Developmental editors, line editors, copyeditors, acquiring editors…Who are these people?

which does your book need? When it comes to professional criticism and editing, there are so many different types of editors that it can be extremely perplexing for writers. In this piece, I’ll go over the various editorial jobs and offer my recommendations for who to hire and when.

However, first a

Freelance Editors vs. Publishing House Editors

Because there is a lot of misunderstanding about this, I’d like to make a distinction between in-house editors and freelance editors you might work with before pitching agencies or self-publishing your book.

Publishing house editors

The editor, sometimes known as an acquiring editor, is the person who buys your book and steers it through the publishing process at a publishing house. When your agency is trying to sell your book, they will go to this person. Your agent will pitch your novel to editors at several publishing houses in the same way that you pitch literary agents. When one of those editors wishes to purchase the rights to publish your book, they contact you through your agency and make you an offer. If you accept, you’ll sign a contract, and the editor will begin revising and polishing your novel alongside you. Once it’s finished, they take on the role of project manager, collaborating with everyone from the cover designer and interior designer to the folks in charge of marketing, PR, and distribution to keep the entire publication process on track.

After you and your editor have worked together to make the manuscript the best it can be, they’ll have a copyeditor go over it with a fine-tooth comb. The copyeditor may be a permanent employee of the publishing business or a freelancer with whom they routinely collaborate. In any case, the publishing house covers all of the editing costs.

In my essay, “How to Get Your Book Traditionally Published,” you can learn a lot more about how traditional publishing works.

Freelance editors

You may also hear an author mention an editor they hired before landing a book writing contract, and sometimes even before landing an agency. Because getting a literary agent is so difficult (see how to improve your odds here), many authors first employ an independent editor before pitching to agents.

Editors charge by the word, by the page, by the hour, or by the project, and you pay for it out of pocket. They’ll assist you with making your manuscript as solid as possible, giving you more confidence and increasing your chances of success. Gone are the days when an agent would pull a decent novel from the slush pile and work with the author to improve it until it was publishable. Before a book may attract the attention of an agency, it must be as close to being ready for publication as feasible.

Types of freelance editing you might want to pay for

Developmental Edit

A developmental edit is a complete examination of your manuscript. It’s intended to assist you in making significant changes to the whole book. Your editor will point out what you’ve done well and where you can improve on anything from voice to setting to sentence construction, but large-scale factors like plot, character development, point of view, tempo, and structure will be strongly weighted in this type of edit. Flow, organization, argument, and clarity in nonfiction.

You’ll receive feedback from this editor in the form of an editorial letter that covers all aspects of your work. These can be anywhere from 3 to 15 single-spaced pages long. My own are usually on the longer side since, in addition to suggesting adjustments, I want to spend a lot of time focusing on what is working, so you may play to your strengths.

Line edit

A line edit, on the other hand, is more substantial than a copyedit, which is solely concerned with grammar and usage. While a line editor will normally bring out any grammar issues they come across, especially repeated ones, the emphasis here is on voice, clarity, flow, dialogue, and impact. A line editor’s main goal is to assist you in making each sentence more effective rather than correcting every single typo. How many words in a book really matter? visit Phantom Writing for complete details.