Hello dear readers!
It's Wednesday, which means I have made a new YouTube video for you all!
This week, I am answering a question I get so often--what are the differences in the types of editing? This is such an important question that I actually answer it on my home page:
Development Editing: This is a thorough, macro-level examination of your manuscript, and is the first step in the editing process. This type of edit is the most involved and time consuming. I look at every aspect of your book to see if it is organized correctly, makes sense, all the plot lines work, all the characters belong, etc. A book may look substantially different post-DE.
Copyediting: This is fine-tuning of your development edited manuscript. Here I check for grammar, spelling, punctuation, consistent use of terms, etc. This is a more micro-level edit. A book will look much the same after CE--it will just be polished up to a high shine.
Proofreading: Proofreading happens after a book has been laid out in a design program. Here, I check for bad breaks in text, layout issues, art issues, and also read the entire text to check for typos. This is the last stage of edit before a book is printed or sold as an ebook.
I was remiss there, however--I should have included another type of editing: line editing. Many of us are guilty of using terms interchangeably, myself included. Often people will say development editing when they mean line editing, and vice versa. Line editing is going through your manuscript, line by line (hence the name), and polishing it into the best work it can be. Does the author's voice ring through in every line? Is the word choice in each line the best it can be? This is a fine honing of your prose.
Make sure you come back next week when we will talk about how to hire freelancer editors for your work, and what you might need to expect to pay them. Have questions in the mean time? Drop me a line!
As always, happy reading, keep writing, and stay tuned!
E.