DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING

This comes first and is big-picture work that involves looking at the story as a whole. You might hear it called structural editing, but the focus is always on:

• Plot: The sequence of events leading the reader through the story.
• Structure: How the plot is organized. Are events sequenced correctly?
• Characterization: Are characters believable as we follow with them through their journey.
• Pace: The speed of the story as it unfolds. This should vary to give fast-paced action scenes, but also have a lull for readers to catch their breath.
• Viewpoint: Readers should know whose eyes they are seeing through and head-hopping that can confuse and pull the reader out of the story.
• Narrative style: Is viewpoint in the first, second or third person?
• Tense: Is the story told in the present or the past tense? Both have benefits and limitations.

MANUSCRIPT APPRAISAL

This is a review of your work, looking at all the areas a Development Edit focuses on, but without the editing aspect. Instead you will receive a chapter-by-chapter evaluation of your work highlighting issues which need addressing. It is a great way to see how your manuscript is holding up and whether there are any areas for you to review and rework.

The Manuscript Appraisal can also be referred to as a Manuscript Evaluation or Review.

LINE EDITING

This is the second step in the editing process and it looks at style. A strong sentence can make a story; a poorly written one can kill it. Line editing is also referred to as substantive or stylistic editing and focuses on:

• Phrasing and word choice
• Character consistency
• Viewpoint and narrative style
• Removing cliché and awkward metaphors
• Dialogue quality and consistency
• Removing repetition and overwriting
• Consistent tense
• Showing rather than telling

COPY EDITING

Copyediting is the nuts-and-bolts of sentence-level editing focusing on:

• Spelling, grammar, punctuation, hyphenation and capitalization and dialogue tags
• Consistent proper-noun spelling
• Spacing between letters, words, lines and paragraphs
• Chapter order, timelines and logical character traits

PROOFREADING

Proofreading is the final stage of editing before publication. Every novel, print or digital, requires this final quality check. A proofreader looks for errors and layout problems that slipped through previous rounds of editing or have been introduced during them.

Proofreaders do more than just fix typos. They check for consistency—spelling, punctuation and grammar—but also check layout issues such as consistent indentation, spacing, chapter headings, page numbers, and styles.