The Editing Process: At a Glance

Have you ever wondered what the difference was between copyediting and line editing? Or developmental and structural editing? Or maybe someone explained it all to you but then someone else had different definitions and now it all seems confusing!

To put it simply: Book editing is broken down into stages. These stages sometimes overlap and often one stage has different names for the same thing. (Not helpful.)

I can only speak for myself and what definitions I use, but I'll also include some other terms I've heard and seen offered from other freelance editors or authors. Approaching this from an independent or self-published author standpoint, here's what the process might look like after the heavy-lifting of writing the book is finished.

Editing Process break down

1. First thing's first. Finish your manuscript.
​2. Read your own work for developmental/structural edits and revise as you see fit.
3. Get Beta readers for your book. Sometimes this includes a sensitivity reader and many freelance editors also offer Beta/Sensitivity reading as a separate service. Think of it like an informal manuscript evaluation.
4. Manuscript Evaluation (optional) Best for getting a feel for your book. An evaluation is a comprehensive look at the vibes of your story with detailed notes about what's working in your favor, and what might need further revision.
5. Developmental & Structural Editing (professional)
6. Line editing (professional)
7. Copy editing (professional)
8. Proofreading. Read aloud and then again backwards to catch errors before your book goes to print.

2. Developmental Self-Edit

After you've typed "The End" and given yourself a well-deserved break, it's time to edit your work as much as you possibly can before anyone else reads it (except maybe your best friend who has been dying to read your book and simply can't wait any longer).
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​Work big picture, moving those puzzle pieces around, then sharpen your focus to a page, then a paragraph, then a sentence level. You're mimicking the professional stages of editing to the best of your abilities (and yes, every stage really is important, no skipping!).

This stage is especially important whether you're looking to publish traditionally with a publisher, or do it yourself.

3. Beta & Sensitivity Readers

​Ask you Beta readers questions! When employing Beta readers it's best to have a structured approach. That way, your reader knows what to look for, and you get the type of feedback you're looking for. win/win.

Here are some example questions you might have in a Beta reader survey or report:

1. What was your overall impression of the story? Was it compelling? Unique?
2. Was there anything you didn’t like about it? If so, what?
3. Did the story grab you at the beginning? If not, where did it really begin for you?
4. Were there any points where you started to lose interest? How was the pacing?
5. Was the story easy to follow? If not, why not?
6. Was there anything particular that you found confusing?
7. Did you notice any inconsistencies (in the plot, characters, or anything else)?
8. Did you find the main character engaging? If so, what was most engaging about them? If you didn’t find them engaging, why not?
9. Overall, which characters did you find the most engaging, and why?
10. Overall, which characters did you find the least engaging, and why?
11. Were you able to keep track of the characters, i.e. who was who? Were there too many?
12. Did you find the ending satisfying (not necessarily happy)?

Sensitivity readers can be found to assess the representation of a character's race, cultural or religious practice, sexuality, or any sensitive topic that might be accidentally misrepresented or need clarity.

4. Professional Manuscript Evaluation

Okay, I know I said earlier that all the stages are necessary. That was kind of a white lie. You don't HAVE to get a manuscript evaluation unless you want to. It's less a formal edit where you get a marked up manuscript back (like you would with a developmental or line edit) but more like comprehensive feedback on how you're doing with your own edits. It can be confidence bolstering if the evaluation includes some market or genre notes and can be helpful in finding the right niche for a book.

Evaluations are great for those just getting started (offering broad direction for revisions), or those super confident in their own skills and/or manuscripts that have had thorough edits already done. Because of the aforementioned market/genre notes this stage is best left to a professional who will have read widely and understand the industry expectations. It's their business to know the business, you know?

5. Professional Developmental Editing

aka: Substantive Editing; Structural Editing; Content Editing

This is probably the stage that has the most interpretations (and names) and what exactly is explored in your manuscript will depend on the editor. As I can only speak for myself, here's my understanding and practice of this stage.

Developmental editing is my favorite part. This is where the storytelling as a whole can really bloom into something remarkable. Characters are explored and given depth and motives, the whole plot is analyzed to look for any holes and the order of events and perspective shifts might be shuffled around to see when and where the story can have the greatest impact on the reader.

Developmental editing can also include notes regarding genre expectations. If you think you're writing a young adult mystery novel, but the adults save the day at the end, then it might not be a YA novel after all. Development is there to give you a nudge and point out that your story might work better in your chosen genre if you rewrite that last bit.

Do the subplots add to the story or distract from it? Should I reveal the murderer at the beginning of my mystery novel, or toss them in with a red herring? When should the romantic interest of my romantasy novel realize that they're in love with my main character? Right away? After they slay the troll together?

If you're asking yourself these questions, you're working on development and structure.

6. Professional Line Editing

Like Developmental Editing, the scope of services in Line Editing can shift. For example, I bundle my Line and Copy Editing together since in my mind, they're nigh inseparable (read why I think so under the next section).

Line editing, strictly speaking, is sentence level editing that includes word choice. This stage is for clarifying sentences that might be worded a bit awkwardly, clarifying dialogue so that it sounds natural, moving sentences around within a paragraph. Sort of like small scale Developmental Editing.

7. Professional Copy Editing

Copy Editing is typically just a grammatical check. This is the sort of thing many writers lean on AI programs like Grammarly to help out with (even if the silly computers don't always get the nuance and implications right!).

I combine Line and Copy Editing in my own business because as I reword sentences or correct word choice for clarity, I'm prompted to add or remove punctuation like commas, em dashes, or periods to accommodate the changes. Some editors will add some light copyediting into their line edits for this reason, reserving a more thorough focus on grammar for a standalone copyedit service. Either way that separation is a little fuzzy and it works out in my clients' favor if I simply combine the two and don't have to restrict myself or my work flow.

Copy editing is also where style guides are implemented (if not sooner) and checks are made for things like proper citations and dialogue formatting.

8. Proofreading

aka: Proofing

Proofreading is the final step and covers just about everything. It's like copyediting in that it looks for grammatical errors that might have been missed, but proofreading is also incredibly important after developmental changes. For example, if a character's name is changed during the developmental edit because it's discovered that two characters have the same name, the proofreader will need to make sure the names match up to the correct characters.

Read your book aloud (especially dialogue) cover to cover to catch mistakes or awkward phrasing, read paragraphs backwards to catch grammatical errors or misspellings.

You can never have too many proofreaders or proofread too many times. Inevitably, mistakes like typos will make it through, but this stage is where we try our best to slay those sneaky buggers with the power of our mighty red pens!

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Crystal Carney

Crystal Carney is an editor and writer with an affinity for fantasy, literary nonfiction, and poetry. She has an education in publishing from the Denver Publishing Institute and expands her knowledge base every day through online forums, revised industry standards, webinars, professional contacts, and books. She has a passion for literary art and helping writers realize their dream of writing for a living.