What Type of Editing Should You Ask For? (Yes, There’s More Than One!)
Well, Project October and all the associated intensive writing is over for another year and that means it’s time for Project November and the intensive editing process to take its place. So here’s an appropriately timed blog post on the different types of editing.
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Earlier this year, I was asked if I might be interested in proofreading a coffee table book for a corporate company. It was the story of their beginnings all the way up to their current day successes, a glossy thing with lots of pictures, and none of their internal staff had the time to do it. Sure, I replied, providing my hourly rate and the length of time I thought a proofread would take based on the word count I’d been advised of.
But when the first chapter came through, it was clear it was still in its first draft. It hadn’t been through any of the other editing stages that should come before a proofread. It wasn’t even in the form of a proof (formatted as it will look in the final book with headers, footers, page numbers, columns, photographs, captions, etc). It was just a poorly formatted Word document.
No wonder nobody in the company had the time to do a proofread – they didn’t even know what proofreading was. In fact, they thought it was something else entirely. What they should have asked for was a rewrite, a line edit and copyediting, which then could have been sent to a designer or typesetter for preparation of a proof. Because it’s only after preparation of a proof that you can undertake a proofread.
I ended up doing a rewrite, a line edit and copyediting for the cost of a proofread because I’d committed to doing the work without asking to see a sample first (that was my mistake – I assumed incorrectly that because they were a professional organisation I could expect a certain level of understanding from them). It was about four times as much work so they got a real bargain. But not all editors are suckers like me. If a writer asks for a proofread and sends through anything except a proof, an editor will more than likely send it back to the writer with either a revised (much more expensive) quote or a request for the proof after the writing has been through the other stages.
So make sure you know what you’re asking for when you begin the editing process. It will make your writing life so much easier and so much less embarrassing. Here are the different types and what distinguishes them.
Rewriting
Technically, rewriting is not an editor’s job. If you want writing, even if it’s rewriting, then ask a writer. But wait, hang on, you’re a writer. Shouldn’t you be doing it yourself?
Yes, you should. If you want to be credited as the writer of a piece, then you need to be the one doing all the hard writing work. Otherwise, prepare to have another writer’s name nestling uncomfortably next to yours on the cover of the final book.
Once you’ve written a first draft, you might be desperate for feedback from somebody. But all writers have to learn to be their own first port of call for feedback. You’re a writer – you should know the basics of writing – but you’re also a reader. So read your book. Take copious notes. And then have a go at a second draft based on the things that bothered you when you read it. Essentially, you are doing your own first “edit”.
Apart from saving yourself a boatload of money, it’s important to get good at this because writers have to do a lot of rewriting. Nobody anywhere has ever written a perfect first draft. And most editors don’t do rewrites. They might tell you how to make your writing better, how to fix it but they still won’t fix it for you. So being able to get to the second and maybe even third drafts without paying anyone for any kind of edit is in your own best interests.
Substantive Editing/Developmental Editing/Structural Editing/Manuscript Assessment
Substantive editing or developmental editing or structural editing or manuscript assessment, whatever you want to call it, is the big picture review. It’s the evaluation of the story, the plotting, the pacing, the characters, how they all work together and if they can work together better. At this point, nobody cares all that much if the words are spelled correctly and they certainly aren’t going to fix those kinds of mistakes. Suggestions will be made about combining or eliminating minor characters, removing and adding plot points, identifying plot holes, reordering chapters (particularly where flashbacks occur), cutting slow and irrelevant scenes, getting to the exciting scenes more quickly, consistency of each character’s dialogue, alternative endings… hopefully, you get the idea.
Line Editing
Once your book is in pretty good structural shape, it’s time for the line edit. This is about tightening the writing itself – improving the style, removing any instances of poor expression, clichés, redundancies, repetition – and helping it flow. Line editing can be a confronting process because the critique can feel very personal. A plot point that isn’t working or a misspelled word, writers can be philosophical about these things (I said can, not will – some writers really resent any suggested changes but that’s another blog post for another day). But commentary on the style of your writing can be challenging. Try to remember it’s all in aid of a better book. And making you a better writer.
Copyediting
Copyediting takes care of the basics – correct spelling, appropriate punctuation, good grammar, elimination of typos – and a good copyeditor will prepare a style sheet for consistency – their own and the proofreader’s later on.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the very last edit to find the final few errors that none of the other edits have picked up. The text should be formatted on pages the size they will be printed (i.e. not A4) with headings in correct font and size, page numbers, headers, etc. This is a review of exactly what the reader will see, not a review of the working documents that all previous edits have worked on. And it is the last edit. It should never be the first.
A Note on Publishing
If you choose to self-publish, it will be up to you to know the differences between and the appropriate time to work your way through each of these editing stages. A line editing and copyediting can usually be done at the same time by the same editor for roughly the same cost. Most good editors wouldn’t be able to leave something that needs changing alone just because it doesn’t fall within the right category of what it is they are being paid to do anyway.
If you’ve been lucky enough to be signed by a traditional publisher, they will – or at least the trustworthy ones do – guide you on and pay for each of the editing stages. Sometimes, though, you may need the assistance of an editor to get your manuscript to a level of quality that elevates you above the writing pack and gets you noticed. A manuscript assessment and rewrites will usually achieve this, if it’s going to happen. Everything else will be taken care of by the publisher.
A Note on Perfection
About three weeks after I published my latest book, Project January: A Sequel About Writing, I was reading a chapter of it out loud to my nephews, the chapter in which I talked about them. There, as plain as the nose on my face (and it’s a really, plainly, painfully obvious nose), was a straight apostrophe that should have been a curly apostrophe. It was even in my style sheet that there shouldn’t be any straight apostrophes. I thought I’d tracked them all down, but no, there was a rogue one staring me in the face.
It didn’t make any difference to the quality of the writing and it’s likely that most people reading the book wouldn’t even realise that it’s the “wrong” apostrophe but I was mortified. I really shouldn’t have been. Of all the types of mistakes an editor can make, it’s the best kind. If that’s the only thing wrong with my book, then I’m doing pretty well. (I’m sure there are other mistakes, I just haven’t found them yet.)
No matter how many editors you engage, your book will never be perfect. The idea that editors don’t make mistakes or don’t miss mistakes is ridiculous. The job title is “Editor”, not “Perfectionist”. And there has never been a “perfect” book in terms of editing. There will always be at least one mistake. That’s life.
So then why would you need more than one editor? Because you can get close to perfection. If you methodically work your way through each of the editing stages, you’ll get close. You’re increasing the probability of finding most of the errors. And by using a couple of different editors, hopefully the second will pick up the things the first didn’t and vice versa.
