How To Choose The Right Style Of Editing For Your Book

Hugo Award-winning novelist C.J. Cherryh had exactly the right attitude about editing when she said, “It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.”

Cherryh’s books, which include titles such as Downbelow Station and Cyteen, have sold in excess of 3 million copies — so it’s safe to say she knows what she’s talking about.

I’ve written before about the need for editing when CreateSpace announced they were ending their creative services. BookBaby has run ads in national publications about it. One featured a page that was entirely blank save for these words:

The only page

that doesn’t need

editing is blank

We included a big red circle around the end of the sentence, highlighting the lack of a period.

Another ad read:

Here’s the list of New York Times best selling books that were NOT edited:

The rest of the page was occupied by — you guessed it — blank space.

If you’re an independent author, it’s no secret your book needs to be edited. The question you should really be asking yourself is: what kind of editing do I need?

Many writers are confused about the different types of book editing. Even the names of the various editing types can be confusing — proofreading, line editing, copy editing, developmental editing. What’s the difference?

In truth, there are a variety of editing levels and services to choose from, and each has its own price tag to match. Every type can be useful to producing a great manuscript, but it pays to be smart about what kind of editing your specific book needs.

If you’re writing a young adult novel, for example, you likely don’t need the services of an editor who edits business texts. If you’re writing a 500-word children’s book, you might not need proofreading so much as you may need developmental help.

But it’s hard to know what kind of editing your book needs if you’re not aware of the different levels of editing and what each entails. Here’s what you should know in order to make that decision.

1. Proofreading

Proofreading gets its name from the “proofs” that old-style typesetters used to produce before the final print run.

It amounts to the simplest form of editing. And for this reason, it is usually the cheapest form of editing you can invest in.

The purpose of proofreading is to have someone who has never read your manuscript go over each word for errors that might have escaped your attention, which will almost always happen at least a few times in a full-length manuscript. It’s the simple stuff: “their” vs. “they’re.”

Proofreading comes at the end of the publication cycle. It’s the final check before the book is printed — or, in the case of eBooks, before it’s published and sent to distributors.

2. Copy Editing

Proofreading is only ever done after the raw manuscript has already gone through a round of edits. That preceding round of editing is called copy editing.

Also known as “sentence-level” editing, this is the most popular type of editing offered to independent authors. It addresses grammar, usage, and consistency issues. Copy editors will check for typos and spelling errors along with correcting grammar, language, and syntax errors. They will also pay particular attention to punctuation such as commas, semicolons, and quotation marks.

Copy editing is like changing your book’s oil. It’s a process of fine-tuning and level-checking.

I’d also call it “quality control” editing because of the small-yet-critical details that are checked over. For instance, what if the writer calls out the woman’s deep blue-green eyes on page 27, but by page 336 they’ve turned into a dazzling emerald color? Your copy editor should be able to spot that error and address it.

3. Line Editing

Also called stylistic or paragraph editing, line editing addresses issues that are more structural than sentence-level mistakes. A good line editor can recast sentences for clarity and flow, or reformat entire paragraphs so the meaning is clearer.

Line editors also address issues such as sentence length, excessive use of adjectives, or an inconsistent narrative vernacular that might jar the target audience.

If you think your manuscript is basically complete but might have plot holes, limited characterization, factual errors, or syntactical problems, line editing is probably what you need.

The purpose of line editing is to tie together loose ends in your manuscript and to make sure that the story flows properly and has the rhythm and pulse that readers enjoy in a well-written story. For non-fiction, line editing will catch factual errors and will also help to separate chapters and paragraphs so that they make more sense.

To invest in this sort of editing is to invest in strengthening your manuscript. In fact, if there’s one kind of editing service every book needs, it’s line editing.

4. Developmental Editing

This is sometimes called substantive or big-picture editing. Developmental editing means the book gets a full structural and developmental edit, including a detailed critique of the essential elements of the story (in the case of a novel). A substantive edit can be fairly expensive and often involves the rearranging, deleting, adding, and rewording of entire pages and chapters.

Every book has its trouble spots — maybe the plot is lost in reams of background information or the characters are difficult to distinguish from one another. Developmental editing is a tool you can employ to fix those blemishes.

Because the changes it delivers are usually so substantial, developmental editing will come early in the publication process while the author is still in the drafting stage.

It’s for this reason that I believe the best kind of developmental editors are the ones who are creative writers themselves — those with an appreciation for the craft.

They’re not looking at punctuation marks and semicolons. They’re thinking, “Should this character be in Scotland or in Norway?” “Should this person have red hair or blue hair?” They’re thinking about your story on a higher level, concerned primarily with helping your book be the best possible version of itself.

Not every book needs developmental editing from a professional editor. Feedback from competent beta readers or a discerning writing group can be enough to iron out all the wrinkles in the book’s structure. But if you haven’t rewritten your manuscript several times or had other people read it, it’s almost a certainty that you’ll need some form of developmental editing.

In the end, it’s up to you to decide how much or how little editing you would like for your book.

You might not want the editor to interfere with the format, for example. Or, you might have your own ideas regarding elements of style — insisting upon referencing The Beatles with “The” capitalized, for example. In that case, you might not opt for developmental editing. Perhaps you could get by with just line or copy editing. Or, if you’re simply looking for another set of eyes, proofreading might be for you.

Regardless of what kind of editing service you invest in, however, it certainly helps to be aware of what an editor can do, as that will help you determine what your book needs.

If you haven’t had your book edited at all and don’t think you need any editing, just remember: the art of writing is rewriting, which means the art of writing is editing.