded-but-grammatically-correct passages.
At this stage, it’s all about polishing what’s there, not deleting lines, so it’s often the last step before formatting and publishing.
Formatting
This step takes your text from the word processor program you were using and prepares it for the technology used by printers and ereaders, making sure it still looks good after conversion.
Formatters prevent your story from looking strange or reading awkwardly, and they provide the professional touch needed to keep readers from being distracted by how your text looks so they can just enjoy the story.
Title Creation
Frequently, traditional publishers will change a book’s title before marketing, looking to choose something that reflects not only the contents of the book but also the market.
If your idea sounds too close to something popular already on the market, they’ll probably want to go with something else. A title creation service works in the same way, performing the professional research to make sure your title sounds like it fits what you’ve written and isn’t the name as last year’s bestseller.
Blurb Writing
Often the domain of the publisher’s marketing team, a blurb isn’t just a summary of your story. It’s a marketing piece designed to tease and intrigue readers without giving away too much of your story in the process.
When you work with a blurb writing team, you’re hiring professionals who know how to steer clear of awkward phrases and how to efficiently describe your book with artistry and tension, elegance and style.
Fantastic post! I can’t count how many books I’ve read (or have attempted to read) in recent past, that could have benefitted from better editing.
As much as I’d like to speed up the road to publication, I don’t want a subpar version of my book out in the world. Thanks for the list. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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One to stay with what works, the copyeditor of my first novel has, as she’s become familiar with my stories and style, become an editor, as well.
Looking at the still-bare magic money tree in the backyard, it’s helpful to have someone who can cross & combine these seven categories.
Excellent article! And if you need a copyedit done, give Monica a try!
https://tinyurl.com/ybtzj5sl
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Reblogged this on Viv Drewa – The Owl Lady.
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Thanks for sharing!
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Great run-down! Marking for future reference (aka, when I finish the manuscript and need this step!)… thanks!
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Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Reblogged this on The Kingdom of the Woodland Realm Trilogy and commented:
I learn something new here every day. ☺️
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Nice Summarized all major types of editing, thanks 🙂
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this helpful post from A Writer’s Path blog with the seven types of editing your book needs.
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Reblogged this on Anna Dobritt — Author.
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Thanks for sharing!
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Now, it would have been fantastic if agencies offer all these services under one umbrella or as a packaged deal. Could be of enormous beneficial for cash-pinched writers like myself. Thanks for this informative post.
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Reblogged this on Memoir Notes.
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Reblogged this on COW PASTURE CHRONICLES and commented:
Thanks to Ryan for another timely post!
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Thanks for reading!
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Reblogged this on Cow Pasture Chronicles
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Reblogged this on Plaisted Publishing House and commented:
7 Types of Editing your book needs…
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Wow! This is an awesome blog. I never knew there were all these layers of filtering that resulted in a good book. 🙂
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Reblogged this on WILDsound Writing and Film Festival Review.
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Wow! This is great! Learnt so much!
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Reblogged this on WILDsound Writing and Film Festival Review.
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Great article! Going to bookmark this one.
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Hey Ryan, I really liked this post and would be reblogging/tweet it immediately. Thanks!
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Reblogged this on FenlonChamber and commented:
Types of Book Editing
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