The Ultimate Guide to the Book Editing Process

a comprehensive edit of your book likely requires more rounds of revisions than you initially thought it would but as a professional book editor I genuinely do not want you to fear the red pen embarking on the book editing process does take a lot of stamina but I promise you at the end of it you're going to have a much stronger story that is better than you ever thought possible so today I'm going to give you an overview of all the different editing stages broken down into the two two key phases of book editing my goal is to help you understand what to expect going into the book publication process and help you understand all of the industry terminology so you can hit the ground running with revisions and help your story reach its maximum potential if you're anywhere along the book writing or publishing journey I recommend subscribing to my channel and joining our amazing community of authors every week I either give tactical writing advice or talk about the publishing industry since that's my professional background and I'd love to have you join us one quick thing before we in if you can hit that thumbs up button it's a small thing but it helps my channel in a big way and I really appreciate it okay let's talk about phase one of book editing which is what I call structural or substantive editing this is the first phase of editing and it focuses on all the big picture elements of your story all the foundational building blocks that make your story what it is rather than line level issues like grammar and spelling as I go through all the phases and types of book editing I want you to picture it like a funnel graphic we're going to start at the top and work our way down so substantive or structural editing falls in the top section some areas that this phase of editing will focus on include pacing plot holes character development structure POV themes resolution length this is the type of editing that I personally specialize in and it is the type of editing that most literary agents and acquiring editors at publishing houses also specialize in you may find yourself going through multiple different rounds of editing within this structural editing phase either on your own or with critique Partners or with a professional Editor to address all the big picture issues in your story the goal with this type of editing is to make sure all the foundational elements of the story are strong to hold everything up now I want to talk about the two primary forms of structural or substantive editing the first is an editorial assessment which can also be referred to as a manuscript evaluation or manuscript critique even an editorial letter this is a detailed document going through all the foundational elements of your story and evaluating them for opportunities of improvement this is typically the first type of edit a manuscript will go through we're still operating at the very top of that funnel here since at this phase so much of the manuscript text itself could still change we don't want to jump the gun and dive into specific scenes before we know that that scene is even going to belong in the draft right we're talking big picture things here are all the povs included the ones that should be included does the plot make sense and hold up are the main characters going through a compelling transformative Arc do we need to add characters omit characters do we need to change the ending do we need to trim 30,000 words off these are the big picture elements we are dealing with as the editorial assessment phase once you have finished a draft and you have gone through as much self-editing as you can and you really need an external set of eyes on the book that's when I recommend getting a editorial assessment it will give you a comprehensive understanding of all the foundational aspects of your story as well as which ones you could improve to fully realize your vision for the story a strong editorial assessment is also going to provide specific revision suggestions to give you a road map for what to do with the story once the editorial assessment is complete the next level of editing would be developmental editing this involves inline comments in the manuscript itself typically via a software like Words tracked changes here the editor is flagging specific lines of text in the story making comments about the placement of different scenes the order of scenes the length of scenes how a character is being portrayed the effectiveness of a dialogue Exchange Etc they might suggest moving scenes around condensing some scenes expanding some scenes the goal of the developmental edit is to improve the overall flow of the story and ensure that every single scene in the story is there for a reason and earns its place on the page if there aren't scenes that need to be there we need to add them in if there are scenes there that shouldn't be there we need to take them out I recommend diving into developmental editing after you've had an editorial assessment because ideally the larger picture issues will have been dealt with at the editorial assessment phase so you and your editor can dive into specific scene level issues in the developmental edit I have another video that gets into the differences between an editorial assessment and a developmental edit in more detail so I'll link that in the description if you want to check that out if you've been enjoying my videos I have great news there is so much more content waiting for you on my newsletter website chapter- break.com I'm publishing exclusive interviews with best-selling authors and literary agents and I'm doing deep dives into specific editorial issues from my background as a developmental book editor it's completely free to subscribe and as a bonus you will get my story self assessment worksheet which is a quiz I designed to help you get unstuck with your current work in progress and identify those big picture story issues that you can then drill into and improve for the next draft to make the book even stronger the links to download your free story self assessment and checkout chapter break are in the description now let's get into phase two of the editing process which involves the different types of sentence level editing once all the overarching story elements are in place due to the work you've done through the editorial assessment and the developmental edit now you can move on to the three next phases of editing that I bucket under sentence level editing here we are more concerned with the text itself while developmental editing focuses on achieving your vision for the story delivering an effective reader experience and making your story reach its full potential line editing is helping you improve the pros itself this is the type of editing that many authors think of when they think they're getting their book edited but remember that you don't want to dive into sentence level editing prematurely and skip over all the structural and developmental level work because if you do so you might be working on refining and