We throw around the word “edit” quite a lot in the writing world. If you have recently entered this world, you would be forgiven for thinking its meaning encompasses the entire process of getting a piece ready for publication—from making sweeping changes to the plot to cramming in commas.
Because we talk about the many processes of editing as all one thing, I’ve seen and heard of writers who focus on the wrong things at the wrong time. If you choose to revise and edit your story in an order other than going macro to micro, you’re almost certainly adding hours upon hours to the time it takes to get your writing ready for readers. You’ll see what I mean as we progress.
Before we dive in, let me just warn you that this is not an exhaustive list of people who could or should look at your book. This blog post does not touch on alpha readers, beta readers, or sensitivity readers. I’ll also remind you that every single editor is different, so you should do your research on the individual editors you’re looking to hire before hiring them. Not every editor you come across will be a good fit for your work, and that’s okay.
If you’re in the market for editing services, did you know we offer those here at Writer’s Atelier? Learn more about them here.
Story Coach or Story Fixer
When to Hire: Before you start writing.
A story coach or story fixer is someone who can take your ideas and help you connect the dots to create coherent arcs. You can also approach them with a storytelling issue you have in your piece, and they can help you figure out what’s not working and why it’s not working.
This is not the only time you can hire a story coach. Story coaches can also be brought in after a developmental editor, or whenever you’ve hit a snag in your story that is just not possible to unravel without a second set of eyes. I’ve chosen to include a story coach before the developmental editor—which many might see as the first step on the road to editing—because I personally believe having a strong story structure in place sets you up for success.
Developmental Editor
When to Hire: After your first draft.
You’ve toiled over your laptop or notebook or legal pad for what felt like ages, and now you have a finished draft of something. Before you do anything else, celebrate this achievement!
Then, after you’ve swept up the confetti, look into hiring a developmental editor. Their job is to take a finished draft and point out the overarching issues—where character development falls flat, when the proper beats aren’t hit in a story, and so on—so that you can fix these up for a stronger story overall. They generally won’t touch individual sentence or paragraph structure, but anything broader than that is fair game.
Want a nickel’s worth of free advice? Revise your work as best you can by yourself or with critique partners before you send your story to a developmental editor. Depending on how the editors charge for their services, it could save you money to do so!
Line Editor
When to Hire: When your story structure is solid, but your prose needs work.
Ho-hum prose can turn an otherwise great read into something that’s a slog to get through. That’s why we turn to line editors. Line editing is all about the style of the words you’re using—word choice, sentence structure, flow, and voice.
Let me put it to you this way. When you’re at a bookstore, a cover can catch the eye, the back cover copy can intrigue you to give the story a chance, and then what do you do next before you decide to purchase? If you’re like so many readers, you open up to the first couple of pages and skim to see if the writing hooks you. If it does, you can at least partially thank that author’s line editor!
I am frequently guilty of skipping this stage of the editing process, and you should not be like me in this regard. I naturally obsess over which words I use in my fiction to the degree that my writing comes out so much slower than it could if I simply relaxed and let the words come as they may, and left this kind of thinking to a professional. That actually sounds really nice, now that I’ve put it that way …
Copy Editor and Proofreader
When to Hire: Before you go to print.
Strictly speaking, copy editing is about the correctness of the words you’re using—typos, spelling errors, punctuation, and grammar—and proofreading is the final round of minor edits before a book is published. Proofreading can also involve making sure the book will print or be displayed on e-readers cleanly.
I’m smushing these two concepts under one heading because, in my experience, copy editing and proofreading are often grouped together as part of a freelancer’s service. This is the case on Reedsy, for example, where you would actually search for copy editors to find line editors.
