You may want to know what is the importance of having your book edited. You may also say, “Why can’t I just write it and publish it?” You may think these things because most writers hate to edit. We have news for you, it is your job to write and someone else’s job to edit.
Writers are tempted to edit as they write. We like to encourage our writers to not focus a lot on editing at first, but to focus on the story. Editing is expensive and rightfully so. Your editor will comb through your manuscript to help you arrive at a polished manuscript. Although we believe you should spend more time writing and less time editing your own manuscript, you still should understand the various steps in the editing process. This helps you navigate your costs and perhaps save some money.
A good editor should consult about the four stages of the editorial process for a book. They are:
- Editorial Assessment
- Line Editing
- Copyediting
- Proofreading
Editorial Assessment
An editorial assessment, also known as a manuscript review or letter, is typically an exhaustive breakdown of your story. Some may refer to this as developmental editing. An editor will move through your manuscript and make chapter-by-chapter notes. Along with these notes, they will give you an editorial letter which is usually several pages long.
This letter should outline the strengths and weaknesses the editor finds with your story. It should discuss the way your potential reader may view or encounter problems with your story. This conversation should then break down into a deep analysis of your character profile(s) as well as your plot arc.
A great developmental edit should lead to wonderful rewrites, and this is why we emphasize that a writer should not focus on their own editing, in the beginning. Your job is to write! You wouldn’t drain your own oil before having it changed by the mechanic. Don’t do that by conducting substantial editing of your own manuscript either.
If you are a new author and have never had an editorial assessment done, we highly recommend you make the investment. An editorial assessment can take your novel to the next level. Many writers skip this and while some can afford to do so because they’ve been storytelling for a long time, there are others who shouldn’t. If you are among the “others” who shouldn’t and you plan to not have a manuscript assessment completed, you should explore finding writing workshops to have your works peer-reviewed. This is also another great way to have the big picture opportunities in your manuscript addressed.
Substantive Editing (Line Editing)
Substantive editing is an editing process that reviews the line-level issues with your manuscript. Instead of a “big picture” review, it will review how you are telling your story. It deals with your style, voice, and the types of words you’ve chosen. A line edit will address issues with syntax. It should also address where there may be inconsistencies with tense.
If you have a dialogue-heavy narrative, a substantive edit should absolutely be done. Substantive editing does not focus on errors in grammar and spelling. It will focus squarely on the readability of your manuscript.
Copy Editing and Proofreading
There are misconceptions about what a copy edit is. Some writers assume a copy edit is the “big” edit on a manuscript. It is not. As you can see so far, editing a manuscript involves various layers. A copy edit is one of the final layers of the editing process but it should never be the first editing phase. Some editors will do developmental, substantive, and copy editing all in one job and call it copyediting.
A copyedit addresses errors in grammar and spelling. It is purely mechanical. A true copy edit should not address the nature of your story, what’s being said, and whether your story makes sense. It is a technical process that catches the mistakes that would have gotten you an F in grammar class.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the absolute final step of the editing process. Some editors consider copy editing and proofreading to be the same. Technically, they are, but a proofread shouldn’t require much focus from your editor because all of the grunt work has already been addressed with the other phases of the editing process.
We Have a Four-Prong Approach to the Editing Process.
- Developmental Editorial Assessment to tackle whether your story needs rewrites. There is no use in editing grammar and syntax on words and paragraphs that you may end up deleting in a rewrite.
- Substantive Line Edit to address how you’re telling your story after the rewrites have been completed
- Copyedit to correct issues of punctuation, misspellings, and the alike
- Proofread to ensure all of the above has been executed properly.
The editing process can be a daunting task. It should be paced and done in the correct order to ensure your manuscript is ready for publication. Your readers will know the difference. Contact us to get your editing journey started.