What Is Developmental Editing?
Structural editing, content editing, comprehensive editing—all of these mean the same thing: developmental editing. But what is developmental editing? To learn about line editing, check out this post here. To learn about proofreading, check out this post here. To learn about developmental editing, keep reading!
What is it?
Developmental editing is a type of editing—the first one in the editing process (first developmental, then line/copy, then proofreading). It covers big-picture things that pertain to the entire book. A dev editor looks at slightly different things depending on if they’re editing a narrative or non-narrative manuscript. Here are some things dev editors review:
Narrative Manuscript (memoir and fiction):
Characters: Are they consistent, compelling, dimensional, dynamic? Do their actions make sense and align with their character? Do they have good development? Do they serve a purpose?
Plot: This is a huge one, obviously. First, does it make sense? Is it confusing or boring? Are there gaping plot holes that need filling?
Pacing: Is the book engaging to the reader the entire time? Are any parts too slow or too fast? Do any parts need to be expanded or condensed for a better story and reader experience?
Organization: Is the timeline organized in a useful way? Is it chronological? Should it be? Are there flashbacks interspersed? Should there be?
Tone and usage: Does the tone and word choice match the target audience and goal? These things will largely contribute to what the book does for the reader (entertain, educate, persuade, etc.). If we have a light, silly tone as we talk about a traumatic event, it’s not going to be very impactful for the reader. Maybe that’s what we want, maybe not. We just have to make sure we’re using this tool correctly.
Non-Narrative Manuscript (most nonfiction):
Audience: Is the book focused, on task, and appropriate for the reader? I’ve talked about audience in nonfiction in several posts, so check those out here and here.
Goal: Is this book doing what we want it to do? Is it persuasive if that’s what we want? Or informative or entertaining or something else? Whatever we were hoping the audience would get from this, is that working out?
Tone and usage: See above. It’s the same in narrative nonfiction as it is here. A somber tone and a quirky tone as you teach the reader about taxes will give the reader very different experiences. Use tone wisely.
Organization: If the “5 steps to achieving financial freedom” isn’t organized in five well-thought-out steps, I’m going to be really confused and probably not attain financial freedom. Organization is extremely important for non-narrative nonfiction. This is normally what I focus on most when developmental editing a self-help or informational book because it’s so crucial. There are many ways to organize a book, and a few of them are good! But many of them are bad. Dev editors help you avoid the bad ones so the reader knows what’s going on and gets all the information you want to tell them.
Organization (again): The organization of the entire book and of the chapters/sections is a little different, so I’m separating them in this list. If the “5 steps to achieving financial freedom” are clearly marked but I can’t keep up with how to actually accomplish these five steps because each one is disorganized, that’s bad too. We need each chapter and section to be structured well, flow well, and be the clearest possible so the reader can get out of the book what we need them to.
When do I do it?
This is the first stage of editing. After the entire book is written and you’ve revised it a few times yourself and you’ve sent it to critique partners or beta readers to get some feedback, then you can start hiring editors. You might try to keep picking at it, swapping words out, adding/subtracting commas here and there, stuck in a never-ending loop of tiny changes. So how do you know when you’re ready to hire an editor? Check out this blog post.
Once developmental editing is totally done, you’ll move to line/copy editing for the next phase of editing.
What’s the process like?
Just like with other kinds of editing, you’ll tell the editor what your goal for the book is, who you’re writing to, etc., then you send them the book. And they go off to work their magic.
When the editor emerges from their solitary cave, they’ll return your manuscript with comments and changes throughout and an editorial letter. This editorial letter is basically a report on what you did well and what to work on. It’ll go over main ideas about the book, what to focus on first, and how to make those changes. You’ll also get your book back with comments and changes throughout. These are likely to be more specific suggestions, pointing to individual sentences and paragraphs rather than the book as a whole (like an editorial letter does).
Then you go off and make changes based on those suggestions. You can revise as much or as little of the document as you want. Remember, dev editing is really subjective. If you don’t agree with their suggestion, don’t do it. Think about why they felt the need to give a suggestion there though; maybe you don’t like their suggestion, but you can do something else to fix the underlying problem. For example, maybe you don’t want to delete the entire introduction to the book but instead shorten it significantly to fix the problem of it going into too much detail of the book’s content before we get to the chapters.
What happens after that is up to you and the editor. Sometimes, that’s it. Sometimes, you just move to the next stage of editing (line/copy). But sometimes, there are other rounds of developmental editing. You’ll decide on this with your individual editor when you sign a contract with them.
When I quote a project, I offer 1 round, 1.5 rounds, and 2 rounds:
1 round: This is just what it seems: one round of editing, as described above.
1.5 rounds: We do 1 round, then you send me the document again to “check your work.” I just look at what you changed and make sure you understood my suggestions and made changes accordingly. I might add more suggestions based on new things you added.
2 rounds: We do 1 round, then you send it back to me and I do it all again, working with this new version of the book now. Two full rounds with you revising the book between rounds.
This is just my process, so make sure to check with your editor and find out what their options are.
If you’re unsure if you need developmental editing, check out this post!
Contact me for developmental editing! I’d love to learn more about your book!
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