You’ve finished your book, and you’ve made several editing passes. Now you need a fresh but experienced set of eyes to look at it. You need an editor.

But what type of editor should you choose?

There are four major types of editing—developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading—and they just have a different focus and goals.

Developmental Editing

This type of editing is concerned with the big picture, and it may also be called content or substantive editing. For fiction, this covers character development and motive, plot arc, conflict, setting, pacing, and more. It also looks at each scene and asks how it is supporting the overall story. For nonfiction, it looks at the content, organization, logic, and structure.

The editor may advise the author to make big changes, such as rewriting, reordering, or deleting entire scenes, characters, or settings. Because major changes usually follow this type of edit, the developmental editor will typically ignore lower-order concerns, like spelling and grammar, although they might flag some glaring issues in the area.

Line Editing

The goal of line editing is to improve the prose. This editing focuses on improving word choice and writing style. It will often shorten wordy sentences and change passive voice to active voice. Line editors will also correct issues with tense or point of view (e.g., head hopping). They may also catch some inconsistencies and resolve grammatical and spelling issues, but that is primarily the job of the copyeditor.

In my experience, line editors typically don’t re-write sentences, but flag issues for you to fix. For example, they would mark a sentence that is confusing (and a good editor will explain why it’s unclear so you can implement an effective fix). Or they’ll flag instances of “telling” that would be stronger if “shown.”

Copyediting

Copyediting serves to improve clarity, consistency, and coherency. This editor will fix grammar and spelling mistakes. They will also catch inconsistencies in the story itself, e.g., was it 10 a.m. and then two hours later it was 5:30 p.m.? Did William become Wilhelm somewhere along the way? They will create a style sheet to capture these details and specific stylistic choices for this work.

After the copyedit is done, you will have a nearly perfect copy. The industry standard for copyediting is a 90–95% catch rate.

Proofreading

The proofreader is the final step and the most detail oriented. They will remove any remaining spelling or grammatical errors and fix any remaining style deviations using the style sheet created by the copyeditor. They will also handle the formatting issues.

Now you may notice that copyediting covers everything proofreading does. So why do you need a proofreader? Because the industry standard for copy editing is a 90–95% catch rate, which is impressive, but not perfect. To get that closer to 100%, you will need a fresh set of eyes to look at it.

Other Non-Editing Steps

Alpha and Beta Reading

Alpha and beta readers are the first sets of eyes upon your work that are not your own. Alpha readers are those that look at your work before you’ve finished it (e.g., you hand off chapter one before writing chapter two). Beta readers look at the completed work.

However, these are not editors. They provide feedback as your ideal reader. This feedback should focus on higher order concerns, e.g., did they find anything confusing or boring? They are helpful in identifying issues and strengths. However, they should not suggest edits or changes.

(Note: Editors should suggest fixes. If they’re only pointing out issues without offering any solutions, that’s a huge red flag!)

Fact Checking

Copy editors and proofreaders sometimes serve as fact checkers, but it is typically handled separately. Fact checkers are not needed for most works of fiction, unless you are aiming for accurate historical fiction or hard science fiction. However, for works of nonfiction, this is an important step to ensure accuracy.

So what editor do you choose?

In an ideal world with an unlimited budget, you would go through every editing step. However, your budget is likely limited. Editors typically charge between $0.01 to $0.03 per word—meaning thousands of dollars for a typical 100,000-word book.

If your budget is limited, I would recommend line editing. It’s a great medium-level editing that will strengthen your prose, catch the most egregious spelling and grammar errors, and help flag some larger developmental-level issues if they exist. I learned more about writing from my line editors comments than from any class I’d taken or book I’d read.

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