The Editorial Process
The editorial process is a multi-step undertaking that takes your writing from a final draft of your manuscript to a finished book. These steps are performed in sequence, each building upon the work done in the previous steps. As they require different skillsets, they will often be performed by different individuals. My services are restricted to copyediting and proofreading, but I feel it’s useful for a writer to have a complete picture of the process needed to get their book across the finish line and ready for publishing.
Content Editing
The editorial process starts with Content Editing, also called Developmental Editing. The content editor isn’t there to correct your spelling, but rather works with you to get the actual substance and structure of your manuscript into the best shape possible, going over your manuscript at the big-picture level. They work with you to make sure the plot or topic of the manuscript is well developed, that everything is optimally organized, seeing if there’s anything that should be added or removed, and checking for inconsistencies and factual errors.
In short, content editing works to get the substance of what your manuscript actually says into its finalized form.
Line Editing
With content editing complete, the next step in the process is Line Editing. While the content editor is looking at the content of your manuscript, the line editor is looking at the language used. Specifically, the line editor is looking at the language from a creative or stylistic point of view, making sure everything is worded in a way that maximizes the impact of what’s being said, that it’s in line with the intended tone, and that the language used is clear. The line editor also checks for the overall logical flow and pacing of the manuscript. Finally, the line editor works to ensure that the manuscript feels stylistically consistent, and that any changes they make are in line with the author’s personal style.
Copyediting
Next, the manuscript then goes into Copyediting, which is one of the services I provide. Like line editing, copyediting is all about the language. But where line editing looks at language from a stylistic perspective, copyediting does so from a functional one. The most basic way copyediting does this is in checking the mechanics of your writing: correcting spelling errors, fixing missing or misused punctuation marks, and generally making sure that your manuscript is consistently following the rules of grammar. Copyediting also involves tweaking the phrasing and word choice to make sure the manuscript reads well, but with a greater focus on clarity than style. Finally, the copyeditor will also keep an eye out for any continuity or factual errors that may have slipped through the content editing phase.
When copyediting is complete, the wording and writing of the manuscript will be in an essentially finalized state.
Layout
When the copyediting is complete, the manuscript moves into Layout and Formatting (you’ll also see terms like “Typesetting” or “Design” applied to this phase). Layout is the process of making the design changes that takes a manuscript and turns it into something that looks like a finished book. The page dimensions are set, the desired font style is applied, the cover and any other artwork are created and added, page numbers and the table of contents are added if not already present, as well as front and back matter (the copyright page, for instance) and so on.
For modern editing that is done on a computer, another way think of this is that up to this point, the writer, the content editor, the line editor, and the copyeditor will have likely been working with the manuscript as a Word document, or something similar. Once the layout specialist is done, the manuscript will generally be a PDF, or an EPub or similar file format for ebooks, that looks like what the final published book will look like.
Proofreading
Next, and potentially last, we come to Proofreading, which is the other service I provide. Proofreading is usually the last thing to be done before the book is ready to be published and is, at its core, all about having one final set of eyes to go over the manuscript before it goes to print (or uploaded to Amazon, as the case may be). Proofreading has some similarities to copyediting, in that proofreading is focused on catching and fixing any remaining grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors; however, proofreading doesn’t include larger-scale changes that may alter the manuscript’s layout, so generally no rewriting beyond what’s needed to correct objective mechanical errors, and no additional fact checking or reviewing the book’s content. As proofreading takes place after the layout process, it is also the proofreader’s job to check for any formatting errors that may have slipped in or weren’t caught during layout.
Once the proofreader’s edits have been implemented, your book will officially be done and ready for publishing (for most books, at least, which brings us to the next section).
Indexing
Finally, some books will also have to go through Indexing, where the book’s index is created. In this phase, the indexer produces a list of all important key words that appear in the text, along with the page numbers for every occurrence of the word in the manuscript. Fiction books, and many nonfiction books, won’t need an index, but any book where the reader needs to be able to track down where specific instances of a word occurs—a school textbook would be the obvious example of this—will require one. If indexing is needed, then it needs to be the final phase of the process—the whole point of an index is to have an accurate list of pages for each word, so indexing can’t be followed by any changes to the manuscript that may change what pages a word shows up on. And as the indexer uses specialized programs to find all instances of a word, it’s important that there aren’t any misspellings.
Once the final changes recommended by the proofreader have been made (and the indexing is complete, if your book is going to have an index), your book should be ready for publishing and presenting to the world. Now that we’ve covered the process as a whole, take a look at my Services for a little more information on the editing I perform, or Request a Quote to have your own manuscript edited.