At the end of the four week period you will receive your marked up manuscript and the developmental letter, which constitutes the
end of this developmental edit package.
In either case, there are likely several
rounds of developmental editing that any given manuscript might go through before the author arrives at a final draft.
In the
case of developmental editing, which focuses on the big picture of our story, characters, and plot, we might not even know — really — what editors do.
Here's a «master list»... Click To TweetThe skills of line editing can cross boundaries with both the story development
skills of developmental editing and the sentence - level skills of copy editing.
Just wondering... Is there a substantial difference in the costs
of developmental editing between a work that lies basically in an initial outline form and a work that is nearly finished that needs substantial developmental editing?
It sounds like you've found just the right approach for editing your work — input from high - quality beta readers plus an editor who knows NZ English and can offer a
degree of developmental editing.
You'll probably be surprised by the
number of developmental editing tools available for free, or on an as - needed basis, to help you get your book into your prospect's hands as quickly as possible.
However, I still don't really believe — and I can't prove it exactly, but I'm pretty sure — from when I talk to editors and writers, that they're not getting a
lot of developmental editing from publishers because they're in a hurry.
At the
conclusion of the developmental editing process, your manuscript should be exceptionally sound in concept, content, structure, and overall execution, and it should be ready for final polishing and correction.
In an earlier blog post we talked about the
importance of developmental editing and why the focus on big - picture stuff — structure, book - spanning issues like plot or organization, character development, dialogue, and that sort of thing — needs to come first, before you spend too much time worrying about the finer points of style and wording.
The recent downsizing in the industry and the
absence of developmental editing by commercial book publishers has established a broad choice of great editors available for hire.
For a more in - depth look at the three
phases of developmental editing (represented by the orange boxes to the left), download this PDF: The Three Phases.
My writing group goes over everything in process, which takes the
place of a developmental edit, and beta readers catch problems before the MS goes to the copyeditor.
She's writing here about the
kind of developmental editing work, the need for which can be too easily overlooked in self - publishing settings by writers who may not have the experience, or perspective on their own work, to be able to recognize.
I appreciate not only the whats you include, but also the
hows of developmental editing as you describe them: «A good editor will enter the author's universe.»
They should have gone through another round or two
of developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, all of the above.