You’ve finally done it. Typed out those two little words that every writer knows are the greatest in the English language. ‘The End.’
Take a moment to savour the relief and accomplishment. It’s a huge achievement and you should be proud of it, but we’ve still got a long road ahead. Now it’s time to focus on my personal favourite part of creating a book, the editing stage. I have frequently said ‘editing is where the magic happens’ and I believe it, but a lot of authors find the editing process a confusing and daunting prospect. I’m going to tackle some of that confusion today by creating an editing timeline and breaking down what each of those edits actually is.
Personal Edits
This first one is relatively simple to understand. You finish your first draft, take a reasonable break to give yourself some space from the story and then you go in and make any changes you think are necessary.
Manuscript Critique
It’s time to share your manuscript with someone else. They will read it for themselves and provide you with feedback on the core elements of your story. That is plot, structure, characterisation, pacing, story, and world-building. There are two options for getting this feedback for your manuscript. The most obvious one is to pay for someone to provide this service. There are advantages to paying, but I personally do not recommend paying for a manuscript critique. You will pay for a developmental edit later on and the manuscript critique service is often provided by people without other editoral experience. There is really no need to pay for a manuscript critique on top of a developmental edit and one is a more professional service than the other. What we’re looking for instead is someone who reads within your genre who is willing to give you feedback. Most commonly this will be another writer and it will require you to commit time and energy into doing the same for their manuscript. This is what we call a manuscript swap.
The decision largely boils down to whether you have more time or money, so decide based on your own circumstances. Assuming you are going with the second option, however, it is important to choose the right person to swap manuscripts with.
Your critique partner should be:
A writer themselves. Ideally someone at or above your level of skill and experience. You want someone who takes writing seriously, and it is better if they write original work. This is especially true if you write fantasy, sci-fi, or any genre that requires a lot of world-building.
Someone who reads a lot and within the same genre that you are writing. If they have no familiarity with your genre, they aren’t a great match. You can make up for them with beta readers later down the track, but it’s really best to find someone who at least reads a couple of books in your genre a year.
Not a member of your family, romantic partner, or ‘real life’ friend. They cannot be trusted to give you honest feedback. The best friends and family will try not to hurt your feelings. They may also try to discourage you by falsely telling you that your writing is terrible. There are lots of reasons they may do this, and some of them do stem from misguided love. Overall, friends and family are not it. A writing friend, as in someone you connected with through the writing community, is the exception to this rule and the IDEAL critique partner.
Not a person who suffers from people pleasing, a deep fear of hurting people’s feelings, or excessive niceness.
Not the kind of person who likes to start drama, get a rise out of people, says ‘I’m just being honest’ to excuse saying rude things to others, or is just a general asshole.
Once you’ve found a good critique partner, they’ve read your manuscript and provided notes, take your time to digest their feedback. Don’t just simply accept it and do exactly what they recommend. It’s YOUR book. Similarly, don’t just outright reject everything they have to say. You need to learn to take criticism and use it constructively. Denying its validity is not helpful, but neither is allowing your own opinions to be steamrolled by the feedback of others. Consider the merit of what they have to say and decide what feedback serves your story and what doesn’t. Make changes accordingly.
Developmental Edit
The developmental edit, sometimes known as the content or structural edit, is the deepest dive into your manuscript throughout the editing process. In this stage, a professional editor deeply edits the actual content of the story. Characterisation, pacing, story structure, world-building, genre elements, and plot are addressed. The editor does not make direct changes to your manuscript, but offers extremely detailed notes, including in-text commentary and what is essentially an essay about your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses. You will usually have several conversations with them regarding their notes. It depends on each editor’s individual service. After this, you will do another edit based on their notes and your conversations.
I do not recommend skipping this edit. I know a lot of indie authors do choose to skip the developmental edit to save money and instead rely solely on their critique partners and beta readers. It is your prerogative, however; I think it is one factor that contributes to reader belief traditionally published books are better. The stories themselves have faced rigorous edits, not just the spelling and grammar. If you are going to skip this edit (because if you can only have one edit, it should be the copy edit) then the competency of your critique partner(s) and beta readers cannot be overstated.
When deciding who to engage as a developmental editor, there are a lot of factors to consider. Cost is obviously going to play a role. We’re not living in a fairytale land where we can all afford the best of everything and the most experienced, most popular editors are the most expensive. However, you don’t need the most experienced, most popular editor to receive a high quality developmental edit. When looking for developmental editors you should take into consideration their testimonials, education, and experience. Outside of that it's wise to look for editors that actively enjoy reading the kind of book you’ve written. Experience in the genre is very important to the developmental edit so you want an editor that has not just edited your genre, but reads it voraciously.
Beta reads
Beta readers provide reader feedback on your story. Do not skip this step. It is arguably the most important. You’re not looking to hire someone with editorial experience here (unless you've skipped the developmental edit,) but find people who regularly read books in the same genre and age category as your manuscript. You’re looking for members of your target audience.
This is not professional feedback aimed at improving your book in a literary sense (though it often does help you in that way) but market feedback. If your target audience doesn’t like your book, or doesn’t feel it fits into the genre you’re planning to advertise it under, then that is a problem. Beta readers are the best way to find that out ahead of time.
