The Four Different Types of Book Editors
What does a book editor do anyway?
When authors come to me for editing services, they say, "I need an editor." Most people know they need their book edited, but they don't know what that entails or what they're looking for.
Today, I'm breaking down the different types of editing available for your book, so you can be educated before you hire an editor, know what you're talking about, and know what you need so that the process saves you time and money and runs more smoothly.
The following is a breakdown of the four basic types of edits. Many editors might break this down into additional categories, but everything essentially falls into one of these four:
Developmental Edit
Line Edit
Copy Edit
Proofread
Developmental edit (also known as a Structural Edit)
A developmental edit is big picture edit. It examines the overall structure of your book. Your developmental editor will spend some time talking to you about your goal and purpose with this book. Your developmental editor will read the book and determine whether this book serves the purpose that you designated for it from the outset. She will ask big-picture questions while editing like: Is your book structured in a way that a reader can understand the content? Is there enough content? Is the content in line with what you're trying to convey? What is the direction of the book? Is the book clear? Does it meet the standards of your genre, and does it meet those reader expectations?
A developmental edit is all about the big things that you need to do to make your manuscript the best that it can be.
Line Edit (also known as a Substantive Edit or Content Edit)
It's easy to confuse a line edit with a copy edit since they're both occurring at the sentence level, but the line edit looks at the language and not necessarily the grammar. Those two things are very closely aligned, but they're not exactly the same. The line editor is determining whether your sentences meet your overall goals for your book. The line edit addresses things like clarity, sentence style and repetition. Are your sentences clear? Do they reflect the tone that you're trying to convey? Are you repeating a certain phrase over and over again?
Your line editor might rewrite sentences or certain paragraphs to improve your book's language.
Copy Edit
Your copy editor is digging into the weeds. They're going into those sentences and cleaning them up while looking at the grammar. Is your grammar usage correct? Is your punctuation correct? Are you using the correct tense or parts of speech? Your copy editors will do a much more intense cleanup than your line editor.
Proofread
A proofread is usually the last editing step before the manuscript is published. The proofreader is mostly checking for errors. They're looking for errors in spelling, punctuation, spacing, hyphens, and all of the little things. Your proofreader is like a human version of a program like Spellcheck but much better at it because they're human and experienced.
Just so you know, you don’t necessarily need a different editor for each step in the process. Many editors handle each type, or some will handle part of it and work with another editor for the rest.
Of course, there is more to each type than what I've shared here, and I plan to go more in-depth at a later date. For now, I've given you a rundown so that you're familiar with the terms so you can be more educated moving forward.