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Why Providing Clear Guidance Matters for Editors

In the Club Ed membership group, we were discussing a (published) how-to book aimed at writers. One of the editors mentioned how the information was presented in a confusing way and that this made it difficult for her to continue reading. Then she remarked, “My mind is generally in a state of burden.” I don’t…
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What Indie Authors Look for in Editors

In order to attract the right kind of clients for you, you have to understand what indie authors look for in editors. Some authors want you to do all the work. (These are often nonfiction authors, but some novelists do this, too.) If you’ve identified a plot problem, they want you to rewrite the story…
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Making Editorial Decisions in a Copyedit

A book editor needs to get comfortable making editorial decisions in a copyedit. Don’t shift the editorial burden back to the author. Copyediting requires decision-making Obviously, we can’t ask the author to make decisions about every question we have when we’re editing. This is inefficient as it takes time to ask the question and get…
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Editing for Timeline Consistency

One of a book editor’s services is editing for timeline consistency, a common developmental concern. Here are some tips for tracking story timelines! Problems with Editing for Timeline Consistency A common developmental concern is a problem or error in the timeline of a story. Usually the copy editor is expected to track the timeline very…
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Editorial Distinctions: Different Types of Editing

Knowing the different types of editing will help you understand how they can often be fused together in a freelance editor’s project. The 3 Different Types of Editing Developmental editing (abbreviated DE or dev) looks at the big-picture concerns of a manuscript (ms). For nonfiction, we would ask: Is the structure logical? Is the argument…
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Avoiding “Here’s How I Would Write it” as an Editor

Have you used the “here’s how I would write it” editorial query? In making editorial suggestions, editors sometimes drift into “here’s how I would write it” territory, which is something I discourage. Authors don’t care what you would have done. They want to learn what they can do that will make their manuscript better. What…
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Ask the Editor: Line Editing During a Developmental Edit

To help editors struggling with the overlap in different types of editing, we need to revisit line editing vs developmental editing. From my inbox: “I’m a little confused about how much line editing is expected during a developmental edit. Are we expected to smooth over all of the tics in the author’s writing that might…
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