Professional beta readers exist and I do think they’re a great service, but many people will provide this service for free. It is good etiquette to provide these people with a free digital copy of your book upon publication, but this is not a requirement. While an ideal editor is an experienced professional, an ideal beta reader is someone regularly reading books like yours. Many professional beta readers don’t list their taste, so you’ll want to make sure you find out what they’re a fan of before you engage their service. The major advantage of a paid beta reader is that you will receive the feedback in a timely manner and won’t be ghosted. This is a common problem with beta readers, as giving feedback on your manuscript is the first thing people drop when their lives get busy. Don’t be too disheartened by it, but do prepare for it by engaging more beta readers than you need. You want the feedback of 3-5 beta readers. I engage 6 beta readers for my manuscripts. 1 paid and 5 unpaid, with the expectation at least one of the unpaid readers will ghost, or not provide the service in a timely manner.
Line Edit
Of all the editing terms, the line edit is the most often confused. A line edit is not the same thing as a copy edit. Many people, even editors occasionally, will speak of the two as if they are the same. A line edit is a sentence level edit of the quality and flow of your prose. This edit focuses on clarity, readability, and style. It is a valuable edit, but an expensive one.
Most publishing houses no longer provide this edit to their signed authors, especially for genre fiction. For this reason, it is an edit that indie authors can consider skipping and if you’re looking to save money on editing; it’s a good place to cut back.
If you have an abundance of money to spend on your writing, and particularly if you write literary fiction, this is a great edit to have done. If you’re more budget conscious, don’t feel bad for skipping it.
There is absolutely no point in having a line edit done if you are not engaging a professional to do it. If you want to get this edit done but still wish to save money, look for an editor who will provide a combined line and copy editing service.
Copy edit
The copy edit is primarily corrections of the spelling and grammar in your manuscript, but also tracks consistency. For example, if a character’s eyes are blue in chapter one but they are later described as green, a copy editor will point this discrepancy out. A copy editor may make commentary on prose, largely where it effects readability. Some copy editors will spend more time on the quality of the prose than others because, as I mentioned above, copy editing and line editing are often combined into the same service.
It’s very important to remember that your copy edit should only take place when you are completely finished making changes to your manuscript. If you make change after the copy edit, you may add in mistakes that the editor never saw.
This is another edit I really recommend seeking a professional for. Many people think they’re excellent at grammar, but there is a difference between someone who always uses the right variation of their/there/they’re and someone that can spot a rogue comma in the middle of a spicy sex scene.
When hiring a copy editor, you have the advantage of being able to ask for test pages and see how well the editor performs. I suggest leaving mistakes you know are there to see if they pick up on them.
Do not hire the same editor to do both your developmental and copy edit. If they have already spent a lot of time with your manuscript, they will suffer from the same ‘manuscript blindness’ that prevents you from doing the copy edit yourself.
The other important thing to consider when choosing a copy editor is which English dialect you are writing in. American English and Australian English, for example, have different rules and follow different style guides. Ask your copy editor which style guides they are able to edit with. The standard style guide for American publishing is The Chicago Manual of Style. Most other predominantly English-speaking countries have a nationally standardised style guide. Australia has Style Manual, the UK has Style Guide, and New Zealand has Our Style Guide. If you are not a native English speaker and are unsure which dialect of English you speak, it is most likely you were taught British English (UK) or American English. For a simple test to figure out which one you write in, I’ve made a list below of words that are spelt differently in British and American English. If the words on the right look correct, then it’s American English. If the words on the left look correct, then it’s British English.
Realise vs realize
Grey vs gray
Flavour vs flavor
Offence vs offense
Catalogue vs catalog
If this list is completely confusing, and you’re not sure, that’s okay! You can just pick whichever dialect you would prefer to publish in. I recommend considering which country is a bigger part of your target audience and using that as a guide. Don’t worry too much if you’re unsure which version of English you should use. Thanks to the internet most English speakers are used to seeing the alternate spellings on a regular basis.
Proof read
This one I imagine you don’t need explained to you. It’s the final read through of your manuscript looking for errors. Spelling, grammar, and consistency. This is the very last step before publication and should come right after your copy edit.
Having a professional complete your proof read is the most ideal scenario, however, this edit is another place where there is an opportunity to save money. If there is someone in your life that has professional or educational experience that makes them very proficient with spelling and grammar, you can get them to do the proofread for you. I do not mean your friend who is a self-professed ‘grammar nazi,’ I mean a dad who is an English teacher. Many authors also do proof read swaps in order to save money on this step. Don’t use the same person who provided your manuscript critique or any of your edits. This is another instance where ‘manuscript blindness’ can cause problems. You want someone who has never read your manuscript before. You might also want to consider someone on Fiverr, or a similar freelancing site who is not a professional editor but offers proof reading services. They will usually offer their services at a much cheaper rate than an editor but, especially if they are regularly taking on proof reading jobs, will do a better job than the average person.
If you have any questions about the editing process, feel free to let me know! I’m the most responsive on Threads but if you'd like to ask anonymously go ahead and ask on Tumblr.