Point of view is the perspective from which the story is being told. Your choice of point of view can really change your story, so it’s important to make an educated decision. (This post isn’t going to go deep into all the points of view—because there are a lot—I’ll just touch on the top four most popular and most general.)

It may seem easier and cheaper to have an all-in-one editor, this way you get all the editing done in one go. Let me tell you why you shouldn’t do this.

There are several types of book editors that do different jobs and come at different stages. You’ll want to hire them in the correct order, otherwise someone’s word (and your money) will be for naught. Let’s go through the four main types of editors and what they do!

Proofreading is for last-minute touch-ups before publishing.

Some things a proofreader might look for are errors in punctuation, grammar, spelling, and simple formatting. They’ll make sure all the cross-references that say, “See page X for more information about this,” actually line up and have the correct page number. They’ll make sure a chapter number isn’t skipped or duplicated, that words aren’t cut off by graphics, that the pages look nice and clean. All the little details that you don’t really want to take the time to check are important, that’s what a proofreader will do for you—in addition to checking for typos, punctuation errors, and inconsistent grammar.

Are you writing to experts in the field or someone who is just starting to learn about this topic? Are you writing to upper-class people, lower-class people, or people of all SES backgrounds? Are you writing to people in your geographical area only or anywhere in the world?

You don’t need to write to everyone.