revising sentences that might not even make it into the final draft I am all about editing efficiently which is why I like to follow the funnel so the next level in our funnel after editorial assessment and developmental edit is a line edit line editing aims to polish the pros on a sentence and paragraph level either line edit you'll focus on word choice sentence structure Clarity continuity issues dialogue issues tone consistency Etc during the line edit you might fix some grammatical issues or spelling issues as you go but that's not the focus of this type of edit you want to make sure your Pros sings and that each and every sentence packs a punch and every word matters if you are working with an editor rest assured that they are going to be working to retain your unique voice even as they are making line level suggestions the next level of editing is copy editing in a copy edit you are going to dive deep into grammar syntax spelling and formatting to ensure correctness and enhancing the clarity and readability of the story while line editing is focusing more on the content and the style of your sentence es copy editing is more about the technical correctness this is an opportunity to really tighten up your writing at the sentence level I typically recommend working with a different copy editor than your developmental editor even potentially your line editor because a copy edit is a very specific type of edit and requires someone who is trained in grammar plus it can really help to get totally fresh eyes on the manuscript at this point because you or your other editors might too close to it to really see those more detailed issues your copy editor will typically provide a stylesheet that includes your book's house style for all your formatting requirements lastly at the very tip of the funnel is proof reading this is a final meticulous check for any spelling or grammar issues by the time that you get to a proof read the manuscript should be quite polished already it's really a final quality control check to dot your eyes and cross your te's I I also recommend working with a wholly new editor for the final proofread again so you get fresh eyes on the manuscript at this point to catch any of those things that might have passed by the other editors who have already been through it okay are you still with me now that we have gone through all the different editing phases I want to reiterate your road map for revising your book now the editing process will vary somewhat depending on every book's needs as well as depending on your publication goals if you're publishing it will be important to go through all of the editorial phases that I just laid out if you want to put out a polished product if you are querying literary agents i' recommend going through the substantive or structural editing phase at a minimum to make sure the manuscript really is as strong as possible to present literary agents but you will go through many if not all of these editing phases with the publisher who eventually makes you a book deal so to reiterate the phases of editing begin with the editorial assessment then go into developmental editing then line editing then copy editing then proofreading in general you start with the big picture edits and work your way down to the sentence level and then Word level Corrections this process is not necessarily perfectly linear however you could go through multiple rounds of Developmental editing before you drill down into sentence level editing or multiple rounds of line editing for instance I know it sounds like like a lot and it is writing a book is not for the faint of heart and neither is revising one but I promise you that each of these editing phases is crucial to making your book as strong as it can possibly be now I want to briefly go through a few other types of editing or reviews you might get on your manuscript through the book publishing process the first is sensitivity reading this type of read ensures that any cultural social or identity related representation in your book is accurate and that it is respectful and free from any harmful stereotypes if your book deals with themes or representations that require a cultural awareness that is outside of your own lived experience then it can be beneficial to work with a sensitivity reader who has that experience and that understanding typically you would integrate this either just before or just after the line editing phase though it really is never too early to get a sensitivity read if you determine that you need one or would like one for your book another type of editing is factchecking this verifies the factual information portrayed in the book dates historical events Etc and it is especially critical for non-fiction but it could be used for fiction that incorporates historical elements as well such as if you're protagonist is a marine biologist in the 60s and you want to make sure that the science is portrayed accurately this would typically occur with the line edit and lastly another type of review you could get for your manuscript is a beta read this is not a formal edit but a beta read is essentially a way to check your work against specific readers who are your target audience so typically you would give it to someone who you would like to be a reader for your book and they will give you a gut check on if it aligns with the genre as they expected it to what they liked about it what they didn't like getting those broad Strokes Impressions and see how the story is resonating with potential readers a beta read could happen at any point in the editing process but typically happens at the substantive structural level editing phases I hope this video helped you better understand the book editing process and what it all entails and why each and every phase of editing is critical to your book success so let me know in the comments where you are currently at in your stage of editing or if you're still drafting let me know that as well and if you want to hear more about the specific editing I specialize in check out my video on developmental editing and why I think every author needs a developmental edit before you head out please give give me a thumbs up if you like today's video don't forget your free story self assessment worksheet waiting for you in the description below and my newsletter link and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on my next video thanks so much for watching and happy writing [Music]

Channel: Alyssa Matesic

Views: 4,612

Keywords: authortube, working with a book editor, what is a book editor, how to become an editor, how to work in publishing, developmental editor, structural edit, developmental edit, how to edit a book, how to write a book, what is developmental editing, developmental editing, structural editing, how to revise a novel, book editor, writing tips, writing advice, write a novel, book editing process, how to revise a book, copy edit, line edit, proofread, editing a book, editing a novel

Id: rZFUlT28YVk

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2024