As a teacher of developmental editing, I want students to get comfortable with being able to advise big solutions to big problems. Often this is the best way to truly help an author produce superior work. It is also an invaluable method for stepping back to see the big picture (a poorly constructed conflict, for…
Where do freelance editors get work? Who is the market for freelance editors? If you’re interested in freelance editing, these are probably the top questions on your mind. The answer is that freelance editors work (1) directly with authors (usually called indie authors if they’re self-publishing) and (2) with publishing companies and book packagers. For…
After I posted my thoughts on setting boundaries with clients, an editor asked me to describe how I set expectations ahead of time. Mostly this is part of my project quote, which you can see below. I use slightly different wording for publisher clients to account for the differences in working with them—they aren’t the author,…
Developmental editing is the art of looking at a manuscript to identify big-picture concerns. For nonfiction, this would include helping an author make a clear argument; showing an author how to reorganize disorganized material; pointing out where they need to support the points they make with data, examples, and/or case histories; making sure terms are…
Hello! I am Erica Ellis, owner of Ink Deep Editing. I started freelancing nine years ago and never looked back! Most of my work is directly with authors looking to self-publish or to submit to agents and publishers, but I also do some editing for a self-publishing company and a publisher of children’s books. I…
Here are my top tips for an effective manuscript assessment without having to read the entire manuscript to provide a quote. Use these questions to help you assess a manuscript in order to provide an editing quote—without having to read the entire manuscript first. In general, a developmental editor may be able to edit five-to-ten…
